It didn't come as surprise that, nowadays, kids are getting more and more precocious.
Since growing up at neck break speed, they have to deal with concerns and issues
of usual late coming. Of course, one of them is sex. And it's such a difficult
subject to be dealt with.
There are reports about girls the world over getting pregnant every time soon
and sooner - ten year old, eleven year old girls… Obviously, they lack
of the maturity and experience necessary to bring up kids. Some might say that
those are isolated examples, but they did happen. So, what's the proper solution,
punish them? A great many people would say yes to that question, but there's
another subject to the turn: sexual education.
Over 93% of all public high schools currently offer courses on sexuality. It's
a good percentage, but it could be higher. Being a polemic topic, sexual education
brings along serious doubts and worries to parents. For some of them, acquainting
kids to sex-related subjects will only lead to obvious curiosity about sex,
most likely by anticipating their first sexual relation. But what parents can't
see is that sex is everywhere. All right, the kids can stay home watching cartoons
and children's shows. However, every time they get out of their households they'll
become exposed to a great deal of sex-ridden situations as in outdoors with
subliminal innuendoes of sex and appellative nudity printed on, to all its instances.
In a society where sex became one of the selling modes for its products alike,
children will have to toughen up. The polemic relation between childhood and
sexuality, first made by Freud, now goes on again. As there can't be avoided,
the best way is to teach them how to act when facing likely situations.
But, if so many schools have programs of sexuality, why do kids continue to
get pregnant? Well, here we face catch 22. In most cases, these programs are
dated and boring. They don't speak the same language of youngsters. By the time
the program sinks in, they already know a handful of kinks and knots about it,
from TV, magazines or hearsay. Whereas schools keep swearing by such programs
that sex is wrong, a string of TV shows discuss the subject openly.
The solution is to begin sexual education sooner, before they make their first
contact with sex. That way, they can be acquainted to sex topics in their own
time, becoming aware of the risks before they actually happen. If people carry
on their conservative approach, teenagers will have to unveil mysteries by themselves.
So, it's time to face those issues there and then, and not simply complain about
consequences further on. |