Sex Education

 The topic has always been the center of my attention since my teenage years. Later teen years not the early ones because I thought sex was some kind of taboo back then. Then I grew up and realized the image I was portrayed was not exactly true.

               What our parents do in this society is to never talk about sexual affairs and matters with their kids even when they have achieved puberty or are pretty close to it. They never tell u anything and I mean nothing at all. It’s one of those topics which are supposed to be not discussed in the slightest possible way in front of your parents. And our schools have not realized the importance of proper sex education as yet, so one is totally blank when it comes to sex education, in teenage years. 

              The only source of getting into that kind of talk is with your friends and class fellows who do not know much either. So you come across a lot of rumors or should I say, “Sex Myths”. This does not help anyone and leads to a variety of mishaps that could have easily been avoided.

         Several reasons explaining their behavior in my opinion,

1-    They are over cautious and want to avoid mentioning anything that leads to sex.

2-    They think that not talking about sex with kids will not let them come across sex before a certain age.

3-    They are being unrealistic.

4-    They feel awkward and do not want to bring the subject up with the kids.

         But they have to understand one fundamental concept; this is not an ideal world. We live in a real world. So which approach is better; keeping your kids ignorant of something that they will eventually come to know of or equipping them with proper sex education? Is it sensible to not make them aware of all possible threats and dangers out there? Not telling them about sexual predators, not telling them about molesters. It would be a horrible decision. I had to mention this point because there is a lot of child molestation going on silently in this society and people do not give proper attention to it. It is one of those issues that need to be addressed immediately and dealt with an Iron Hand.

 

Abstinence Only Programs: 

  There are two approaches followed by western countries towards sex education; one deals with proper sex education along with information about methods of contraception and the other one talks only about the physiology of sex but strongly promotes abstinence till marriage without telling proper contraceptive methods.

So in your opinion whatever may be the best choice but research shows that abstinence only programs do not have any impact on the sexual behaviors of people who have pledged to do so. To support my argument;

“In April 2007 the results were published of a Congress mandated evaluation of federally funded abstinence based programs in American schools. The investigation, which looked at four programs offering a range of settings and strategies, found that rates of abstinence and unprotected sex in students who took part in the programs were virtually identical to rates among students who had been randomly assigned to not take part. The ages at first sexual intercourse were also nearly identical, as were the numbers of sexual partners. It appears that the programs had no impact on how the students behaved.” 

(Trenholm, C., Devaney, B., Fortson, K. et al. (2007) Impacts of Four Title V, Section 510 Abstinence Education Programs Final Report. Princeton, NJ: MathematicaPolicy Research Inc.)

In view of these researches it has now been suggested that comprehensive based programs to be followed by American schools rather than abstinence based programs. 

Is It Pretentious or Necessary?

  I do not think sex education is a topic that is over emphasized. And here are a few points that support my case,

1-    It provides better sexual awareness among kids who have just reached puberty and are confused about quite a few things happening to them, both physical and emotional ones.

2-    It helps prevent the spread of STDs.

3-    It helps in a way to lower the number of teenage and unwanted pregnancies.

 It is helping a lot in preventing the spread of AIDS among teenagers and individuals by letting them know of risk factors and precautions that could be taken. STDs are big risk factors in developing countries like Pakistan where there is also a stigma associated with people who contract them, crippling their social lives. Research has proved that sex education reduces the incidence of spread of STDs especially AIDS among teenagers and adolescents.

(Kirby D et al. Impact of Sex and HIV Education Programs on Sexual Behaviors of Youth in Developing and Developed Countries. [Youth Research Working Paper, No. 2] Research Triangle Park, NC: Family Health International, 2005.) )