Sex education. Is it really important?

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SEX EDUCATION

Ever wondered if sex education is important, your answer is right here.

This article will take you on a step-by-step orientation concerning sex education.

A lot of us think that sex education kind of promotes sexual activities mostly among young people thereby having doubts about its importance. But let me shock you by telling you that sex education guides young adults in making conscious, healthy, and satisfying decisions regarding sexuality, relationships, and physical, mental, and emotional help. Wondering how sex education does this right? 

Before we continue let's first define the term, "sex education ".

What is sex education?

Sex education is the provision of knowledge about body development, sex, sexuality, and relationships as well as skill development to assist young people in communicating about sex and making educated decisions concerning their sexual health. Sounds interesting right?

The main aim of sex education is to strengthen and develop young people in making satisfying decisions concerning their sexual life and relationships, sex education does not at all encourage young people to have sex as most of us have been thinking, yes!

Most of our parents/guardians find it hard to introduce their children to sexual education with the fear that the child will end up being corrupt and losing some values, but no! Dear mummies and daddies introducing your child at the appropriate age will go a long way in helping the child later in the future. Yeah, I know the question here will be what's the appropriate age? Well, I will say the appropriate age is when the child is experiencing puberty.

When a child is in his/her puberty stage, the child will be so eager to experience a lot of things, so this is the right time for you as a guardian or adult to strike. Sit the child down, tell the child everything he/she has to know about sex, and relationships, let the child know there are what are called sexually transmitted diseases, let the child know about some of the preventive measures, and talk about abstinence too.

Most of our guardians in the house, especially those of the African setting, will tell a female child " if you get close to a man you will get pregnant"quite funny. This sometimes works but it will be for a little while. We all know you can't possibly get pregnant by just going close to a man and a male child can't possibly impregnate a female child by just getting close to her, there must have been something that has taken place before the pregnancy occurs.

It's in your place as a guardian to let the child know what's involved before such things occur. Let the child know some preventive measures stating the consequences though. This is to avoid the child being misinformed by the public. Guide the child in the understanding of emotions and feelings that the child is likely to experience, teach the child the principles of reproduction but hammer more on abstinence, and tell the child that premarital sexual engagement is against the norms.

If we take a close observation, we would notice that children who have sex education mentioned to them at school or home or anywhere have had records of fewer sexual risk behaviors like fewer unwanted pregnancies and abortions, fewer occasional partners, less sexual engagement due to the influence of drugs, less irresponsible sex and less STIs.

Now, let's talk about the different types of sex education:

Types of sex education 

We have about four types of sex education which are going to be listed below:

• Abstinence-only sex education 

This particular type of sexual education mainly hammers on abstinence from premarital sexual activity. The main aim of this sex education is to delay sexual engagement in young adults. All other things are being taught and explained here but abstinence is proffered to be the best of all.

• Comprehensive sex education

This particular sex education covers every perspective concerning sexuality. It teaches the individual about abstinence, preventive/contraceptive measures, and the various STIs that they could possibly encounter during their sexual experience. Anybody as far as you are experienced can teach this.

• Dual protection sex education

This sex education teaches the students both abstinence and the use of some protective materials in case of involvement in any sexual activity. I know some eyebrows will be raised here. Let me get this straight, this particular sex education is mainly for adults. Though religiously we believe that premarital sex is not good, just in case it happens one way or the other due to where our emotions place us, the individual should know how to protect his/herself. Better still, we should always learn to put our emotions in check.

• Contraception sex education

This is a type of sex education that educates its students on the preventive measures to be taken whenever involved in sexual activity. It is mainly for the female gender notwithstanding the males could be taught too. It focuses on different contraceptive measures that could be taken, and though it is not mostly advisable, it helps a great deal in preventing most unwanted teenage pregnancies.

Sex education is very relevant in several ways. As you have read through this article, you can see that apart from STI prevention, it aids in a child's mental and physical maturity. That is before the public misinforms a child, he/she must have been enlightened enough and therefore can not be misled.

You can click here for a list of programs you can undergo if you want to go deep into sexuality education.

Sex education is very essential in this 21st century as our children are being exposed to a lot of things even without us knowing. So we must enlighten them at the right time to avoid harm in the future.

I hope you find this article useful and you can as well drop your comments in the comment box.