Knowledge vs. Ignorance: What do you want for your children?

Reading the articles and books for this sexual education and policy class has gotten me thinking about my own sexual education experience. Like most people, most of my education did not come from the classroom. Yes we had those videos about they bodily functions in the 5th grade and that’s about as far as it went. I don’t remember any other in-school sexual education through out the rest of my middle school or high school years. So my main question to myself is, where did I get my information about sexuality and its pleasures and dangers?

Well the first experience that I can remember, was when I was in about the 4th grade and my cousin, who is one year older then me, asked me if I was a virgin. I had no idea what a virgin was, so of course I said NO. Boy did he laugh, and taunt me until I went and asked my mother what a virgin was.  May I say, she wasn’t pleased with my cousin or the question. I can’t quite remember if she answered it.  But my main point is, most of my sexual education came from family, peers, and the media; and it started at a young age.

By the time I was 14 I knew a good amount about sex and relationships, more then my parents could even fathom.  Although I didn’t lose my virginity until I was 23, I probably knew more then, than some married 30 year olds, thanks to my cousins, peers and cable tv.  Now my question is, if I, like most pre-teens and teenagers, learn so much about sex and sexuality from our everyday lives and interactions, why isn’t sex normalized and really talked about in schools. 

By the 9th grade, pretty much all kids know what sex is and today’s media is way more explicit with sexuality than it was when any of us were younger. So why are we so afraid of what sexual education could do to our children? With teen STIs and birthrates increasing, and the media being the main source for sex education, we should really be focusing on providing a better future for our children by giving them the knowledge and the skills to be prosperous adults instead of allowing them to dwell in ignorance. The real question we should be asking ourselves is, what is the current sexual education not doing for our children?