English 1301
6th May 2019
Title: “The Importance of Sex Education”.
Sex education in schools is a much-discussed topic. In fact, everyone knows that is
necessary to talk about it but no on knows which is the most effective and the least traumatic
way to deal with it. It is required to modulate the contents based on the specific characteristics of
that age. Obviously, what is said to a teenager, cannot be told to an elementary school child. If
we talk to teenagers it is appropriate for example to talk about responsible sexuality,
contraception but also problems related to sexual violence, and not only.
To start with, to put even remotely close the word “sex” and the word child is for many
an insurmountable taboo. The purity of children seems to be an absolute value to be preserved
untouched for as long as possible. The children can be naive, but they are not stupid at all. At
some point they start asking themselves questions. “Why does that lady have such a big belly?
What do you and mom do when you lock the door?” These are normal questions, which we all
made sooner or later. But to tell about watermelon in the belly, stork and so on, does it really
serve something besides delaying for some time the onset of the children’s curiosity and
confusing them further?
Secondly, parents claim the right to be able to educate their children about these issues
as they wish, mainly because they consider sexuality a private matter. In my opinion, this belief
is extremely misleading. To think that sexuality is a private matter doesn’t have any foundation:
sex is not done alone, and educational choices have significant effects in a relationship.
Furthermore, if each parent educates their children as they please, the school system would not
have any sense of existence. Sex education teaches nothing other than the undeniable truth:
