Sex education – knowledge is the best ammunition
Posted on: May 12, 2010
By Alice K
Sex education in schools is in my opinion, currently insufficient. There is a deep rooted embarrassment that is yet to be overcome by both teachers and students. Unfortunately there is the misconception that ‘kids learn all about it from television’, which really isn’t the case. You can’t learn everything from the graffiti on the bathroom wall. I think that teachers, and not to pick on my old friends again but especially those in religious schools, are afraid to approach the topic. They fill us in on the basic biological facts, which quite simply fall short. They manage to avoid issues like love, the emotional implications of a physical relationship or even just, God forbid, ‘natural teenage urges’. They prefer to ignore human characteristics that in years gone by have been considered a source of shame and secrecy, only discussing the technical details. As a result of misinformation teenagers are going out acting stupidly, without thinking their actions through and they are not armed with enough information to keep themselves safe. Teens need to be taught that sex is a normal function of life, not just something that generations before us are ashamed of, therefore teens too must approach with fear. They also need to know all the details so they can make informed choices without been taken by surprise. Though ignorance may be bliss in some cases, in today’s society young people need to be informed of what’s going on, especially with something as basic and essential as physical and emotional relationships with other humans. It’s not the 1900s anymore. Sexual content is in every part of our environment. In the media, films and books, our homes and our social lives. It’s a fundamental part of human nature. We are already all exposed in some shape or form. It’s time for the embarrassment and stigma to be let go of in schools, so that our youth can be properly informed about something that can affect our every day lives.
2 Responses to "Sex education – knowledge is the best ammunition"
November 7, 2010 at 2:23 am
Unfortunately, I never got formal sex education. I had a lame abstinence-only course for like 2 weeks in health class in 7th grade. The teacher kept telling us that we would get STDs or become pregnant. No contraception methods were discussed. This is probably why by the time we moved onto high school I knew at least thirteen pregnant girls under 18 and more by the time I graduated. Its sad, but true. My parents didn’t even talk to me about sex until I was 18, but that’s because they knew I wasn’t sexually active. I wasn’t interested in having sex, but if I had been I would have been ignorant to all there is to know about sex. I didn’t even know a female condom existed until I was in college and a health class professor brought one in. I actually thought she was kidding about what it was. I’m currently doing a project for my speech class. Its a persuasive speech. The topic is getting SEX ED in every high school. Comprehensive, not abstinence-only.
Voicesofyouth 
May 20, 2010 at 4:26 pm
I’d like to point out that the experiences encountered in your school or even in your local doesn’t encompass enough of the nation to truly call out this accusation. Perhaps, you may haven’t had the sufficient education based on these subjects but, in my opinion, it’s not as wide-spread as you may believe.
The three schools I’ve attended in the last 5-6 years have all provided plenty of sexual education. In 6th class, we got our first lessons on it and a whole day was spent dedicated to this subject. We were even provided the option to ask in discretion any questions we wanted to about it.
In 1-3 year, every year we did a number of classes based on sexual education. While it may have been a bit more clinical than it should’ve been, it still provided sufficient information for many students, perhaps not all.
In 5th and 6th year, we yet again had classes focused on sexual education. It had gotten to a point where we were actually tired of hearing the usual stuff surrounding sex. Gone was the giggling, the joking and the interest.
Fortunately, our teachers then moved onto student-involved discussions based around the subject. Numerous situations, opinions, etc. were all discussed and the teachers even gave every student his chance to state his opinion on every discussion. Emotion, homosexuality, how ‘ready’ people are, emotional maturity and anything you can think of was openly discussed.
While my experience certainly doesn’t encompass a country’s attitude to sexual education it doesn’t follow the same pattern you’ve described . Considering all three schools were Christian Brother Schools, one of them even still having two brothers supervising the school and one of them a mixed-sex school, it does say something.