Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Home-schooled sex education

The world is full of lessons. Lessons that can be passed on from parent to child, teacher to student, employer to desk monkey. And while many of these lessons can be passed on through all of these means of conveyance, there are some lessons that should be kept from certain channels. For example, a teacher shouldn't have to explain the lessons of adoption to a student. An employer should not have to tell their employee that fire is hot and burns hurt. And a parent should never, ever teach their child about sex through demonstration. And yet, that's exactly what a woman from Rhode Island did with regards to her 9-year-old daughter.

Now before you get beyond disturbed by this concept, just remember that this is the CSM, and it just might get worse. The worse in this case comes from the fact that the daughter watched as her mother and her mother's boyfriend had sex while she was watching. The couple pled guilty to the charges, and were sentenced to three-years probation, after the little girl told her father what was happening.

In all honesty, we have to admit that this is a better option that forcing the girl to participate in the act itself. Still, we can't help but wonder what would possess someone to have sex with their child present. Is there some sort of a worksheet involved? Are there pictures that have to be matched up with phrases like "Missionary" and "Reverse Cowgirl"? Or was this really all a part of a larger scheme to teach the young girl about cleanliness.

Now, we don't want to be labeled as prudish. We are quite far from it, and, given the option, we would rather see children watching sexually graphic scenes on film, instead of violence and death. Still, we're pretty certain that a 9-year-old just isn't quite ready to understand why Mommy's suddenly screaming for all that "Daddy" can give her. Unless, of course, that 9-year-old is the daughter of someone like Jenna Jameson, or Paris Hilton. By that age, those kids will already be more familiar with sex and sexual terminology than most college freshmen.

Of course, throughout our read of this entire news story, we couldn't help but remember the sex-ed scene from "Monty Python's Meaning of Life". And maybe, just maybe, the parents in our story are engaging in a similar disconnected running commentary about what exactly is happening, in order to bring more light to the subject.

Or the kid's going to turn out to be the next Traci Lords. It could really go either way.

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