Okay, if I haven’t managed to alienate what few readers are out there with a post on sex toys and another on causes and consequences of teen pregnancy, let’s try to finish them off now. Are you ready? Here it is. I am, you see, a huge believer in sex education in the school. And, yes, I think it ought to start in kindergarten. Hold off on the pitchforks and burning torches for a minute and let me explain.
I’m not advocating that we get people to march into a kindergarten class and start talking about fellatio and orgasms. Really I’m not. What I’m suggesting is that schools across the country should engage in age-appropriate sex education, starting early, with something as innocuous as a lesson on naming parts correctly. That is completely necessary. My sister, who gets no nickname because she can still probably take me three falls out of five, told me about a neighbor girl of hers who referred to her vagina (the little girl’s not my sister’s) as her, and I’m not kidding here, “fragile.” Her fragile? That is seriously messed up.
Names and words have power. A lot of power. Imagine if that girl grows up thinking of her vagina, and by extension the rest of her body, as fragile? I smell therapy. Getting kids to use the correct language takes a lot of the mystery out of things. Proper names can lead kids to thinking of their body parts as something that is, rather than something that is there to be made fun of, to be obsessed over, to be hidden. You don’t see kids making up funny words to describe their arms. Why do we do it with a penis or a vagina? Answer: Because it’s hidden and it’s not talked about.
Remember the Netherlands? They have the lowest rate of teen pregnancies in the developed world, only 11 or so out of 1,ooo teen girls. American has a rate of 85 pregnancies out of 1,000 teen girls. Not only that, but the Netherlands has the lowest rate of teen births and abortions by teens in all of Europe. Now, another question: Do you think the Netherlands has a comprehensive sex education program in its schools? Answer: Duh! Of course it does.
Take the mystery out of sex organs and little dudes and dudettes won’t be so all-fired eager to see what the big deal is. As they grow older, we should begin adding to their depth of knowledge, talking about reproduction, contraception, venereal diseases, love, marriage and (the most forbidden topic of all) that sex can feel really, really good. Why, you wail, why do we need to do this?
Because, empirically speaking, teenagers are as dumb as a bag of hammers. Not their fault. Their frontal lobes don’t finish maturing until they’re at least 21 or so. Which means they’re going to do something stupid, like have sex without protection because it feels really, really good. Teenagers need guidance and they can’t count on their parents overcoming their own societal misgivings about the subject to give their little dudes and dudettes the right information. Heck, my wife, known to many as Doctor, is an OB/GYN, specializing in sexual health and wellness and we still had to overcome some reluctance about talking to our little dudes about sex.
So, yes, I think we need to start a campaign for comprehensive sex education in schools. Anyone want to join me on this?
– Richard
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