High-quality instruction and learning on a wide range of subjects linked to sex and sexuality comprise sexual education. It looks at values and ideas around those subjects and aids in developing the skills necessary for managing one’s own sexual and reproductive health as well as interactions with partners and the community. Young individuals must make crucial choices regarding relationships, sexuality, and sexual activity as they mature (Szirom). Their choices could have a long-term effect on their health and happiness. The subjects covered in comprehensive sexual health education vary depending on the student’s grade level. This paper is written with the aim of developing and expanding sex education in public schools.
Sex education lessons in public schools disregard the unique distinctions among students and undermine schoolers’ natural modesty. Children are given material that is appropriate for their level of competency for it when learning academic subjects like arithmetic and reading (Trudell). However, even though some students in a given grade level may not be emotionally or physically prepared for the content, they are all taught the same curriculum regarding the sensitive topic of sexuality. It is humiliating and adds to the collapse of the modesty that is acceptable and natural in human beings when children are made to watch, listen to, and discuss in public the sexual anatomy of the other sex.
Parents could never know what is presented in the sex education classroom behind closed doors. Parental knowledge of the teacher’s words, deeds, attitudes, and reactions during the actual teaching of the sex education session is not provided by learner performance and curriculum targets (Szirom). This means that unless parents attend every single sex lesson with their students in the classroom, they have no control over the information being taught to their kids about sex.
The standard of sexual education that parents provide their children is not something that the public school has the authority to evaluate. Because they dislike the work that parents undertake, the school has no power to insist that sex education be taught (Trudell). When supporters of sex education in public schools claim that children need to understand more, what they really mean is that they want to teach kids how to use condoms, the pill, and the IUD and where to get an abortion if those methods do not work. They never discuss lowering fornication or addressing our kids’ spiritual needs.
Children must learn how to refuse and why doing so benefits them spiritually, emotionally, and physically. There will be a presentation of someone’s values whenever anything other than biology is taught (Trudell). Students are told there are no norms to follow when they are told to “make up their minds.” Students will get the impression that the teacher does not expect them to exercise self-control if they hear statements like, “It is better to say no, but if a person is going to be sexually active, be protected.” When birth control is discussed without being explicitly stated as being improper, students learn that the teacher does not believe it to be improper.
The foundation of comprehensive sex education is the belief that when individuals have the freedom to explore their sexuality and make informed decisions about it, public health benefits. According to studies, it is adequate to decrease teenage pregnancies, postpone the time when teens begin sexual activity, and decrease the number of sexual partners minors have (Szirom). Comprehensive sex education is opposed by certain people because they feel it violates their cultural or religious values and can have a corrupting effect on children, especially parents and religious organizations. They claim that by giving them access to this knowledge, you are condoning sex and promoting risk-taking. Others counter that families should teach their children about this material and that schools will not be teaching it.
Age and developmentally-appropriate comprehensive sex education is a goal of the program. Grade-specific topics are presented, and the order in which they are taught is structured to develop young people’s knowledge and expertise over time (Szirom). A rights-based strategy, which emphasizes how values like tolerance, acceptance, tolerance, equality, compassion, and reciprocity are intrinsically linked to globally acknowledged human rights, is supported by complete, high-quality sex education. Young people have the chance to examine and establish their personal values as well as the values of their families, cultures, and peers through sex education in schools.
Most individuals would concur that sexual education is not optimal in its current form. It would be difficult to find someone who believes that sex education is ideal in its current form. Arguments arise when remedies to the status of sexual education are offered. Everyone has different ideas, from abolishing sex education totally to revising it such that it is taught in public schools at every elementary school. Those who support better sex education and those who support abstinence-only sex education appear to be at odds in much of the discussion, with just a tiny group of individuals holding seemingly diametrically opposed viewpoints.
Works Cited
Trudell, Bonnie Nelson. Doing sex education: Gender politics and schooling. Routledge, 2017. Web.
Szirom, Tricia. Teaching gender?: Sex education and sexual stereotypes. Routledge, 2017. Web.