Many young children who have not had any formal sex education know about aspects of sex, according to the findings of research by Jean Collyer, former health education adviser for Cornwall. Her conversations and research with 72 eight to ten year-old schoolchildren counters the commonly-expressed opinion that children are too immature to understand such "grown-up" things or that they would be frightened of sex education. "The children I talked to are actively seeking education, from whatever source they can find, to help them explain the mystery of their own and other children's origin" says Ms Collyer. "I found that the majority of eight and nine year-olds and all of the ten year-olds knew about intercourse. Some of their parents and teachers wereFrom: Ianthe@duende.demon.co.uk Newsgroups: alt.sex.intergen Subject: UK News - "Sex No Mystery at Age 9". Date: Fri, 06 Oct 1995 23:25:43 GMT Reply-To: Ianthe@duende.demon.co.uk X-NNTP-Posting-Host: duende.demon.co.uk
Many young children who have not had any formal sex education know about aspects of sex, according to the findings of research by Jean Collyer, former health education adviser for Cornwall. Her conversations and research with 72 eight to ten year-old schoolchildren counters the commonly-expressed opinion that children are too immature to understand such "grown-up" things or that they would be frightened of sex education. "The children I talked to are actively seeking education, from whatever source they can find, to help them explain the mystery of their own and other children's origin" says Ms Collyer. "I found that the majority of eight and nine year-olds and all of the ten year-olds knew about intercourse. Some of their parents and teachers were unaware that the children had this knowledge because the children were careful to hide it."
Abstracted from the Times Educational Supplement, 6th October 1995.
unaware that the children had this knowledge because the children were careful to hide it."
Abstracted from the Times Educational Supplement, 6th October 1995.