Comments about ‘State education board to create guidelines for maturation program’

I just attended one of these "watered down" versions. It was so devoid of useful information that half the girls were crying, thinking that they were going to experience something akin to a waterfall in the middle of class, while one little girl actually asked if she was going to lay an egg every month. I understand "age-appropriate", but come on!! Kids are going to get information. Where is it going to come from? Schools and parents or their peers? This program made me feel like I was back in Ye Ol' Elizabethan England, where such things were not discussed. They weren't even allowed to pass out kits to these girls containing simply feminine hygiene products! I understand that the anatomy of boys does not be completely outlined to girls and vice versa, but don't eliminate the important information that every child is going to need to know. Your children are still going to grow up, most in fifth and sixth grade, whether you ignore it or not. Yes, this is a parental responsibility, but there are thousands of kids without parents who need this proper instruction in schools.

Good news. I'm glad the state board did the sensible think to get anything related to Planned Parenthood out of our schools. It sounds like they're going to work on some better programs.

As a former elementary teacher, I can assure you all that Utah parents would be absolutely shocked to learn how much their 9, 10, 11, and 12 year-old kids already know.

They'd also be shocked to learn how inaccurate much of their "knowledge" really is. This lack of knowledge is very dangerous.

While teaching, I had many boys come to me with questions that legally I couldn't answer. My tactic was to ask for the kid's permission to call their father and let them know that their son needed to have "The Talk." (Yes, I asked their permission. Without it, I'd have violated their trust because they were genuinely fearful. Some refused to give permission and so they went on without information they really needed.)

But on two occasions, the father became enraged and the boy was blasted with anger for even having asked about such a DIRTY thing.

I can't help but wonder how many Eagle Forum children have become teen parents.

I went through maturation sometime around 1976/77 (I did it twice - in both 5th grade and 6th grade).

Both years the same information was presented in the exact same way and from what I remember it was very similar to what the article describes as the program from Planned Parenthood - very clinical and matter of fact: This is your body, this is what it does, this is a boys body, this is what it does, it is all very natural and normal and nothing of which to be afraid.

My thoughts at the time? "Good, I'm normal. Boys are icky and I want nothing to do with them right now."

Our kids are not stupid and are totally capable of handling the clinical, scientific information. We do them a disservice when we treat them like idiots in the name of "protecting" them.

As a teacher I can assure you that most kids are pretty well informed on each other's anatomy by 5th and 6th grade. Unfortunately, children are becoming more and more sexualized at younger ages these days. To think that maturation programs are feeding this is absurd. The "Growing up comes first" program was just fine for 5th and 6th graders....to water down this version would be just plain silly!

We lived out of state for a decade. Half of our children had an educational unit in 4th grade called "Human Reproduction". They learned about how babies are made.THey were tested on the information as they would be tested on math or social studies. Good things about it: The information was very clear, concise and matter of fact. Parents could opt to have their child go to the library during the course, but we didn't. We decided we need to have "the talk" with our kids about sex beforehand so they wouldn't be learning it for the first time from their teacher surrounded by 30 other kids. Our kids seemed to come out unscathed. Bad things: They put the cart before the horse by teaching about conception before teaching maturation in 5th grade. And I would have preferred the course be taught by medical professionals rather than their everyday teacher.

I agree with the above comments in that kids really need to know this stuff and it's better that they get the correct and clinical info from a reliable source rather than all kinds of myths and rumors from their friends or other sources.

The "safe sex" approach to educating our children about sexual issues is absurd.

We don't teach children how to safely play with fire to avoid terrible burns, we teach them fire-playing abstinence.

We don't have texting while driving safety instruction for our new young drivers, we teach them texting while driving abstinence.

We don't educate our young adults how to drink or do drugs safely, we teach them drug and alcohol abstinence.

We don't teach those who drive under the influence how to do so safely, we teach DUI abstinence.

As a society we teach abstinence from virtually every behavior that produces degenerating and life altering consequences, except sexuality.

In the life of a child, remember these are children not little adults, is there anything with more potential harm than the too common life long consequences of early sexual activity?

The facts that children are curious, that sex is natural, and that it's going to happen anyway does not justify the deceptive message of "safe sex" any more than it would a message of "safe texting while driving" or "safe drug use".

Abstinence until marriage needs to be the message on sexuality, nothing less.

@runswasatch: you are going to get pummeled by the nutjobs on this website.

Outstanding post. It will go over their heads. Yea buts will be everywhere.

Get ready for it. I loved the post!

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Can someone tell me why this is the responsibility of the school system? If you don't have any other answer besides, "they won't learn it at home because..." garbage, then don't respond.

And NBC is going to have a show on this year called The Playboy Club. Gotta love the "progress" of society as pushed by the uber-Progressives. Just kidding!

I totally agree with runwasatch's comment of today. In 1947 (I was in the fith grade) my girl classmates and I saw a very-well produced animated movie by Walt Disney on the changes in a girl's body. The subject was presented very delicately by Disney. After the movie, our school nurse came and talked to us and answered any questions.

The adversary is in the details of the program presented by Planned Parenthood and any other program that teaches "safe sex." The adversary uses these very lies to attack and drag down to his level our most young and vulnerable children, teenagers and young/older adults. There's no such thing as "safe sex." Immorality leads to consequences not seen or imagined.

Several years ago I worked as a secretary for the director of the infectious diseases unit at a university here in the U.S. I was so saddened to see the number of students who had to be hospitalized because of chlamidia and other sexual-related diseases.

So do we recommend not teaching anything at all about human reproduction in school? The sad truth is that it won't get taught in many homes. Some little girls may be getting abused and not have a clue what is going on.

From our experience in another state, sex education CAN be taught responsibly to kids as young as 10. Safe sex doesn't have to be part of that education. Abstinence should be. They need to know the correct facts. Kids will experiment and need to know what is happening to them or their partner through the arousal process and how to regain control and stay out of trouble. As a teenager, I knew so little about teen boys sex drive. NO ONE explained it to me. Someone should have. In church it was talked about so vaguely that I think most of us girls were lost...something about a train gaining speed...it made no practical sense. My parents explained physical maturation to me and how babies were conceived but nothing else. It was only by divine protection that I didn't get involved with any young men who would take advantage of my naivete.

At Runswasatch:

The difference between things such a s texting and driving or drinking and doing drugs is that sex is something that eventually every person on the planet will do. In fact it is something every person on the planet SHOULD be doing at some point.

A parent should cover this material thoroughly with their children and therefore open up the lines of communication. It is humorous to me that parents are willings to lie to their children about a fat man in a red suit but are scared to death to tell them the truth about sex.

Just to clarify: Sex is fun, sex is great, and sex can help bond two people in a way that is not possible in any other way. However, there is a time and place when sex is appropriate and having sex outside of that time and place will cause hurt feelings and perhaps even a very difficult life.

Grandma 19 -- read your own post very carefully. Especially read the last paragraph. Do you see a contradiction?

Believe this old teacher, please. "Safe sex" is not taught in elementary school. That needs to come later.

When my two boys had sex ed in elementary school the fellow that presented it was excellent! He used humor in a very good way to relax them about the whole topic. He spoke positively about the changes and helped them look forward to becoming a grown man. He told them about some changes they could go through that may at first seem worrisom and assured them it was all normal.

He also explained - without inappropriate detail - that when they reached full maturity they would have the power to create life and with that power comes a real responsibility - (a fact that is not talked about enough.) He did not moralize, he taught them a real truth and I was glad my boys could hear it from this man as well as from their parents.

I can't remember his name, but the program this man presented was spot on!

As a substitute teacher at a high school I had the opportunity to talk to youth about dating and sex. We talked about the difference between love and lust, and how to avoid getting into situations where they might feel pressured to go along with their boyfriend/girlfriend in sexual activity. They were quite surprised and pleased that an adult would talk to them so frankly. I advocated abstinence and told them they had the power to control their passions and should.
I don't think we give our youth enough credit for self control. It was certainly not a topic I would approach with elementary students though. We need to be very careful about how much we share with our younger children and students. Yes, there have always been parents that don't talk to their children about these issues, and we as a society do bear the burden of unwanted or teen pregnancy even when they aren't our family members. Shouldn't the parents who do care have more of a say in what is discussed or shown to our children? Or do they and we just don't know it?

To those who argue that human development and human sexuality should not be taught in schools- Where exactly do you plan to go for medical care? Would you have students know nothing of the reproductive system until they get to medical school, and those who don't go to med school will know only what their parents can provide at home? Students must know the facts. Health concepts must begin in elementary just the same as reading and writing, mathematics, etc. Understanding bodily changes is not encouragement to have sex. It's about helping children realize that they are normal and we all go through the same changes.

Yet another embarrassing backward leap for Utah!

You don't think a sixth-grade girl should know the name and basic physiology of male anatomy and vice-versa? Do you people have pets? Do you make your pets wear pants?

Adding unnecessary mystery and secretiveness is precisely why we have see so many sexual dysfunctions--including early sexual activity--among our young people. By pretending that the other gender's private parts don't exist, YOU are the one sexualizing basic clinical anatomy. A diagram of genitalia is NOT pornography---unless you treat it as pornography and teach children that the mere sight of it is supposed to be morally corrupt (and, thus, sexually arousing).

I mean, honestly, this is the most bizarre mixture of immaturity and puritanism I've ever seen!

One thing's for sure: I'd MUCH rather have Planned Parenthood teaching my kid about puberty than the Eagle Forum!

@MormonDem & Winglish - There's a time and place for these discussions, but they should be age appropriate. No one is advocating keeping youth in the dark until they go off to college, that would be irresponsible. A diagram is what we saw when I was in 5th grade, which was different than what some sex-ed classes offer nowadays. I disagree that sexual dysfunction is primarily caused by "mystery and secretiveness", on the contrary, teaching our youth it's okay to act on their urges, because they can't be controlled so they have birth control pushed at them, is a huge part of this. As our youth experiment with sex they have feelings of guilt, which is normal when you have sex outside of the proper setting. The power to procreate is so wonderful, yet so misused. We have inadvertently sent our youth the message that you CAN play with fire and not get burned because there's a way out through heinous acts such as abortion. The notion that a guilty conscience is not a barometer of right and wrong choices has been furthered by selfish people who don't want to feel bad.

@nanniehu- You obviously don't understand the maturation program's curriculum. It's a statewide curriculum that's been in place for over 30 years. When would be the appropriate time to teach about puberty? Post Puburty? Are you kidding me? The time to teach about pubescent changes is right before they occur. 5th or 6th grade is perfect.

Birth control is an effective tool that protects young people from having to live with the unforeseen consequences of exploring their sexuality at a young age. By the way, you cannot play with fire without getting burned. It is not a message, but a fact of life. Puberty is a fact of life. I pray that you gain the objectivity to be able to deal with the rude awakening that will happen in your future. Have a great day!

@ winglish - No where did I say that you shouldn't teach 5th and 6th graders about these things, I said they need to be age appropriate. Please go back and read what I said.
You are right, I've never seen what they do in all of Utah. I raised my children in Alaska, went through puberty in Oregon, and worked in Nevada as well as Utah schools briefly and not in that order.;-) I do know that we've had our own disagreements about sex-ed programs in our community as a very "graphic photograph" style program was being pushed. Luckily prudence and common sense won out.