There is much debate going on presently about sex education in public schools and whether or not it should be taught and at what age it should be taught. Norfolk Public Schools however do teach children and teens about sex education. Yet, Norfolk Public Schools do not call the program sex education. In Norfolk the program is called Family Life Education or FLE for short. According to Courtney Linke, 10th grade drivers education and health and physical education teacher, the program has not changed since 1988. Linke is currently writing her masters paper on sex education and trying to update the resources that accompany the program.
Family Life Education begins in Kindergarten for Norfolk, but they do not start to learn about the reproductive system until 6th grade. Anything before 6th grade in FLE teaches children about what makes each other unique and building positive characteristics. In 6th grade pre-teens begin to learn about the reproductive system and birth. The program lasts until teens reach 10th grade. The complete list of what is taught in each grade and what resources are used can be found on the Norfolk Public Schools website.
The picture shown is an egg baby that Linke had her 8th grade students create for the FLE program. The students were asked to name and care for their egg babies. In 8th grade the students learn about reproductive health and abstinence.
Linke says that the middle school and high school FLE programs last for about 10-15 class periods and only occur in the last quarter or the school year. All students who wish to participate in the FLE program bring home a permission slip for their parents to sign so the parent decides whether they would like their child to participate in the program or not and what area their child can be a part of. "There is a list of all topics, parent's can select opt in, opt out, opt out of selected objectives and they write it in. Most of the time if they opt out of one we opt them out of all b/c its so hard to eliminate one topic... Also if they don't return it - they are in the program," says Linke.
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Now, if they only put as much effort into teaching them to read and write. It seems most kids today have opted out of reading, speaking correctly, math, and learning anything at all that really matters.
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