Flutterby™! : kids these days

I have seen a number of uproars over this report of fifth graders "having sex" in school (alternate version). What I find particularly amusing are threads like this one over at Least I Could Do decrying modern media taking away childhood.

Either there are a whole lot of adults out there who are criminally negligent in terms of understanding the growing up process, or there are a whole lot of people in pretty severe denial. Or kids in general are better at hiding this stuff from adults than I think they are, but since adults were kids once, let's go back to those two explanations.

I generally try to not kiss and tell, but... I went to school in a community that was pretty darned removed from the popular culture. There were parents who asked that, if a kid were visiting a house that wasn't as far removed from technology, that radios and televisions be covered, but even in the houses with some exposure to the modern culture such things were fairly well limited. In the 1970s I knew Mendelssohn, Bach and Beethoven, and I don't know that I'd heard of Crosby, Stills and Nash. And, yes, there was various genital touching. At ages younger than this.

I'm not sure what the harm here is, other than that there are very definitely power dynamics which can be unhealthy extensions of the cruelty that goes on on playgrounds and the usual hazards associated with sex, but if we keep playing the "oh my god, kids these days!" hysterical bullshit games, we won't be able to address either of these concerns effectively.

And remember that there are cultures where 13 is adulthood.

So: Adults in general, parents, teachers and school administrators in particular: Kids, probably first and second graders, hell, probably any time preschoolers can sneak away from adult eyes, not just fifth graders, are exploring their own and each other's bodies. Get over that. Deal with that. Stop expressing surprise, shock and outrage, and open your darned eyes to see what's actually happening with the children around you.

I'm not asking you to condone it, I'm just asking you to stop the denial and the willful ignorance and outright stupidity.

Maybe once you've done that then you can get to talking about what to do. But until then, you're a hazard to children, and, yes, I'm talking to you, Bob Buckley, you are a hazard to children:

"After 44 years of doing this work, nothing shocks me anymore," said Union Parish Sheriff Bob Buckley. "But this comes pretty close."

and should be kept the hell away from them.