Teachers Untrained for
Birds-And-Bees Questions
Excerpt By Alison McCook, Reuters Health

Only a minority of elementary school teachers are trained in how to best answer students' questions about sexuality, new research suggests.

Dr. James H. Price and his colleagues report that only 34% of teachers in the fifth and sixth grades said they had received training in how to answer students' inquiries about sex.

"It's unfortunate that training about this issue isn't more often more formal," said Price, a researcher at the University of Toledo in Ohio.

Not surprisingly, his team reports in the Journal of School Health, teachers show different levels of willingness to discuss various sexual topics in front of fifth- and sixth-grade classes.

For instance, most teachers said they would answer questions about the process of puberty, but only 18% would explain what masturbation is.

These findings indicate that teachers--even those charged with students as young as those in the fifth and sixth grade--need to receive formal training about sexuality, Price told Reuters Health.

If teachers are not trained, he noted, they may not feel comfortable answering some of their students' questions.

"And so they elect not to do it," he said.

Children need to receive answers to their questions about sex early on, Price said, because studies have shown that kids often start to think more about becoming sexually active by the sixth grade--when they're about 11 years old.

Little is known about what parents say to their kids at home, he noted, and parents may not always know the answers to their children's questions.

Some parents and children may also be uncomfortable discussing sex with each other, Price said, and parents may inadvertently intimidate their young children, perhaps by asking them why they want to know the answers to certain questions about sex.

In contrast, he said, the classroom can be considered a neutral place, where children can ask questions without fear of raising their parents' anxieties.

Price and his colleagues obtained their findings from surveys mailed to 500 teachers of the fifth and sixth grades, asking them whether they had been trained in sex education, and how they would respond to particular questions about sex.

Teachers indicated whether they would answer the questions in front of the class or one-on-one, or instead refer the child to another person.

Price admitted that many people argue against providing sex education in the classroom to fifth- and sixth-graders, but said he believed that these parents represent a "vocal minority."

He pointed to surveys of parents, such as one conducted in 2000 in rural Ohio, which found that 68% of parents believe sex education should be available to students in elementary school.

"I would suggest to you that the majority of parents support sex education in the schools, even elementary school," Price said.

SOURCE: Journal of School Health 2003;73:9-14.

Reference Source 89

For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick Prevention Resources".