A PDF of this writing sample can be found here.
Context
This opinion-editorial was written for a college course called “Navigating Childhood.” The purpose of this paper was to discuss a pressing child’s rights issue. For this op-ed, I chose to talk about the significance of teaching sex education within school curriculums and why sex education in school needs to be comprehensive and inclusive.
Why Schools Have the Main Responsibility in Teaching Children Sex-Ed
I was twelve years old when I got my period for the first time. Immediately after coming home, I called my mom to tell her what had happened. The uncomfortable menstruation video we had to watch in fourth grade was the only reason I knew what had happened. On top of watching that video, I remembered the hush voices my mom and my older sister would use when talking about needing more pads or being on their periods. I also recalled that the only people allowed to participate in these secretive whispers were female.
Being a first-generation Asian American, it did not surprise me that my mother kept “woman things” between only the women in my household. However, when my brother asked me what a tampon was five years later, I did not expect my mother to reprimand me because “boys don’t need to know about these things.”
Not surprisingly enough, Asian American mothers talk to their daughters about menstruation 81.1% of the time, but less than a tenth of sons are taught about periods. What surprises me even less is that only twenty-seven percent of Asian American mothers speak to their daughters about sexual intercourse, but they talk to their girls about pregnancy almost forty-nine percent of the time. I don’t remember my mother ever telling me what sex was, but I definitely remember being told as a nine-year-old that kissing causes pregnancy.
Had it not been for the sex education that I received in elementary, middle, and high school, my friends and I would likely have not even been taught a single fact about sex education. All I would have learned is that kissing causes pregnancy and that I shouldn’t let strangers touch me in my private areas.
Currently, many parents and administrators argue that schools should not teach sex-ed because parents are supposed to teach matters such as those to their children and because students would be more inclined to have sex. However, I highly disagree because, from my own personal experiences and outside research, I know that most parents do not give their children the sex education that young adults need and that sex-education in schools does not make students more sexually active.
In a poll conducted by Planned Parenthood, only forty-three percent of parents indicated that they felt “very comfortable” talking about sex education with their children, meaning that fifty-seven percent of parents feel only “somewhat comfortable” or “not comfortable” discussing sex with their children. This lack of conversation creates a communication barrier between parents and children, as parents do not effectively answer their children’s concerns regarding sexual health.
Additionally, in a national poll, fifty-four percent of parents say that have never talked to their children about sex, and only five percent have discussions with their children about sex once a year. Similarly, another study asked a sample group what were the five sex-ed topics that they discussed with parents. Forty-five percent of children reported that their parents explained how to say no, followed by methods of birth control (11%), sexually transmitted diseases (8%), how to use a condom (4%), and where to get birth control (1%). However, thirty-one percent of children did not learn about any of these big sex-ed topics from either parent. Both parents and children have assessed that there is a lack of communication between both parties, meaning that many students need to receive their sex-ed from schools.
Since children cannot rely on their parents, they turn to other avenues of information. In surveys collected from college students, results indicated that almost forty percent of men and almost one-fifth of women watched pornography as minors because they “wanted information about sex.” Children are curious beings, and if their parents do not discuss sex-ed, these kids may revert to harmful internet sources. Schools must teach students sex-ed in order to keep students’ curiosities in check while avoiding dangerous sources of information.
Some parents fear that teaching sex education in schools will make their children more sexually active. However, in a national study done at Edinburg University, researchers discovered that when students’ main source of information about sex was taught from their teachers in schools, they were less likely to have sex than their peers who learned about sex through parents and friends. This invalidates parents who worry that sex education in schools will make their children sexually active.
In order to ensure that children are receiving proper sexual education, I call for all school districts in America to require sex education courses through elementary, secondary, and high schools. The federal government should take away funding for school systems that do not maintain comprehensive sex-education curriculums. Additionally, every student should be given access to informative internet resources so that students do not resort to pornography form information. Lastly, I believe that school teachers should partner with local government agencies such as the Parks and Recreation Department to host annual sex education presentations to keep parents informed about what their children are learning.
Thankfully, due to the sex education that my school district taught me, I learned a lot about topics that my own parents would never teach me about. By making comprehensive sex-education more accessible, we can bring uninformed students out of the dark in order to protect their sexual health.
Works Cited
Haglund, Kristin A., and Richard J. Fehring. “The Association of Religiosity, Sexual Education, and Parental Factors with Risky Sexual Behaviors among Adolescents and Young Adults.” Journal of Religion and Health, vol. 49, no. 4, 2010, pp. 460-72. ProQuest, http://proxyau.wrlc.org/login url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/812176746?accountid=8285, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10943-009-9267-5.
Kim, Janna L., and L. Monique Ward. “Silence Speaks Volumes: Parental Sexual Communication Among Asian American Emerging Adults.” Journal of Adolescent Research, vol. 22, no. 1, Jan. 2007, pp. 3–31.
Macleod, Fiona. “More Children Learn about Sex from Teachers than Friends.” The Scotsman, 28 Oct. 2010, www.scotsman.com/news/more-children-learn-about-sex-from-teachers-than-friends-1-826696.
Planned Parenthood. “New Poll: Parents Are Talking With Their Kids About Sex But Often Not Tackling Harder Issues.” Planned Parenthood. N. p., 2018. Web. Accessed 11 Dec. 2018.
Sabina, Chiara, Janis Wolak, and David Finkelhor. “The Nature and Dynamics of Internet Pornography Exposure for Youth.” CyberPsychology & Behavior, vol. 11, no. 6, 2008, pp. 1-3.
Warren, Clay. “Perspectives on International Sex Practices and American Family Sex Communication Relevant to Teenage Sexual Behavior in the United States.” Health Communication, vol. 4, no. 2, Apr. 1992, pp. 121-136.