DaimenKain wrote:
This is a tough situation. In my opinion, it can really go either way. You want children to be educated about safe sex and "good touch" "bad touch", but I believe it should be the responsibility of the parents, up to a certain age.
However, there's no reason for, say a junior high health class, to not talk about what condoms are, or other ways to protect from STDs and pregnancy; including abstinence.
Education in those matters is vital for someone just entering their teen years; I think we can limit the exposure they get to that stuff in school before then and trust in the parents to make good decisions.
Abstinence-only education is just not the way to go. It is ludicrous to believe that teenagers are going to feel the need to have sex more because they were taught about what a vas deferens is, or that condoms protect from STDs and pregnancy.
A person raised with good parents and good "family values" is still most likely going to have sex in their teens before marriage, even if they've been taught abstinence-only; what is the reasoning behind not teaching them sex ed?
It's very simple. You leave the teaching of personal sexual
morals to parents.
The state ensures that schools teach all the correct medical and scientific happenings to do with human reproduction, the gestation and birth of babies, and the options of contraception in disease prevention and ... well... contraception.
Since "Good touch/Bad touch" (I don't like those phrases, but I get the drift) is also crucial to teach children so that they know their own rights, schools need to teach those too.
We have to remember that we have state supervised or provided compulsory schooling
precisely because collectively we
can't trust parents to have the right information and the time themselves to pass on crucial information. Parents can be fonts of incorrect information such as: "don't scratch that cut/sore, the itching means it's healing, leave it alone" (An itching, red cut or sore is infected, it's NOT healing correctly on it's own, it probably needs an anti-biotic applied.)
Our technology, civilisation and culture has massively leaped ahead since the introduction of compulsory schooling, and the widespread dissemination of correct and helpful information.
Pregnancy is a massive occurrence to a couple. The repercussions and responsibility of pregnancy span decades. STDs (STIs ?) are a massive health problem. The yearning for sexual congress of all types is an innate and major force in almost every human life. This is such a universally applicable and important-for-each-individual-person arena of human activity that it is absolutely crucial that it's taught in schools so that correct information is widely disseminated. It is then up to the morals of each individual, and the moral education that they have received from their parents as to how they aply that information in their own lives.
Edited, Sep 17th 2008 11:58pm by Aripyanfar
