Sex | A teacher from Espoo figured out how to teach embarrassing sex topics in elementary school

What mean porn? What is oral sex? Why does anyone have sex? Among other things, these topics occupied Espoo’s primary school children, when they were allowed to ask anything about sex and sexuality.

Teacher teaching fifth grade at Niittykumpu school in Espoo Arttu Herpiö has allowed his students to choose how they wanted to deal with human reproduction and sexuality.

Herpiö says that sexuality can be a difficult topic even for teachers.

“Each teacher takes his own approach to this topic. I myself have had the idea of ​​”child first”, that is, we started with things that the students wanted to raise”, says Herpiö.

At the beginning of the semester, she asked her class how they would like to approach the issue and whether they would like to discuss the topic with her or another female teacher. The girls chose a female teacher and the boys chose Herpiö.

“I understand that it can be embarrassing for some girls if a young male teacher talks about menstruation,” says Herpiö.

Herbie does not generally support the traditional girl-boy division, because he knows that there are also children in the school who do not experience traditional gender divisions as their own. In this case, the division worked, because it started from the children themselves.

Some of the boys laughed at the topic, but they also dared to ask about it directly, Herpiö says. Some had seen videos related to sex and sexuality on social media and they wanted to know what they meant.

“Someone said that a guy had shown porn videos without permission. We then talked about consent and that it also applies to displaying such content,” says Herpiö.

Herpiö has also held social security trainings at her school in the past and was startled by the fact that even elementary school girls said they had received unwanted messages on social media.

“We then discussed that this is absolutely not acceptable and what can be done in that situation,” says Herpiö.

In sexual education has previously focused mainly on reproduction at school, but today the aim is to see sexuality as a positive thing. Consent is also talked about more than before.

However, the textbooks have not kept up with the times, but some of their content has become outdated, says Herpiö.

Herpiö’s school uses this Kätkö series in environmental studies. According to Herpiö, the issues are presented quite superficially.

“The book does mention that sexuality includes the body and emotions, but the matter has not been opened up in more detail. Contraception is also mentioned in the book only in passing,” he says.

Also, the diversity of gender in the books is hardly discussed in the books.

Herpiö decided to reserve as many hours for the subject as the students felt necessary.

“I said that so much time can be used that they have certainly been asked all the things that bother them,” he says.

Herpiö emphasizes that there is no need to explain things to children in too much detail. Often a simple answer is enough.

“For example, I explained that you can have sex in many ways. A man and a woman, traditionally with each other, or those of the same sex with each other, or even alone.”

For many for teachers, sexuality education is a subject that confuses or is perceived as difficult, says an expert from the Youth Team of Väestöliitto Outi Danielsson. Danielsson trains teachers about sex education in Väestöliitto’s Kumita campaign.

Although sexuality education is diversified in school, for example the diversity of genders and sexuality is a theme that many teachers need further training to deal with.

“Teacher training does not actually include a sex education curriculum. Thus, the level of sexuality education can vary significantly depending on the teacher’s interest and professional skills,” says Danielsson.

For example, the manager of Sexpo Patricia Thesleff described in an interview with HS recently, after working alongside my studies as a class teacher in an elementary school, how regular teachers often left sex education to substitutes.

The curriculum the grounds should give schools a good basis for implementing sexuality education. In practice, teachers’ professionalism in relation to sexuality education varies.

Respect for emotional skills and physical integrity should be included in teaching from the first grade.

“For small elementary school children and kindergarteners, the focus is on their own body relationship, recognizing feelings and respecting their own and others’ boundaries, and this is what is called body awareness education for small children,” says Danielsson.

Human reproduction and biology usually come to the fore in elementary school in environmental studies in the fifth grade, when students are typically 11–12 years old.

Children can also be at very different stages in their development. For some, the changes of puberty are just ahead, but some girls may have already started menstruating.

The sex education given in the fifth grade can therefore come unhelpfully too late for some of the children. Too little time is also often allocated to the subject, Danielsson regrets.

“Things could be dealt with according to age earlier,” he says.

Sanoma Pro, which publishes the Kätkö series, is part of the Sanoma Group, which also publishes Helsingin Sanom.