The battle on birth control, sex education  
Thursday, October 25th, 2007

Sometimes, what you don't know can't hurt you.  And sometimes, if you are a teenager experiencing high levels of hormones and are told nothing about them, a lack of knowledge can hurt you.

The debate is always raging:  how much should schools be allowed to teach kids about sexuality?  From private schools that say nothing at all, to middle schools offering birth control pills to students, there are extremes, and there should be a middle ground.

In an ideal world, every parent would sit their child down and have the Birds and the Bees talk.  But in the real world, it just doesn't happen.  Many parents feel too uncomfortable to approach this subject with their children, put it off, and then never get around to it.

My favorite answer that I have read in regards to advice to parents is a recent comment by Logan Levkon, a Sexologist and Sexuality Editor who wrote Third Base Ain't What it Used to be:  What Your Kids are Learning about Sex Today - and How to Teach Them to Become Sexually Healthy Adults.

On Providing "The Pill" to Portland's Middle Schoolers - Oct 23, 2007 Last week, Portland, Maine passed a proposal that will allow students aged 11-15 (who have parental consent to be treated at the King Middle School's health center) to get prescriptions for birth control.

It is difficult to separate sexual health from overall health. And whether we like it or not, in a world where young teens are engaging in sex, providing reproductive and sexual health services (including education, counseling, and examinations) is a necessity. That being said, this is no an endorsement of middle school sexual activity; it is a wake up call to all of us to start changing the way we teach our children and teens about sexuality."

You can read more of the quote here.

The good news is, though, that even if the parent/s and the educators don't address all of a child's questions, there's this magical new thing called the internet.

I know, I know, people are terrified about what their children could find on the internet.  But with online encyclopedias like wikipedia, that young internet users are familiar with, they can actually find the information they are looking for without it being raunchy.

Just know that if you don't talk to your kids, they will definitely use their own devices, and will Google it on their own, and then you don't have the control over the niceties of what they'll get.

So, if you don't want to read a whole book about it, you can look up the information yourself, and just give your child the web address, to look at with or without you.  Some good free resources:

-Children NOW:  Talking with kids about sex and relationships

-Children NOW:  Ten tips for talking with your kids about tough issues

-Parenting.com:  Answering your children's questions about sex

-FamilyEducation.com:  Talking about the Birds and the Bees

   

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