Check out this article in the New York Times yesterday on sex education and how the typical age to learn about sex is getting younger by the year.
One of the people interviewed is Robie H. Harris, a renowned author of sex education books for children. Her most recent books, “Perfectly Normal” (shown above) and “It’s So Amazing” are directed towards 7-year olds and up, and is soon to publish her latest, “It’s Not The Stork”, which will be intended for children as young as 4. In 2008, she plans to write one for toddlers.
This new early childhood approach to sex education teaches words like “vulva” at the same time they’re learning words like “ears” and “toes.” As bizarre as this may sound, it actually makes sense. Instead of learning it in other random ways and experiences that children do, they know about their bodies and the “birds and the bees” before they can get confused or misinformed by peers and pop culture. They also urge parents to abandon offensive words such as “weenie” for boys and the obscure “down there” for girls. Awesome.
Dr. Justin Richardson, assistant professor of psychiatry and sex ed author says:
"People have been told by experts that there's a right age. . . If you're talking about how babies are made, there's no age at which it is harmful to learn that the penis goes into the vagina . . . Yes, it's true that exposing a child to sexual stimulation is harmful. But telling a kid how babies are made is very different."
I still don’t doubt that Harris will catch a lot of shit for this. Her and illustrator Michael Emberley caught enough for “Perfectly Normal”, which had information on homosexuality, contraception and masturbation. (The horror!)
Click here to check out Harris’ work.
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what is interesting to me is how sexual teaching must have evolved over time. consider back in the day when an entire family slept in the same room? obviously kids back then could nto be so squeemish about parents fucking. or, consider how back in the day connection with animals as part of everyday living made children much more aware of the cycle of life, from the begining, seeing them fucking and birth, to the end, slaughter or some other death.
now, we get our meet in plastic packages in the form of a product, you never confront the death of an animal or the guts of it all. mom and dad are fucking and if you are lucky you never even realize it.
When people become distanced from these life cycles it seems a general sense of prudishness is created.
So I am all for teaching correct anatomy, complete anatomy to children at the appropriate time.
i read the very-honest "where did i come from?" when i was five, 25 years ago. so this isn't a totally new trend. five was way too young. i didn't need to know that stuff for quite a while, and it informed the barbie games of my entire childhood in a rather un-nostalgic way.
My parents made a big deal out of teaching me the proper names for intimate body parts when I was about 4, as well as the mechanics of sex and how babies are made. I don't think it's that big a deal; I recall that I didn't really care that much when I was that age, but it meant that I was not shocked at all when I heard this information from friends and other sources later on. Of course, I didn't understand anything about touchier subjects like lust, rape, pornography, etc. into much later.
We've taught our 4 year old to use "vulva" and "penis" but it leads to some pretty funny mistakes. First, there was the confusion over the neighbors' "Volvo".... And just yesterday, he had a question about a song they sing at his preschool, "Skating on the Volga." "How can you skate on a vulva?"
um, this is all very nice, but why exactly is this article located in the style section? are there seriously people out there teaching their children the proper names for their bodies only because it's trendy??????
as usual i just have to remind people, not everybody's body parts fit into the vulva or penis categories. And sex-ed should include us. People with only vulvas do learn about the parts they don't have presumably. also I think the penis goes into the vagina narrative is v. interesting. After all lots of things can go lots of places. I wonder what is considered normative enough to make the short-list.
It is not that new to think that three and four year olds will be interested in where babies come from. The book How Babies Are Made came out in the early sixties and is an excellent first book for 3-7 year olds.
My mom always answered every question in a very matter of fact way and I think that makes children feel very safe in their natural curiousity.
Is 'weenie' an offensive word? I'm not offended by pet names for body parts. Gnashers. Pinkies. Schnoz. Kisser. What's not to like about that stuff? (Is it a US/UK thing? - I've been caught out on that before!)
I still don’t doubt that Harris will catch a lot of shit for this.free online games