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Yeah, right, next time just take them on a field trip to the beach where they can see real naked backsides (in thongs) instead of just painted ones.Because exposing kids to art is always stupid. What's next, that subversive stuff by picasso or dali?
strawman
I can only speak to this particular circumstance of a teacher exposing 6th graders to nudity then giving commentary on it since it is the OP
TThose parents who complained had better never take their child to see David, by Michelangelo, one of the MOST renown nude sculptures in the world. OH MY, but his genitals are in plain sight for children to see. Better put a loin cloth on that statue! We wouldn't want any poor innocent children to suffer from PTSD
Someone didn't read the article:
Quote:
However, some students felt the images were inappropriate.
“Children were expressing their discomfort and then explaining that they felt it was inappropriate,” Rueda said.
The teacher attempted to explain the images were art and “encouraged” the students to speak with their parents about the paintings they saw. The educator later found out one of the parents called the police claiming Rueda showed pornography to the students.
I have a family member who decided to do the "liberal" thing of exposing her kid to R-rated movies filled nudity and sex when he was as young as six. She copped the arrogant attitude that she wasn't going to "hide the world" from him. What was interesting about this experiment is that he himself had a sense of propriety that his mother didn't. He would beg her to stop showing her those kind of movies. He would even cover his eyes if he saw nudity. Now that he's older, he's become the exact type of shy, quiet and reserved person who you think was probably dragged to Sunday School every day being taught that sex and nudity were evil when the opposite happened--he lived in a household where he was exposed to it all the time.
The point I'm trying to make is that it's a myth that sensitivity to nudity and sex is something you become indoctrinated with. Some individuals have an innate sensitivity to this kind of stuff regardless of the type of environment they grew up in because that's how some people are. Some people are okay with it. Some are not, just as some of the kids in that classroom weren't okay with it.
I don't understand why people can't understand this concept, that comfort with sex and nudity comes down to personality as much as it does to upbringing and culture--and can't respect that. Some people don't like to get exposed to it. Get over yourself if you encounter someone who doesn't like it.
I have a family member who decided to do the "liberal" thing of exposing her kid to R-rated movies filled nudity and sex when he was as young as six. She copped the arrogant attitude that she wasn't going to "hide the world" from him. What was interesting about this experiment is that he himself had a sense of propriety that his mother didn't. He would beg her to stop showing her those kind of movies. He would even cover his eyes if he saw nudity. Now that he's older, he's become the exact type of shy, quiet and reserved person who you think was probably dragged to Sunday School every day being taught that sex and nudity were evil when the opposite happened--he lived in a household where he was exposed to it all the time.
The point I'm trying to make is that it's a myth that sensitivity to nudity and sex is something you become indoctrinated with. Some individuals have an innate sensitivity to this kind of stuff regardless of the type of environment they grew up in because that's how some people are. Some people are okay with it. Some are not, just as some of the kids in that classroom weren't okay with it.
I don't understand why people can't understand this concept, that comfort with sex and nudity comes down to personality as much as it does to upbringing and culture--and can't respect that. Some people don't like to get exposed to it. Get over yourself if you encounter someone who doesn't like it.
I'm glad you brought this point up, and I do agree with most of what you said. While I still think aversion to nudity and sex is mostly cultural, there is certainly room to take personality into account.
On the flip-side, a few questions were raised in my head.
Is your family member (we'll call him Timmy) experiencing a backlash effect from what his mother did? Would he feel the same if he was just "naturally exposed" instead of "over-exposed"? I think this plays a big part. Maybe he's trying to bring balance into his life, by running away from his mom's obsession.
Your mother isn't your only mother. How much of Timmy's aversion to sex and nudity is due to his friends, peers, government, media, culture, the public etc? Would he have the same aversion if ALL of his peers and community were extra-comfortable with nudity and sex?
He could be reported to CPS, Teachers need to be aware they just cannot show nudity and discuss provocative subjects in class with other peoples children. That is their job.
This Teacher really had some nerve.
Blaming the library for having the materials as if that abolishes him/her of responsibility is very childish.
Time for the teacher to be the grown up and act accordingly
I have a family member who decided to do the "liberal" thing of exposing her kid to R-rated movies filled nudity and sex when he was as young as six. She copped the arrogant attitude that she wasn't going to "hide the world" from him. What was interesting about this experiment is that he himself had a sense of propriety that his mother didn't. He would beg her to stop showing her those kind of movies. He would even cover his eyes if he saw nudity. Now that he's older, he's become the exact type of shy, quiet and reserved person who you think was probably dragged to Sunday School every day being taught that sex and nudity were evil when the opposite happened--he lived in a household where he was exposed to it all the time.
The point I'm trying to make is that it's a myth that sensitivity to nudity and sex is something you become indoctrinated with. Some individuals have an innate sensitivity to this kind of stuff regardless of the type of environment they grew up in because that's how some people are. Some people are okay with it. Some are not, just as some of the kids in that classroom weren't okay with it.
I don't understand why people can't understand this concept, that comfort with sex and nudity comes down to personality as much as it does to upbringing and culture--and can't respect that. Some people don't like to get exposed to it. Get over yourself if you encounter someone who doesn't like it.
First, that's not "the liberal thing." Most liberals would see that as inappropriate. Your family member is a nutcase, that's all.
The teacher showed pictures that were not age appropriate. Kids that age aren't developmentally ready in most cases, to see and understand such things. So the teacher made a mistake by not looking at each and every picture beforehand. Mistakes should be forgiven. What we probably have here is yet another case of outraged parents ruling the schools.
The parents need to calm down. Most likely their overly precious children were not irreversibly damaged by the teacher's oversight. But the helicopter parents come running to the school administration threatening a lawsuit and the school administration fires the teacher. Fired over human error, smeared, career ruined. Maybe some of these "perfect" parents ought to try full time teaching for a day or two!
I'm glad you brought this point up, and I do agree with most of what you said. While I still think aversion to nudity and sex is mostly cultural, there is certainly room to take personality into account.
On the flip-side, a few questions were raised in my head.
Is your family member (we'll call him Timmy) experiencing a backlash effect from what his mother did? Would he feel the same if he was just "naturally exposed" instead of "over-exposed"? I think this plays a big part. Maybe he's trying to bring balance into his life, by running away from his mom's obsession.
Your mother isn't your only mother. How much of Timmy's aversion to sex and nudity is due to his friends, peers, government, media, culture, the public etc? Would he have the same aversion if ALL of his peers and community were extra-comfortable with nudity and sex?
It wasn't a backlash effect. He's just a reserved person, an introverted artist type. That's just how he is and always has been. It's his personality, just as it was the personality of the kids in this classroom who were uncomfortable with these paintings. Why can't people accept that instead of trying to argue the point?
Here's an article with a little more detail. Apparently the issue is not with the artwork itself, but with how Mr. Mateo interacted with the students once the art with female nudity was seen.
I'm a little concerned with a 5th grade boy who becomes upset seeing female nipples. It sounds like there is some disagreement with what actually was said, about being mature in viewing art.
Thanks for the more informational link - at least it seems like the majority of parents in this article were not upset about the incident and didn't want the teacher to be fired.
And no, it's not an individual classroom teacher's responsibility to review in details materials owned by the school and kept in the library to be accessed for classroom use. Although it does of course make me wonder whether any other teacher in the past ever thought it would be beneficial for students to be able to look at pictures of classic artwork. Did no one ever look through these before or were these handful of paintings with nudity considered no big deal in the past?
I've taken my son to art museums since he was tiny. It's true that since he was in 4th or 5th grade, he does get a little embarrassed at nudes - and I think that's age appropriate, but we look at them and move on. In another few years, he'll presumably have matured enough to appreciate the artistry and not be so embarrassed. But that doesn't mean I'm exposing him to pornography by taking him to the Denver Art Museum or museums in other cities we've visited.
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OH MY, but his genitals are in plain sight for children to see.
Better put a loin cloth on that statue! 
We wouldn't want any poor innocent children to suffer from PTSD 
