year 8 school assignment
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year 8 would be far too late to be discussing it for my daughter!!
I think its a good thing to discuss, but not really as an assignment which is going to be marked. it makes the answers right or wrong, and I dont think its the best way to approach discussion. Maybe if it was "what are some things that people can find embarrasing about puberty"... so they dont necessarily need to feel its so personal.
At the beginning of year 6, our school take the kids on a camp, which is primarily to discuss puberty. Still a bit late for my daughter!
but it is quite a good idea, I think. They are all relaxed, outside of school, etc. But the kids all roll their eyes and giggle about the sex ed camp!
I think its a good thing to discuss, but not really as an assignment which is going to be marked. it makes the answers right or wrong, and I dont think its the best way to approach discussion. Maybe if it was "what are some things that people can find embarrasing about puberty"... so they dont necessarily need to feel its so personal.
At the beginning of year 6, our school take the kids on a camp, which is primarily to discuss puberty. Still a bit late for my daughter!
but it is quite a good idea, I think. They are all relaxed, outside of school, etc. But the kids all roll their eyes and giggle about the sex ed camp!Good heavens, we are talking about year 8 HPE. This subject has no bearing at all on a student's overall academic outcomes. It is a fun way to waste time at school, usually, besides the PC nanny government has decreed that our offspring must at least discuss something about their personal health and stuff. You know, such things as obesity, STDs and drugtaking.
Unless your son is a complete perfectionist and he expects to get an A for this assignment, just go with the flow and place its importance in the range of priorities that your family deems appropriate. It's HPE. Unless he is enrolled at the AIS, he will get an A for handing in a piece of paper with pretty pictures of the Olympic Team on it.
Unless your son is a complete perfectionist and he expects to get an A for this assignment, just go with the flow and place its importance in the range of priorities that your family deems appropriate. It's HPE. Unless he is enrolled at the AIS, he will get an A for handing in a piece of paper with pretty pictures of the Olympic Team on it.
Sounds like he has written the essay already
Just submit that one sentence.
Good answer!! I like it!
I can see others points very vaguely, but I still feel that an assignment from a student to a teacher is very one-on-one, and quite different from a group discussion. I did attend a sex-ed class with my mum, organised by the school, out of school hours, when I was in Year 8 or 9, along with many other students/teachers. I'm not opposed to the discussion, but would prefer it to be an open/ less private discussion.
Scary: Male teachers asking me about puberty
Exciting: Women teachers asking me about puberty
Reverse answers if your son is gay
Yes, perfectionist,
Been going from 8.00am Sat morn, still going now. Almost 8.00pm Sun night. Balance is not good, working on it!!!!Scary: Male teachers asking me about puberty
Exciting: Women teachers asking me about puberty
Reverse answers if your son is gay
Time to come clean!! Not meaning to confuse anyone, but, it's actually my 12 yr old daughters assignment. She was aware I was doing a pole, and asked me to write son, but then changed her mind. So... it's my 12 year old daughter, and the teacher is a male.
You'd think so. I got a C on my self-esteem assignment in PE. I felt a bit bummed until I realised all the people who received As suffered NPD (narcissistic personality disorder).
Now it's been revealed that this relates to a 12 year old female student being asked by a male teacher, I especially find it inappropriate. I'm not suggesting anything sinister with the teacher at all and trust that he would be very professional, however I would be very surprised if many young girls going through puberty would feel comfortable putting on paper how scary or exciting the thought of getting their period, developing breasts, wearing a bra for the first time, acne, their physical appearance, noticing/liking boys, etc is, I certainly would have been horrified by it when I was 12. We had sex ed classes which were run by qualified social workers who were brought in by the school from our local community centre - I recall these days being quite fun and lighthearted where you could speak if you wanted to contribute in a group discussion but were under absolutely no obligation to if you didn't want to.
I have many adult female friends who still insist on only seeing a female doctor when it comes to discussing anything to do with their 'personal' female-issues - many women, and girls, may feel uneasy about talking or writing about such private issues with a man. Likewise a young boy would perhaps feel the same unease expressing his thoughts on puberty to a woman?
I have many adult female friends who still insist on only seeing a female doctor when it comes to discussing anything to do with their 'personal' female-issues - many women, and girls, may feel uneasy about talking or writing about such private issues with a man. Likewise a young boy would perhaps feel the same unease expressing his thoughts on puberty to a woman?
Now this is interesting and thanks for posting this thread.
I found some of my old diaries from when I was your daughters age and there is NOTHING in there that I would have liked to discuss with my male PE teacher (who all the girls thought was a hottie).
I quietly worked through it myself over time and read Dolly Doctor etc. Also I read (quite the bookworm) the Clan of the Cave Bear series which actually taught me a lot about sex.
Having a big sister I was educated about puberty about 2 years before I hit it and had plenty of brochures from female products manufacturers which gave me lots of gory details.
So no big deep and meaningful discussions with my parents and certainly not with my teachers. Creepy. Is there no such thing as privacy these days??
I found some of my old diaries from when I was your daughters age and there is NOTHING in there that I would have liked to discuss with my male PE teacher (who all the girls thought was a hottie).
I quietly worked through it myself over time and read Dolly Doctor etc. Also I read (quite the bookworm) the Clan of the Cave Bear series which actually taught me a lot about sex.
Having a big sister I was educated about puberty about 2 years before I hit it and had plenty of brochures from female products manufacturers which gave me lots of gory details.
So no big deep and meaningful discussions with my parents and certainly not with my teachers. Creepy. Is there no such thing as privacy these days??
Rather than protest - bring it up with the school that you are uncomfortable with your daughter talking about this with a male teacher. And I am sure the male teacher is just as uncomfortable teaching this part of the ciriculum with the girls ... one male teacher at my daughters school refuses to teach any older than year 4 due to the girl hormones kicking in and making life hell.
A very good chance the school is fully aware of the situation, and perhaps there is a female who steps in with these topics.
I still think it's great that they bring it out for open discussion. So many teens think they are the only one feeling the angst, or going through situations. And, as sad as it is, many homes still don't discuss puberty and changes and what to expect.
If interested, a great book I gave all the older girls to read was "The Puberty Book" put out by family planning. Humourous, covers all topics in a no-nonsense manner, cartoons instead of graphic pictures etc ...
A very good chance the school is fully aware of the situation, and perhaps there is a female who steps in with these topics.
I still think it's great that they bring it out for open discussion. So many teens think they are the only one feeling the angst, or going through situations. And, as sad as it is, many homes still don't discuss puberty and changes and what to expect.
If interested, a great book I gave all the older girls to read was "The Puberty Book" put out by family planning. Humourous, covers all topics in a no-nonsense manner, cartoons instead of graphic pictures etc ...
Some can be younger here if the schools push them through with 2 terms of Reception (schools that practice this more that occasionally do it to balance out the class sizes for the following year - for the schools benefit).
Obviously not the case with your daughter as they are all younger.
Ours start school between 5 and 5 1/2, and generally do a minimum of 3 terms in Reception, but can do up to 6 if their birthday is midyear.
For a start, unless it is a very small school it would have been the department (HPE) that set the assignment, not the individual teacher. Our PhysEd department has both male and female teachers. Male teachers have girls in their classes as well as boys, as do female teachers.
Secondly, there is a lot more to issues surrounding puberty other than sexual development ones. There is overall body image, peer pressure, cyber issues, career plans, bullying, social pressures, skin outbreaks, first dates, etc.
By Year 8 the sex stuff is old hat. I went to school in the 1950s and early 1960s and even back then we received our sex talks in Grade 5, which would have made the students 9-11.
As said, if unhappy talk to the school.
Marg
I think Marg has hit the nail on the head here.
These are the types of issues that would be appropriate to mention in the answer to the original question. I'd just cut and paste Marg's response above and put it down as an answer.
I would think that the teacher was only after a general answer as Marg's above and not a specific and personal response. Although I will admit, the question could have been better phrased.
The school that I teach at has only this year taken the sex ed component out of the pastoral care lessons and they are now taught as part of the Physical Education syllabus across each year level (Senior School) except Year 12.
As a House Tutor I used to teach the pastoral care program to my Tutor Group and we had 'sexperts' come in to teach the Sex Education part of the program. The 'sexperts' were science teachers.
I thought the program we had in place was actually very good. You'd be surprised how open kids are now days. They are much more comfortable discussing all kinds of topics - certainly much more so than I was when I was growing up! Things have certainly changed - and I think for the better!
As a side thought, I think pastoral care programs in schools are extremely important. They give students the opportunity to discuss issues that are concerning them, as for example bullying. Bullying is a big one now days - and takes so many forms, including cyber bullying. After one of my students in one of my past Tutor Groups committed suicide, I've learnt first hand that it is important to take bullying seriously and to get to the bottom of it straight away.
Little bit of a tangent - but always listen to kids and take them seriously. The student who committed suicide had been in my Tutor Group from Yr 7 until Yr 11. She left our school half way through yr 11. When she was in Yr 12, she sent me an email one month before she committed suicide. I'll never forget it.
Regards Jason.
Interesting points, it's a small school, probably not considered very small and I was wondering if they would all be set the same assignment in each class. I haven't had a chance yet to read the whole assignment in it's entirety, I only saw two pages of it, and it would be interesting to discuss also with my daughter if they've covered the issues Marge suggested as part of this assignment. Will update when I get a chance!
Yes, extremely badly worded if it wasn't meant the way we took it! I really wonder what answers other kids have come out with, and how many other kids asked their parents, "How should I answer these questions"?
So sorry to hear about your past student Jason, thanks for sharing. So far the kids schools have had zero tolerance for bullying and have been made very aware of what diferent types of bullying is from a young age. I will be keeping the communication open for as long as I can!
I think parents and their children need to be mature about all of this. It's a little anti-productive to segregate male/female teachers on certain topics of discussion. Part of growing up into a healthy adult is having good role models of both men and women, particularly in school since that's where kids spend most of their day.
