Comments about ‘Measure offers 2 sex-ed options’

What an excellent approach! Parents who want their kids to get the real facts about sex can finally do so, while parents who are protective can ensure that their kids don't hear anything at school that their parents don't like. Win-win.

While I liked this idea at first blush, I do wonder about how this would play out with the kids. What kind of dialog happens between the group of kids who have the more liberal class and those who have the regular one? What kind of stigma might develop, going both ways? Sexuality is a sensitive topic with adults, let alone children. And as much as we may wish to focus on the health aspects of this issue, it's obviously a sexual issue, too. There's no way to avoid it.

When did education start meeting the needs of parents? I thought we were meeting the needs of the students. Parents can take their kids to church to have morality taught. It is our responsibility to teach children the facts about diseases that can kill or maim them. As a teacher and a parent I say - empower our students and wake up our parents to the reality of the world we live in. Like it or lump it - the Virgin Mary was an unwed mother.

"It should be handled in a sacred manner."

Why are people so afraid of education? The Eagle Forum is completely out of touch with daily reality.

Yeah that's very important to prevent STDs. A survey from CDC shows that there are more than 500,000 peple joined the std dating&support site positivefishes.com and the number are increasing by hundreds everyday. What amazing!

It's comments like yours that me grateful for homeschooling.

And to Sacred Manner??, We aren't afraid of education. We would just like the information to be given in the context of our values.

This is a common sense approach to the increase in STD's among Utah's youth. Parents still retain the choice over whether or not their child attends a class. But honestly, do you think the parents who prevent their kids from attending are going to teach kids about sex "in the context of [their] values?" I don't think they're going to teach their kids about it at all -- and those are the kids most at risk for early pregnancies and STD's.
Good luck to you.

"But honestly, do you think the parents who prevent their kids from attending are going to teach kids about sex "in the context of [their] values?" I don't think they're going to teach their kids about it at all"

Why do you think that?

Abstinence Only doesnt work. The numbers are in. Kids need the information that may be the difference between life and death. Why is there even an option to opt out? Knowledge never killed anyone. Lack of it just might.

Sorry. The numbers are in. Abstinence education does work. Do your homework. I'll put up some stats and some sources and let you be the judge.

Abstinence is the number one prevention above all others.

Sorry about that. Its true.

The statistics will be interesting. Which group will have a higher incidence of STD's and pregnancy.

The Numbers are in??? Maybe you need to provide these numbers, because everything I've seen shown abstinence doesn't work.

I agree with Anon 7:22, It's not the place of schools to teach "values" It's a schools job to teach... teach your children values at home.

Give children information and let *them* decide what they "value"... Shocking I know, but they may not have the same Political/ religious/ moral values as mom and dad, and denying them information is just the parents way of forcing them to conform.

Sounds like a good idea...and I hope it passes and moves into other states.

Utah is going to offer a choice in sex ed.

Is it too much to ask that Utah also offer a choice in math too? Can those of us who would like to see a return to the "old" days when math had more substance have a choice too?

Such as focusing on arithmetic basics in elementary, along with the problem solving that Singapore Math offers,

And in junior high and high school, a return to math that is up to the standards of the mid 1980's and prior before math was made more "relevant"?

Thank you, Rep. Lynn Hemingway for putting this bill up for vote. I hope this bill passes. It is a simple no cost solution to this need. It is important that the comprehensive sex ed course have the contraception and other materials integrated into the course and not just "stuck on" at the end of the regular abstinence course.

This is the solution I proposed on the 5/21/09 Deseret News article "Lawmaker debates sex ed with teens", and again on the 6/5/09 article "Sex education, math under scrutiny: Lawmakers to discuss controversial issue" comments. Parents are required to give consent to teach birth-control, and this makes it easy.

I am horrified to think that Utah schools are endorsing Satanism. Two of the most dangerous things imaginable are "sex" and "education", and when you put them together, you are just asking for trouble.

When it comes down to the choices I'd bet it will be the students choice. But why can't they teach both in the same class? Children and students should not be engaged in a sexual revolution and practice their sexual desires. Children are responding to a natural state as their hormones kick in and should be taught to control them. Sex education should be focused on preventing sex among teenagers and the serious pitfalls of practicing it. Students are intimidated by sex and only understand that the desire is there but don't know how to control it. I don't think schools should be teaching children how to use and exploit there hormonal changes and desires. Providing sexual aids only promotes and endorses them to practice sex.

In European countries like France, Germany, Sweden, or Finland, sex education is given from the 4th or 5th grade on, appropriate to each age group, but very clear on the dangers of STDs and the use of contraceptives such as condoms. Sex is something that can be talked about openly, with due respect for values and norms.

Studies show that the average age of first sexual experience among teenagers, and the frequency afterwards, is hardly different in those European countries and in the U.S. (or rather earlier in the U.S.) But teenage pregnancy is about 8 times higher in the U.S. than in those European countries. Education makes all the difference. Not informing our young people is almost a crime.

Here in Maryland, sex ed is taught in several grades, once in middle school and once in high school. We have a choice to opt out, which our family has done. We've done it not to shelter our kids from the idea of contraception or its methods, but from some more objectionable material taught here.

At home, we teach our kids abstinence first, but we also teach them about contraception without showing them explicit photos and videos. We also teach them about alternative lifestyles without teaching them that those are perfectly acceptable and normal. That is a value judgment, I know, and one which not everyone here will agree with. But to me that crosses the line between giving kids information and teaching values.

So far, my kids have not experienced any backlash or stigma for taking the alternative classes, and my kids are very much in the minority.

Frankly, in this area our kids deal with gang violence, kids attacking teachers, knife fights at football games, etc, so which health class a kid takes doesn't really register on anyone's radar.

teach their children about sex ed? Waiting till 7th grade is too late anyway. Let's not take out on the schools what should be taught in the home. Too many parents, both in Utah and out, are asleep at the wheel and just want the school system to teach their children everything. Being a parent is more than just providing the basic necessities. Come on parents! Step up and take charge!