Introduction
Sex education involves the provision of information about sexuality, sex, and bodily movement alongside skills-building to aid young individuals and teens communicate about and make informed choices concerning sex and their sexual health. Sex education has become an important issue to be discussed not only in homes but also in schools. Sex education aids in establishing a strong relationship between learners and school, and students should rely on educators when problems arise.
Educating learners and teenagers on matters related to sex may be seen as a positive move in ensuring that they get the essential morals to live and endure in an environment highly corrupted by media and obscenity. Morality results in sexual health and avoidance of infections such as HIV/AIDS, among other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). This paper aims to explain why sex education should be taught to young people in school, the involvement of schools in sex education discussions, and how adolescent egocentrism contributes to high-risk behaviors.
What Teenagers Should Know About Sex
Talking with teenagers about sex is a positive parenting practice that is widely researched. Teenagers learn about sex-related matters from different sources, which might negatively or positively impact their lives. Parents can provide proper sex education to growing teens to enable them to make informed and safer decisions.
One of the things that teens should know about sex is learning about their bodies (Astle et al., 2021). Parents need to explain the physical act of sex to teenagers. That includes explaining to the teenagers the physical act of intercourse and how babies are made.
Teenagers should also be aware of the importance of their self-esteem and physical attractiveness in determining their general level of happiness. Similarly, parents should inform their children that their life and self-esteem are greatly impacted by how they view their appearance (Astle et al., 2021). Additionally, teenagers should be made aware of sexual abuse and exploitation by explaining that individuals around them would use them for their sexual satisfaction.
Young individuals are highly devoted to relationship management in its entirety. They need to know ways of dating, understand that they are in love, and resist pressure. Teenagers should know that there are risks of them being sexually active without evaluating it and taking precautionary steps. Thus, parents should educate teenagers about family values, sexual health, teen pregnancies, and the potential consequences of sexually transmitted diseases and early pregnancy, and how to protect against such.
Role of Schools in Sex Education
Sex education in schools gives the learners the skills and expertise they require for a lifetime of healthy sexual behavior. The students and pupils in schools learn how to have healthy relations, think critically about the world, make informed choices and decisions about sex, love themselves for who they are, and be excellent allies to marginalized people. Sexual health education in educational institutions aims to deliver accurate, accessible, positive, and comprehensive information to adolescents and children (Jourdan et al., 2021). The objective is to educate young individuals on ways of leading positive sexual relations and avoiding unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
Schools should play a significant role in sex education by imparting knowledge regarding sexuality, sex, and sexual well-being to learners. That helps the learners be conscious, escape dangers, and maintain mental wellness. Consequently, that helps to create an inclusive atmosphere in learning centers and fosters a positive school culture.
Schools should hold parent information meetings before children’s sexuality education to discuss the proposed curriculum and content (Jourdan et al., 2021). They should also adopt a whole-school learning approach, which entails the provision of comprehensive sex education present in the classroom teaching and the practices and policies of the school. This should also be extended to the school’s partnerships with the local community. The approach to sex education will have the highest potential for maximum learning outcomes for the students, equipping them for a fulfilling and healthy adult life. Since teenage pregnancies and STIs make students drop out of school, learning institutions should incorporate sex education into the school curriculum to address the situation.
Another role of schools in sexual education should include implementing sex education programs to teach students some critical aspects of reproductive health (Schneider & Hirsch, 2020). The learning institutions should also begin sexual education at various grades, covering topics such as how drugs and alcohol are used, pubertal changes, how to resist pressure regarding sexuality, and abstinence. Additionally, they should implement abstinence programs aimed at delaying sexual intercourse, reducing unwanted pregnancies, and enhancing birth control use. Teachers in these schools should be role models and serve as credible sources of information for learners and their families. They should be aware of how to prepare to teach the human sexuality curriculum, ways of notifying parents in case problems arise, and how to better understand values.
Involvement of Schools in Sex Education Discussions
Sex education needs to be taught in schools at all levels and grades. Learning institutions should be deeply involved in the discussions about sex education to develop and reinforce the ability of young individuals, including children, to make respectful, healthy, satisfying, and conscious decisions regarding sexuality. Some of the topics the schools should cover in depth include abstinence, birth control, dating, reproduction, and sexual intercourse (Schneider & Hirsch, 2020). The discussions should aim to reduce the risk of potentially adverse outcomes, including sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies, among the learners. In addition, the discussions should be in-depth to help the students improve the quality of their relationships and aid them in developing decision-making skills for their future.
With technological advances, students are learning about romance and sex in media advertisements and are more exposed to explicit content. Thus, when schools are not involved in sex education, the learners are left vulnerable to the outside world. Regarding the depth of the discussion, the learning centers should educate the students at both the primary and secondary levels.
However, schools must provide age-appropriate teachings and answers to issues relating to sex education (Schneider & Hirsch, 2020). Questions on this topic should be addressed positively, accurately, calmly, and honestly, with no need to elaborate when teaching. Since teens are already informed, educators and teachers should be honest and nurture a relationship with their children. Whereas it is vital to be direct and candid, it is advisable to offer age-appropriate discussions on sex with compassion and love. Going too deep into this topic normalizes teenage sex and encourages sexual activities.
The Neutrality of Schools in Sex Education
Sex education in schools is intended to influence behaviors and attitudes to enhance sexual health among students. It is driven by concerns about the importance of the adequacy of consent, sexually transmitted infections, and teenage pregnancy. The discussion views sex as a standard and pleasurable fact for young individuals, aside from stressing the importance of consent and contraception (Goldfarb & Lieberman, 2021). Thus, sex education is a normal and inevitable phase in the growth of young individuals and children. As a result, promoting genuine abstinence is considered a barrier rather than an option in promoting safe sexual behaviors.
The approach to relationships and sex education presumes that young individuals may shape their morals without being given cultural values and perspectives to reason and act within. Thus, schools and educators should take a neutral stance in discussions regarding sex education (Goldfarb & Lieberman, 2021). When sex education programs assume that there is no morality in sexual behavior among teenagers, they fail to offer a robust and logical ethical framework for the guidance of young individuals. Subsequently, they cannot be thought to support the teenager; hence, they are neutral. Adopting a neutral position, schools should strive to educate youngsters on critically examining the right messages presented to them.
Ways in Which Adolescent Egocentrism Contributes to High-Risk Behavior
Adolescent egocentrism is when young people are overly self-involved and unable to differentiate between their perceptions and those of others. An imaginary audience is a mental state in which a young person imagines and believes that other people around them are enthusiastically watching and listening to them (Popovac & Hadlington, 2020). This phenomenon may be described by the preoccupation of the adolescent that other individuals are as admiring and crucial to them as they are of themselves.
A personal fable is the complement of the construction of the imaginary audience. Since young adults fail to distinguish their perceptions from those of others, they tend to believe that they are crucial to so many individuals, terming their feelings as unique and special. The adolescents feel they have experienced diverse and intense emotions; thus, others cannot understand their feelings. That uniqueness in an individual’s emotional experiences strengthens their belief in invincibility, mainly to death.
The individual’s belief in personal uniqueness and invulnerability makes them develop an illusion that they are immortal and above some of the legislations, practices, and laws. According to Popovac and Hadlington (2020), they perceive themselves as the center of the world. That belief that an adolescent is invincible removes any impulses to control their behavior. As a result, they engage in risky behaviors, including unprotected sex, careless driving, or excessive drinking, that have dangerous or unwanted consequences.
Conclusion
Teenagers need to be educated about the biological functioning of their sexual organs, changes that occur during puberty, and that sexual feelings are normal. In addition, they should be taught how to define boundaries and understand that they have the right to say no to anything, including oral sex, kissing, or intercourse, that feels uncomfortable to them. Sex education should be promoted in schools to help teenagers make practical and safe choices to avoid early and unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. Schools need to provide age-appropriate, inclusive sexual education to enable students to be responsible and care for themselves. It is essential to understand that young adults are vulnerable to peer influences, and it is good to guide them as they traverse their path of self-discovery by advising them to engage in productive tasks.
References
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Goldfarb, E. S., & Lieberman, L. D. (2021). Three decades of research: The case for comprehensive sex education. Journal of Adolescent Health, 68(1), 13-27. Web.
Jourdan, D., Gray, N. J., Barry, M. M., Caffe, S., Cornu, C., Diagne, F., El Hage, F., Farmer, M. Y., Slade, S., Marmot, M., & Sawyer, S. M. (2021). Supporting every school to become a foundation for healthy lives. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 5(4), 295-303. Web.
Popovac, M., & Hadlington, L. (2020). Exploring the role of egocentrism and fear of missing out on online risk behaviours among adolescents in South Africa. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 25(1), 276-291. Web.
Schneider, M., & Hirsch, J. S. (2020). Comprehensive sexuality education as a primary prevention strategy for sexual violence perpetration. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 21(3), 439-455. Web.