As a parent of a child who was in the NYC public-school system, I can offer an observation on whether sex-ed should be taught in middle school: Hell no.

Kathryn links to a N.Y. Daily News story that quotes parents from Middle School 391 in the Bronx. GreatSchools.org gives the school a one out ten ranking, ten being best. Although the school gets a “B” grade under Bloomberg’s grading system, that actually means this school is one of the better, horrible schools. For the real story, look at student achievement, which is a “D.”

Schools chancellor Dennis Wolcott was quoted in the article:

A significant percentage of our teenagers have had multiple sexual partners, so we can’t stick our heads in the sand about this.

Let’s also not stick our heads in the sand and be honest and say the truth: Any time spent not teaching the basics to kids at M.S. 39 is time wasted.