What Is Comprehensive Sex Education?

05.06.2019

As the history of sex education shows until recently, any talk about sex and sexuality has been taboo, although, of course, it always aroused great interest. Nevertheless, this topic even seemed something forbidden and dirty.

Sex education programs had appeared in the United States as early as the 1940s, but only about 30 years ago, these programs began to be held in public schools in the country (they covered about 2% of students). Why is sex education important? The idea of talking to children about sex is frightening and alarming to many parents, and, therefore, sexual education is usually perceived as something indecent and unworthy. However, in fact, such lessons can save you and your children from many problems. Today, one way or another, these programs deal with the problems of sexual behavior, sexual orientation, prevention of sexually transmitted diseases (primarily AIDS), and cover 93% of all public schools in America. So, what is sex education? Let’s check everything out!

What Is Comprehensive Sex Education?

Comprehensive sex education in the United States and other countries is one of the types of program that is aimed at instilling in people a healthy perception of the issues of physiological difference between sexes and sex life. The tasks of sex education are to help the young generation develop harmoniously and inculcate the moral foundations of creating marriage and family.

• Importance of sex education in schools It includes not only sex topics. It contributes to the harmonious development of a child in the personal and social spheres. Let us consider in more detail which areas are affected by the right sex education.
• It helps assign identity. Children from the age of three understand their gender and can distinguish boys and girls by gender. At older ages, they think about how to be a man or a woman – what are the differences? What are the features? How to build relationships with the opposite sex?
• It forms sexual preferences and orientation. It helps realize their sexuality. Due to this, there is an enrichment of personality and an increased ability to love. And also, due to the awareness of own attractiveness, the risk of disorders of sex pathologies is reduced.
• It prepares for liability in partnership and marriage. It helps understand their role and responsibilities in the family.
• It prepares for parenting through the formation of role-playing behavior. How is it to be a father or mother? What does the father do and what is the role of the mother?
• It forms the habit of a healthy lifestyle. In a word, it forms the attitude to alcohol, smoking or drugs and its influence on the health and birth of children, proper and daily hygiene, protected sex from unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Problems of Sex Education

The problem of sex education lies in the fact that many parents believe that it is too early for a child to know the answers to questions. Preferring to answer the child’s question, “When you grow up, you will find out everything you want” and trying to avoid sex education in schools, it will only lead to the fact that the child shuts themselves out from parents and gets the information of interest from peers or the Internet. If the child doesn’t know about those changes in the body that he or she will encounter during adolescence, this can lead to sexual promiscuity in sexual relations.

Should Sex Education Be Taught in Schools?

Today, American sex education has the purpose to familiarize different groups of students with the basics of relations between the sexes. Of course, such pedagogy causes many disputes and disapproval among parents, but it is caused mainly by the fact that older people don’t fully realize how quickly their children grow up. And the sooner they learn about intimate relationships, the basics of social behavior, and, after all, about contraception, the greater the likelihood that adolescents will not have the desire to experiment!

Many people don’t understand the reasons why sex education should be taught in schools. Sex education of children is necessary because the inquisitive children’s mind doesn’t tolerate an information vacuum in any matter. And if children don’t receive competent and comprehensive answers to topics of interest in school, they will find the source to fill in the missing knowledge. Maybe such sources of information will be incorrect and inconsistent with reality. The state program of sexual education based on a scientific and medical basis is simply required. Moreover, it includes not only knowledge from the field of anatomy and physiology, but also from the sphere of psychology of sexuality. So, answering the question of why sex education should be taught in school, it can be noted that these lessons are designed to tell children about sex from “right” sources like cognitive books and videos that form a positive understanding of sex. It is no secret that today adolescents have every opportunity to go online and find videos, which don’t cause anything else apart from unhealthy interest and the desire to repeat everything. That is why it is so important to conduct sex education classes and form in the fragile psyche a normal understanding of sex between loving people.

Disadvantages of Sex Education in School

First of all, this education should focus on the social and emotional causes of sex and their consequences, raise issues of establishing clear expectations and boundaries, help cope with feelings of shame and embarrassment and, of course, teach to be responsible. Sex education is an issue of accepting oneself, one’s partner, as well as feeling respect, harmony, comfort, and security both physical and psychological. However, sometimes sex education doesn’t consider several crucial points. That is why we have some disadvantages of sex education in school that should be improved.

• Educators are not professionals in this sphere

Most educators who have to talk about sex with their students are not experts in this field. Moreover, they don’t have enough knowledge about sexual health. It is even worse since the wrong information is extremely dangerous. Young people can get the wrong understanding.

• Listeners don’t perceive such lessons as something important

They may be confused or excited by the subject. If the subject is not taught properly at school, students may show no interest in it.

• Lessons are given after school

Teaching sex education, the worst thing about it is that most lessons are conducted as extra-curricular activities. If the authority doesn’t take this seriously, then, most likely, neither students nor educators will be interested in this.

• It may be contrary to religious ideologies

If someone’s worldview doesn’t coincide with what they are taught, then such a program can only worsen everything.

Types of Sex Education

These programs are focused on the fact that today’s children are able to create a happy harmonious family in the future. One of the most important conditions for the realization of such a distant goal is to overcome the disunity of boys and girls in preschool years, form friendly relations, a culture of communication, and instil respect for each other. For this purpose, two main types of this kind of education have been created. These sex education programs represent two completely different ideas. Check them out.

• Comprehensive Sex Education

This program is taught from the very childhood and ends in high school. Comprehensive sex education reveals the topic of sexuality. Moreover, it is about safe sex, STDs, contraceptives, masturbation, and so on. It shows that sexuality is an ordinary thing. This is what can be described as a normal part of every person. In addition, it involves such things as relationships between men and women.

• Abstinence Program Only Until Marriage

Talking about this program, specialists pay special attention to abstinence. Abstinence-only sex education takes all types of sexual behavior. The program doesn’t include information about contraceptives, STDs, masturbation, etc. It brings the idea that sex before marriage can have harmful consequences.

These types of education lead to the development of young people, increasing sexological perception and creating a sense of responsibility for the health and well-being in them, that is, strengthening the future marriage and family.

Sex Education for Married Couples

Family life is a very important step in the life of every person. Choosing a life partner, we are ready to accept loved ones with all their flaws. Moreover, we are ready to share life, material wealth, and, of course, have sex with them. All the above aspects are an integral part of sex education for married couples. And if, at first, almost all couples are fine with this, then after one of the periods and stages of living together, there are some problems with sexual relations in the family after marriage. So, why is sex education so important?

• Safe sex

Speaking of safety, we mean not only health (the ability to protect against STDs and unwanted pregnancy), but also psychological comfort. Not only teenagers who have started experimenting with sex, but also many adults feel badly the boundaries, they don’t know how to protect themselves. Not to agree to have sex or other intimate relationships just because of the fear of missing something or offending someone, it is important to learn to refuse. Unfortunately, if you don’t know how to refuse, you can get into a rather unpleasant situation regardless of whether you are 18 or 30.

• Anatomy and physiology

For example, the structure of the human body is studied in school. But pictures and schemes from a textbook on biology have little association with our own body and certainly don’t help know it better. A good understanding of one’s own body, intimate organs, the internal structure of the body and its functioning as a whole is important for psychological health. Indeed, how can you take care of the body, give it the necessary rest and save resources if you don’t understand its needs, feel tired, feel unwell or, on the contrary, don’t understand what brings you pleasure.

• Erogenous and sensitive areas

It is logical: if you know what is pleasing, it is much easier to get it by explaining everything to your partner. Mutual understanding in sex helps create harmonious relationships in general. But it is difficult to do this for even the most sensitive lovers if partners don’t know themselves well, feel bad and can’t distinguish the pleasant from the unpleasant. Ignorance of one’s body, sensitive spots, and preferences, imposing all responsibility for pleasure on a partner, leads to painful and traumatic co-dependencies. The other person is expected to fill all needs, but this is basically impossible.