The first reading, Sexuality Education and Desire, was the most interesting one to me. This reading discusses how with sex education, there is an undue burden placed on discriminated populations such as women and minorities. The article discusses how women that are sometimes abused are left to their own devices in terms of sexual health. This highlights to me the importance of sex education. I do not believe we can leave sex education in the hands of parents, because some parents will neglect to pay attention to such a sensitive issue. Furthermore, even well intentioned parents may try to educate their children about sex, but leave out important information accidentally. Although my parents tried to have "the talk" with me, they were well intentioned but it was such a sensitive and awkward topic that I had trouble openly asking questions. In a school environment, I was in a sea of students all asking questions so therefore I was more comfortable. Furthermore, I was taught in a school setting about all of the various STDs, something my parents didn't touch on. This is just why sex education is so important, because even the most well intentioned parents might miss important information and school-sponsored sex education is a way for administrators to make sure youth are all on the same page.
The article did bring out some concerns about sex education though. It discusses how students come from many diverse backgrounds such as different religions, and therefore sexual content may be more sensitive to them. However, I reject these claims after taking them into consideration because I feel the health of young people and stopping pregnancies and the spread of STDs is much more important than catering to these fringe groups. Furthermore, the other option to sex education, abstinence, has been an abysmal failure. Teens are going to have sex and these radical religious people need to realize it and we as a society have an obligation to make sure they are safe while doing it. One of the strengths of this article was that it delves deep into the history of sex education, exposing some things that I was not aware of such as the bitter fight that existed against it. I feel like though the right has many legitimate claims, they need to compromise and realize that as a society there are some things that the government needs to do, sex education being one of them. Not every last thing can be an individual's choice, and this is coming from a staunch right wing Republican! I look forward to discussing this reading in class.
I agree with you that sex education is important regardless of cultural differences. After reading about children from different cultures wanting to assimilate into the mainstream culture- who knows what this might entail, and what their parents might not know about their children's activities. When my kids were younger I might have not wanted them to start learning too early, but I know, like you said, not only will they not get the same information from me, but they certainly won't feel as open to discuss everything with me. An open, structured forum like school is good for students, and education is the best tool for these kids to be able to at least understand the pros and cons of whatever they decide to do.
ReplyDeleteSex Education is SO important for adolescents, especially the way times are now. Students are engaging in sexual acts at a frighteningly young age now (at least in my opinion) and having them be educated from middle school on is an incredibly valuable resource. I, like you, can understand the sensitivities of different religious groups and their stances on the subject, however, you are totally right: the education about these STI's, and sexual health is a much more valuable skill than appeasing a few religious groups. Students are going to engage in these acts regardless of religion, because they're big raging balls of hormones at that age. I know I couldn't talk to my mom about sex when I was a teenager... I'm now 24 and we still don't talk about it because it's an uncomfortable subject. School makes it a safe subject to talk about and while we'd all like to think that our students and children are not engaging in these acts we'd be lying to ourselves and wouldn't we rather they be doing it safely?
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