The topic of this paper is adolescent sex education and the moral aspects associated with it. The sexuality of students is one of the most important factors of individuality and should be taken into account1. Development in the child’s personality qualities socially conditioned and corresponding to his sex, necessary for further family life – a very important and urgent task in the upbringing2. The effectiveness of the educational process largely depends on how teachers manage to implement an individual approach to students3. The relevance of the research topic is that sex education is one of the most important and, unfortunately, one of the least disclosed and least studied issues in pedagogy and educational psychology4. For various reasons, figures in the field of education often argue that this topic is deeply intimate and undoubtedly sensitive and that we should not draw the attention of students to this issue.
Finally, it is generally believed that it is extremely difficult to talk to average teenagers on this topic, that, finally, if the work of moral education is properly organized, the problem of sex education does not arise. Over the course of several views on sex education have become even more contradictory5. All decide on the need to develop in middle adolescents the right attitude towards sexual matters, but scientists have different ideas about what should be taught, how and where, and who should deal with sexual issues.
In order to solve the set tasks and test the hypothesis during the experimental work, a set of research methods was used:
- theoretical methods that are analysis of psychological and pedagogical literature on the problem of research, generalization, and systematization of the obtained data, the study of pedagogical experience;
- empirical methods that are pedagogical experiment, questioning, observation, interview, testing, analysis of activity products, methods of quantitative and qualitative processing of the results of the study.
The following question was formulated as part of this research: how to organize the process of moral and sexual education of adolescents in the conditions of comprehensive secondary school? The hypothesis of the study is the assumption that the process of moral and sexual education of adolescents and the formation of sexual behavior will be successful if, based on the obtained diagnostic data, a socio-pedagogical program for moral and sexual education of adolescents is developed and implemented. The latter should take into account individual characteristics and include a set of group and individual forms of work aimed at expanding adolescents’ knowledge about moral and sexual relationships.
The developed program should provide for the participation of a social pedagogue, specialists, and teachers in the activities and involve parents in active activities. The theoretical significance of the study lies in the generalization and systematization of theoretical material and practical experience implementation of moral and sexual education of adolescents. The practical significance lies in the fact that the diagnostic tools and the study results, as well as the developed and experimentally tested program, can be used in practical activities of teachers. The object of the study is the process of adolescents’ moral and sexual upbringing. The subject of the investigation will be the peculiarities of the process of moral and sex education for adolescents in the conditions of secondary school.
Bibliography
Jones, Tiffany, Leanne Coll, Lisa van Leent, and Yvette Taylor. Uplifting Gender and Sexuality Education Research. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.
McBride, Amber. Me (Moth). New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2021.
Powell, Kara Eckmann, and Steven Argue. Growing with: Every Parent’s Guide to Helping Teenagers and Young Adults Thrive in Their Faith, Family, and Future. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2019.
Samuel, Glazzard Jonathan Stones. Relationships and Sex Education for Secondary Schools: A Practical Toolkit for Teachers. CRITICAL Publishing LTD, 2020.
Stombler, Mindy, Dawn M. Baunach, Elisabeth O. Burgess, Wendy Simonds, and Elroi J. Windsor. Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2019.
Footnotes
- Mindy Stombler et al., Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2019), 26.
- Glazzard Jonathan Stone Samuel, Relationships and Sex Education for Secondary Schools (2020): A Practical Toolkit for Teachers (CRITICAL Publishing LTD, 2020), 12.
- McBride, Amber. Me (Moth). New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2021.
- Kara Eckmann Powell and Steven Argue, Growing with: Every Parent’s Guide to Helping Teenagers and Young Adults Thrive in Their Faith, Family, and Future (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2019), 14.
- Tiffany Jones et al., Uplifting Gender and Sexuality Education Research (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), 3.