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Give TWO reasons why 10‑year‑olds should know this
Under the Healthy Schools Act of 2010, the District of Columbia Office of the State Superintendent on Education has announced that standardized tests for sex education will be administered to students in Grades 5, 8 and 10. A sample question reads: “TJ wants to remain abstinent but also wants to know how to properly use a condom in case he is ever in a situation where he might become sexually active. Give TWO reasons why using a condom properly is important and describe THREE people or places that could give TJ accurate information about condom use.” The standardized tests are mandatory.
Who’s boss?
Parents in Britain are yearning for the good old days when “smacking and caning” were allowed in schools. At least that’s the finding of a survey conducted by the Times Educational Supplement. The survey coincided with Education Minister Michael Gove’s “crusade to improve discipline in schools on the theme that children have to know ‘who’s boss,’” reports The Independent (September 16, 2011). Forty-nine per cent of the 2,000 parents surveyed were in favour of more discipline in the schools—93 per cent said teachers “should be given powers to demonstrate more authority in schools.” Under Minister Gove’s proposed reforms, teachers would have the authority to use physical restraint in schools and to seize weapons, cellphones and illegal drugs. The minister, however, stopped short of endorsing a return to corporal punishment.
Sexting makes bad behaviour list
In June, the California senate passed a bill that makes sexting grounds for a student’s expulsion from school. California’s Education Code defines sexting as the “sending or receiving of sexually explicit pictures or video images by means of an electronic act.” The code was amended to apply to students sexting while on school grounds; going to or coming from school; during the lunch period, whether on or off the campus; and during, or while going to or coming from, a school-sponsored activity. However, one loophole is that for a student to be expelled for sexting, it has to be “directed specifically toward a pupil or school personnel.”
