I can't take this seriously, given that the first 3/4 of the article is the author just kind of bragging about how smart and so very current her son is. That's what the article felt like. A vehicle for bragging about her great kid. Which couldn't she have just made a Facebook post or something? Also, if you're going to write an article ostensibly about teaching kids the whole sex-for-pleasure principle, what kind of sense does it make to only refer to your husband/partner as your "mate?" Doesn't that send a mixed signal? Also, what was with the weird dig at the beginning about "there goes the government, all up in our kids' business again, bringing sex into the classroom earlier than we want," and then following it up with a long polemic about how kids don't have enough basic info about sex? Also, just ugh. Besides all of that, I'm not entirely sure where she's coming from. I started sex ed somewhere around the fifth or sixth grade I think, and I remember the class spending a lot of time focusing on how people can derive pleasure from sex. HIV/AIDS transmission was mentioned under the general rubric of STD's, and wasn't any sort of code for the evils of gay sex. It was code for "sex feels good, but if you do it too early and improperly, your genitals will shrivel up and fall off and you will die." Which was regressive in its own way, but more benignly regressive than the author is painting it. Especially since nobody took that part of it seriously- neither kids nor teachers.
You had a very different experience from myself and JackTheBandit. While I went to a public school, sex for pleasure was not a thing that was talked about in sex ed in 6th grade. The benefits of abstinence and the horrors of STD's were more of the focal points once the basic anatomy was covered. Sex ed was at best a topic treated neutrally and brushed under the carpet until we were all older, and at worst treated in a negative and somewhat severe manner.I started sex ed somewhere around the fifth or sixth grade I think, and I remember the class spending a lot of time focusing on how people can derive pleasure from sex.
Yeah, I was just reading some of the comments- the best I can figure is that I experienced sex ed in a private school setting. My wife and I have this recurrent philosophical debate (and by "philosophical" I mean "loaded with emotional and cultural subtext") about private v. public education- we're about due for another one. I've never thought to bring up the whole messaging independence thing. But I'm willing to bet that her sex ed experience was a lot more along the lines of yours. Then again, it could be even worse at a denominational private school. I dunno.