As I read the Sunday Times and Sunday Mail of 27th June, I noted with interest that both the Times and the Mail were running stories on sex education. It seems both articles were spurred by the Ministry of Education’s introduction of Reproductive Heath as a new subject in primary and secondary schools.
The Sunday Times ran an article on page 6 titles “Sex Education is it right or wrong”. The Sunday Times reporter (the reporters name was not provided) opted to explore the issue by taking an informal survey of opinions that mainly focused on the social acceptability of the proposals. The Sunday Mail ran an article by Chambo Ng’uni, Chimwemwe Mwale, Monica Mayuni, Christine Chisha and Elizabeth Sakala titled “Should Sex Education be Introduced in Schools?” This article seemed to focus on the validity of the objectives of sex education.
In light of the fact that both public newspapers are running stories on sex education I thought that it would be appropriate for salt and light Zambia to try and look at the subject from a Biblical viewpoint.
Persons wiser than I have noted that it is good practice to start a discussion by defining terms, and so I will start by stating the definition of Sex Education provided by the Sunday Times. According to the article in the Times (Which itself sites an unnamed website) Sex Education is “the process of acquiring information and forming attitudes and beliefs about sex, sexual identity, relationships and intimacy”. This definition is pregnant with meaning and reading through both articles I believe that the full implications of Sex Education are not considered. In both articles the focus seemed to be on Sex Education as a process that talked about the nuts and bolts of having sex. Looking at the definition provided however sex education has a much broader agenda. Sex Education looks at attitudes toward sex, what you think and feel about sex, and seeks to impart a right attitude towards sex. Sex Education looks at sexual identity, it seeks to define what it means to be a man or a woman and be a sexual being. It looks at relationships and sex, in other words how to conduct your relationships as a sexual being. It looks at intimacy, in other words how to conduct a sexual relationship. I think that in many ways sex education is a Trojan horse. It uses the words “sex” and “education” to create the impression that it is educating people on the science of sex, when its real agenda is to shape the sexual behavior of a generation.
As you know the discussion of Sex Education could fill many libraries and an extended discussion of Sex Education is simply not possible in a blog post. What I do hope to do however is to discuss Sex Education in relation to the themes that emerged in the two articles over the course of a few weeks.
The following are themes that I picked up:
The social appropriateness of Sex Education;
The usefulness of Sex Education in Prevention of Child Abuse, Sexually Transmitted Infections, unsafe abortions and Pregnancy;
Sex Education as a response to sex saturated media;
Sex Education as a tool for the promotion of family planning;Sex Education as an answer to children’s questions on their sexuality;
The Appropriate age for the commencement of Sex Education;
Sex Education in the Church;
Sex Education as a promoter of healthy male/female relationships;
Sex Education and Zambian taboos;
Sex Education as a promoter of premature sexual behavior;
HIV and Sex Education; and
Parents and Sex Education.
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