Friday, January 23, 2009

Happy Friday, Everybody......

Well, we made another week. And my middle child has HGD class today.
That's Human Growth and Development class. It is presented by the school board's nurse to all students of a certain grade. I was fortunate enough to be present at one of the presentations of this class. DH and I had signed a permission slip with much trepidation at the beginning of the school year allowing our children to be present when this is being taught. We both prayed about it and basically left it with the Lord and promptly forgot about it.
I was volunteering at the school one day last week and was basically a non-existent observer.
I was taken aback. In a day and age when "if it feels good, do it" runs rampant, this school system is actually taking a stand of "Abstinence". And they presented the materials to be covered in a well thought out, easy to understand, intelligent manner. They were compassionate and made the boys feel very comfortable about asking any questions (and I mean any). There were a few nervous chuckles, but for the most part, it was really an informational time for these boys. And they explained what changes were going to happen in puberty and why these things happened and that not everyone progressed at the same rate and how it was so unkind to ridicule others who were or were not progressing at the same rate.
And I remember thinking, man, I wish they had given us this kind of talk when I was this age, it would have explained so many things that were such a mystery to me.
They were talking about STD's and one child spoke up and said that they could always use condoms and they thoughtfully explained that while you could use condoms, they weren't always effective at birth control or in preventing STDs and the best bet would be abstinence. They explained the physiological and the mental issues connected with sex in a tasteful manner. I'm glad I was there. It put my fears to rest as to the content of their HGD classes.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Mr. B and I were just talking about this today - how we want our kids to wait - and about the emotional side of a physical relationship that when WE were in school, no one talked about...

Good to hear that's changed.

Anonymous said...

EEk...what a story. Stopping by from SITS....

Bethany said...

Wow, what a coool school! I was homeschooled and missed the whole HGD thing :)