Sexual Education: A Necessity
Sex education for the teenage population of our nation has been somewhat of an uncomfortable topic of conversation. This is mostly because, the parents of that teenager do not encourage such topics to be discussed considering it as a bad influence on their child.
Sometimes, it is not understood that this avoidance or lack of conversation between the child and the parent can lead to a curiosity and then that curiosity reaches a level where it needs to be appeased by some or the other discussion, then may that discussion be with the parents or the friends, it does not matter.
According to the Indian mentality, it is most of the times thought that such topics related to sex and sexuality should be avoided as much as they can be avoided. It is thought that if the topic is avoided, it would not be thought upon and therefore, it would not be acted upon.
But then as we take a look at the sexual assault and sexual abuse cases, it is clear that sex and sexuality is not entirely neglected by the curious adolescents. In fact, the scenario is such that most of the sexual abuse cases and the cases related to sexuality have teenagers involved in it.
Why is it that the most curious class of the population is involved in these sex related cases? It is an equally curious question with equally weird answer. It is similar to appeasing their curiosities.
When the curiosity of these teenagers is not appeased or discussed, it is going to come out in some or the other way, either with a willing partner or with an unwilling partner. Therefore, it is necessary to appease their curiosity. It is necessary to discuss about their sexuality with them in the presence of responsible guide and their guidance.
It is necessary to make the teenagers understand that the changes they are facing, physical as well as emotional are all normal for their respective ages and a proper scientific knowledge should be given to them in the most technical manner to make the conversation less uncomfortable.
Should Sexual Education be taught in Public Schools?
Now, that we have sexual education being given to the teenagers, another question arises whether it is really important to give this education in public schools. A public school or an educational institution is the perfect place to get knowledge and education but sexual education is an entirely different matter.
In a public school, there are girls and boys together studying in the school and therefore, when all these students are given the sexual education together, then there are higher chances of this topic being discussed by the students among themselves and might also lead to some undesirable result.
For example, when a child is in the age of puberty, there are a lot of hormones and emotional instability among the person which might affect how they grasp the knowledge they receive and also how they apply it in their regular and real-life situation.
This might sometimes get these children in a problem, that is when they are practically applying the knowledge of sexual education because they are curious about this new knowledge, might lead to some very life changing problems.
Therefore, it is necessary to understand the atmosphere in which they are given this type of somewhat private and essential information irrespective of the location of that place (it may be a school or a counsellor’s office or the student’s home).
Sexual education is also useful and essential to make the individual understand about unprepared pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, for example, HIV/ AIDS, Genital Herpes, Gonorrhoea, Syphilis, etc. which are transmitted during unprotected sex. All these aspects should be explained to the curious adolescents along with the required precautions.
There are often many parents complaining that it is not necessary to make their children aware about sexuality and the terms related to it. They feel that if their child does not talk about it or does not discuss about it, he/ she would not think about it and therefore, there would be no reaction to these changes in their body.
But this is not the case in reality. The changes that the adolescents undergo during puberty are noticed by them and therefore, they are very curious about it. Some children might not discuss it with their parent because they feel uncomfortable and basically, they know how their parents would react of such a topic when raised by their child.
Therefore, the children might refrain from discussing it with their parents thus, automatically directing this discussion among themselves and also might develop an urge of experiencing these new emotions.
This is the main reason why; sex and its education should not be labelled as a “Taboo” because it is very much essential to know what it is and its importance in a certain phase of life and how to deal with the rapid changes in their body. After all, it is the body and will obey the alarms of the biological clock.
Also, sexual education will help maintain the occurrences of unprepared pregnancies which will destroy the teenager’s entire career and life and also their family thus, disturbing the social environment.
Conclusion
From all the aspects discussed above relating to sexual education and the awareness among the children, it the growing need as there are a lot of problematic cases seen which involve the young people.
From all the statistical information obtained about sexual assault cases, unprepared pregnancies in the teenage group, also regarding the STD (Sexually Transmitted Diseases) cases somewhere, indicate that the youth understanding is in a chaos which needs to sorted out and explained to them properly and scientifically, to make them understand it in a very normal and scientific manner.
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