To think kids aren’t having sex at a young age these days is almost comical, yet delusional with such shows as Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant on television. Kids are seeing a lot of sexually referenced things in movies, TV, magazines, and even in their homes, but no one is properly educating them on what they’re seeing or how their bodies are feeling. Wouldn’t you want your child to know the facts about what they’re feeling and what feelings are natural? Sex education should be taught at elementary schools in all fifty states of the U.S. to protect kids from STDs, educate them about their decision, and cut down on teen pregnancy.
Kids are very uneducated in the subject of sex, so much to the point that their putting their selves at risk and don’t even know it. Dr. Cynthia Regle, a specialist in adolescent medicine says she had a thirteen-year-old girl come in her office and tell her, “Oral sex is no big deal.” Dr. Regle said, “They don’t see it as sex, but a safe and fun and a prelude to intercourse.” If kids knew the facts about sex, they would know that anything that can be contracted through sexual penetration can also be contracted orally as well. So how is it considered to be “safe?” Dr. Richard Gallagher, director of the Parenting Institute New York University’s child study center told the New York Times, “I see no reason not to believe that soon a substantial number of youths will be having intercourse in middle school years, it’s already happening.”
Elders have the power to save lives in this situation, save a child from HIV, from a young unexpected pregnancy . . . to save children from themselves. I spoke to a young woman named Melissa Owens; she has a very successful career with Bank of America. She has a nice condo with a nice car and has a great head on her shoulders. When she was thirteen years old she had unprotected sex and contracted gonorrhea. Melissa was scared to tell her parents or anyone else at the time. The STD became dormant in her system and now at the age of twenty-five she is no longer able to have children of her own. At thirteen she didn’t know better and had no one to turn to.
Parents and elders have to take themselves out of the equation; the situation that’s going on with the kids in the U.S is way bigger than any of their egos. It has always been said that it takes a village to raise a child, which means letting others in to help. It’s understandable to not want your child to learn about sex so young and especially from someone else. We as nation have changed so much over the generations. Teaching children about sex at school so young wasn’t necessarily big in the ’50s, but neither was the spread of STDs and teen pregnancy. Something has got to change. As a parent I understand some subjects you rather teach your own child and elementary school could be seen as much too young for a child to learn about sex. A parent might fear that the educator might give false information about sex or it be seen as a green light to engage in sexual activities. Think about the risk they’re being put in for not being properly educated on sex.
I spoke with Dianna Smith, a sex education teacher at Reese elementary school in Houston, Texas. She talks to fifth graders about sex. I asked her what her thoughts were on teaching sex education to such young kids, Smith says, “I feel like teaching children about their bodies, and the changes they’re going through, safe sex and just being knowledgeable is very important. Kids are exposed to a lot these days. It’s not like when I was growing up and everything was so hush hush. If the kids aren’t being taught about how to protect themselves, how will they ever know? You wouldn’t believe the things I get asked as a sex ed. teacher from kids, they’re so smart and they know so much already about sex from what their exposed to around them but not the real facts that they should know in real life not just what they hear from adults or on TV.” Teachers spend so much time in the day with children; they become very close with their students. Most times the teachers know more about what’s going on in a student’s personal social life than parents do. If it’s anyone that would know what kids need most, it’s someone that specializes in handling them. I also spoke with a young girl named Gabby Gunner who’s a twenty-one-year-old student at USC.
I asked her what she knew about sex when she was twelve and what were her thoughts on sex education.
