Tonight Christina and I went to Josiah’s school’s sex education program for the 5th graders. Yes… Josiah went with us. This is one thing good about sending kids to a Christian school at the early and formative years for a child – they are able to address big topics with a Christian worldview. They had two Christian physicians do the presentation. They titled it as, “Changes, Challenges and Choices: The Road to Adulthood.”
The topic of sex is not the easiest topic to talk about with your own children, but I am thankful that when Josiah turned 10 years old he and I went on a camping trip to talk about the topic of sex (it was one of the hardest things that I had to do). If the children do not learn it from their parents, they will learn it from some other people and usually it is not the best influence.
It was interesting when the two physicians asked the parents, “did any of you attend a sex class with your parents while you were growing up?” In a room filled with about 35 adults, only about 2 hands went up. I couldn’t help but to think about how I first learned about sex… it sure wasn’t from my parents or the church. The locker room version is always a bit twisted.
One ground rule that they put down before everything got started was that no one would use slang terms for the various organs. It was quite interesting when the physicians gave some examples, I knew every single one of them… Lord help me!
After a general presentation, we split up the boys and the girls into 2 groups. As we went to the boys’ group, the male physician addressed more specifically about male topics. He did a great job of presenting the various sexual issues professionally as well as with some tact.
Afterwards, as we were in the car, Christina and I asked Josiah what he thought of the talk. Josiah’s answer? “Good.” HA! The beauty of a 5th grader trying to say that he understood everything that was discussed.
I think the greatest goal for this talk at the school was to open up the channels of communication for the child and their parents; and for this, I am truly thankful.