Global Breaking News - Monday, December 23, 2024

At What Age Should Sex Education Begin?
Puberty is moving earlier for both girls and boys, and even for the youngest children, educators now discourage the stork and other myths. So what do kids need to know, and when do they need to know it?
* discourage = 막다(말리다)/ a visit from the stork = 아기의 출생을 의미함

 아이들은 (성교육에 관련해서) 무엇을, 언제 알아야 하나요?

1. What They Need to Know at 5, and at 15
Withholding information about sex and sexuality will not keep children safe; it will only keep them ignorant.
 
2. You’re Always Teaching, but Not Always Deliberately
Sexual education happens whether we know it or not. How much better, then, to take charge of the process?
 
3. Schools Should Start the Lessons in Kindergarten
For the early grades, the curriculum includes lessons about anatomy and physiology, reproduction, healthy relationships and personal safety.
 
4. Start Early, and Definitely Before Puberty
Sharing a book with a young child, or letting an older child read one independently, often leads to questions and conversations about sexual health.

Sample Essay

What They Need to Know at 5, and at 15

Sadly, real or perceived controversy keeps schools from providing young people with the information and skills they need to become sexually healthy adults. Just like other topics taught in school, sexuality education should be developmentally appropriate, sequential and complete.

Ninety-five percent of all Americans have sex before marriage. About half of all young people begin having sex by age 17. Providing a foundation of quality sex education is the only way to ensure that young people will grow into sexually healthy adults. It can augment what children learn at home and combat misinformation learned from peers or found on the Internet. Porn is not the best way for teenagers to learn about sex, but it will fill the vacuum when sex education is politicized and withheld from our classrooms.

Quality sex education should start in kindergarten. Early elementary school students need to learn the proper names for their body parts, the difference between good touch and bad touch, and ways in which they can be a good friend (the foundation for healthy intimate relationships later in life). Fourth- and fifth-graders need information about puberty and their changing bodies, Internet safety, and the harmful impact of bullying. And seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders are ready for information about body image, reproduction, abstinence, contraception, H.I.V. and disease prevention, communication, and the topic they most want to learn about: healthy relationships.

Young people have the right to lead healthy lives. Honest, sequential and comprehensive sex education is the foundation for helping them to become sexually healthy adults.Irrational fear – the cultural belief that teaching young people about sex will cause them to have sex – keeps administrators and educators from doing what they know is best: providing young people with developmentally appropriate, sequential and honest sex education. Never mind that 30 years of public health research clearly demonstrates that when young people receive such education, they are more likely to delay sexual initiation, and to use protection when they do eventually become sexually active, than those who receive no sex education or learn only about abstinence. Withholding information about sex and sexuality will not keep children safe; it will only keep them ignorant.