Modern education is seen as a backbone to development and growth
on all fronts of the human society. On this background, most countries
of the world dedicate huge sums of money and lots of resources into
ensuring that their education systems are strengthened to be able to
harness all the God-given resources in man. No wonder every country that
pays attention to proper education of its citizens has made and
continues to make giant strides in development.
Sex education,
also known as sexuality education or relationships education should
therefore be viewed in the same direction as it is a means or process of
acquiring information and forming attitudes and beliefs about sex, sex
identity, relationships and intimacy. Based on this basic definition, I
would say that, like all other forms of education, it is intended to
help the individual to discover who he/she really is in terms of
sexuality and be able to appreciate it with all pride.
Education
as we all know, has a target group and sex education is no exception.
Its primary target is the youth in society and should be intended to
help them to develop positive attitudes and behaviors about sex. I
believe it should include information about all aspects of the human
sexual anatomy such as the sex organs and their functions, the physical
changes that take place in the individual as a result of growth, the
emotional changes and their effects on the individual's relation to
members of the opposite sex. Also it should touch on very sensitive
topics as well and not just brush them over since it has the tendency of
making the individual to suspect something fishy about those
information that were left out in the course of the education process
and this might have serious consequences on the individual later in
life.
Furthermore, it should touch on topics such as family
planning, reproduction, sexual orientation, sexual pleasure, values,
decision making, dating, relationships and information on sexually
transmitted diseases and their modes of contraction.
Among the
agents of sex education are parents; who in my view occupy a central
role here; since parents have gone through most of the processes that
count very much in sex education, I feel they will be the right people
to tell the youth exactly what is entailed in it and be able to tell the
best ways of doing things, example how to have sexual intercourse and
address issues such as orgasm and all other sensitive matters; their
experiences bringing to bare. Also other agents include teachers,
religious leaders, friends and the electronic and print media; sex
education websites, sex columnists and advisers and many more.
One
may ask questions such as "what is the appropriate time to begin sex
education, isn't it too early to be exposing issues concerning sex to
young people, am I not encouraging him/her to begin practicing what I am
teaching him and a whole host of other questions". It might interest
you to know that if young people rather are not given answers by adults
to most of the things they experience in the course of their
development, they tend to fish out for answers themselves and who knows
the consequences may be more destructive.
Moreover, according to a
review of forty-eight studies of comprehensive sex and Sexually
Transmitted Infection (STI)/HIV education program in US schools, there
was a strong evidence that such programs did not increase sexual
activities but rather reduced them or increased rates of the use of
condom or other contraceptives or even both. I am therefore of the view
that parents and guardians should take the bull by the horn and take
their wards through comprehensive sex education. This will give them the
opportunity of passing the right information to them before their minds
are polluted from other sources.
In addition, I still think it
should be done at an early age since the individual at this stage is now
developing his/her patterns of behavior and can easily get along with
it. That is to say, a strong foundation is easily built at this stage
which gives the individual the opportunity to build on with more complex
knowledge with the advancement of time. I must however, emphasize that
it is very necessary for the educator to first find out the amount and
validity of information that the individual may have in his/her
possession in other to be able to make any corrections of fake facts and
also add more informed information to what the person already possess.
As
seen in all forms of education, there are numerous advantages
associated with sex education and among them include: it minimizes the
risks and dangers of potentially negative outcomes from sexual behaviors
like unwanted pregnancies and being infected with STI's, enhances
quality of relationships between members of the opposite sex, helps
young people to make right choices of life partners and equips the
individual to make informed decisions about his/her personal sexual
activity.
It is clearly evident that sexual education really has
an important role to play in the development of young people into people
who can fit into society both morally and socially and also be able to
appreciate their God-given sexuality and express it with all pride and
happiness.
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