How much is too much to be taught in a middle school sex education class? That’s the question some parents are asking at Hocker Grove Middle School in Shawnee, Kan.
It’s one thing to sign a document allowing your child to participate in the school’s sex-ed curriculum, but it’s an entirely different situation when you walk up to the school and see this poster listing sex-acts displayed on the door.
(Warning, the sign below contains phrases that may offend some readers).
The sign asks, “How do people express their sexual feelings?” before citing “oral sex,” “touching each other’s genitals,” among other things.
One father who’s daughter snapped a picture of this poster at school thought this was some kind of a joke—because why in the world would this school expose his 13-year-old daughter to such a graphic question?
“It upsets me,” Mark Ellis told WDAF-TV. “Why would you put it in front of 13-year-old students?”
School officials informed Ellis that it is, in fact, a part of the health and science curriculum at the school. The district spokeswoman Leigh Anne Neal told WDAF-TV the poster is a part of their district-approved curriculum that aligns with national standards around health and science topics. Not only that, but this is apparently a part of an “abstinence-based” sex-education curriculum.
“However the item is meant to be part of a lesson, and so certainly as a standalone poster without the context of a teacher led discussion, I could see that there might be some cause for concern,” Neal told the station.
While the poster was quite shocking enough on it’s own for 13-year-olds, I also can’t help but think how it’s even more jarring considering there are kids as young as 11 in middle school. I can’t even begin to imagine my what would happen to my emotional state if my daughter came home and asked me about some of these maneuvers.
… Eeeh, I’m shuddering at the thought.
I can see how stories like these are making parents consider homeschooling.
But then again, sadly, times are changing, and part of me wonders if most 13-year-olds already know what all of these things mean. I never had a conversation with my mom about most of these topics, but maybe that was then, and this is now.
I think sex-ed can be a very useful, and important class, especially when some parents don’t take the time to educate their children on the topic themselves. However, this class seems to be going a little deeper into the topic than I’d feel comfortable.
What do you think?
Images: Flickr/ je@n; WDAF Screenshot