Sex Ed – Yes Or No?

To evolve a consensus after a national debate on introduction of sex education in government schools, the Rajya Sabha secretariat had invited suggestions/views/comments from educationists, sociologists, psychologists, sexologists, spiritual leaders and parents. Could the following be some of the responses?

I’ve been a school teacher for 12 years. Recently one 13 year old girl student showed me a newspaper headline which said some female had been raped. The student wanted to know what it meant. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her the truth, and said it meant the woman had been badly treated, and told her not to use the term. Trained experts must teach children the facts of life. - Rukmani.

In a classroom, the female children were told to sketch something to indicate what each wanted to be when she grew up. One girl drew a stethoscope, and said she wanted to become a doctor. Another sketched a plane, and said she wanted to be an aviator. Yet another girl sat doing nothing. When the teacher asked, she said she wanted to be married like her mother, but didn’t know how to sketch it. If she had been educated in sex, she would’ve sketched a cradle or a baby. Sex ed should be imparted by specialists, particularly for protection of the girl child. – Mrs.Singh, Principal, Girls’ School.

People are embarrassed to come face to face with sex ed. They want children to know, and still don’t want them to know! Considering the overall advantage of sex ed, it should be made compulsory. There can be no conscientious objectors among parents. – Dr.Leela, Professor of Sociology.

To conform to our tabus, we put digital patches on what is shown in some nude scenes in TV/movies. This only arouses vicarious curiosity in children. Remove censorship. Then sex ed can be imparted more easily. – Raman Nair, Social worker.

Sex ed is very important. The best method of introducing it would be through cartoons. In Japan, cartoons called Manga, often show sexual parts and doings explicitly. If such cartoons are commissioned and made available in schools, sex ed would become easy. – Dr.Ajith Parekh, Psychologist.

When you teach sex, innocence is lost -  picture the way Adam and Eve felt after he had partaken of the forbidden fruit. But we’re forced to teach sex in view of the changing environment, and for the protection of children themselves. Since we’ve no alternative, let children get sex ed. Teachers should be trained to be businesslike, and not be squeamish in imparting this instruction. – Dr. (Mrs.)Ratna Frederick, Consulting Psychologist.

Sex ed is very necessary. It’s understood, that in Germany they have created full scale transparent 3-D models of men and women showing all internal and external organs. Such models if available in our country, will help teach children sex. – Dr.Vivek Sengupta,  practicing sexologist.

Sex ed is wrong. Once it’s taught, it would only create concupiscence in children’s minds. They’re already learning enough of it watching TV, movies and the internet. Instead of sex ed, they should be given instruction in moral values and ethics in behaviour with the opposite sex. -  Mother Prem Leela,  Religious head and counselor.

Sex is like a coiled serpent in our bodies. It can either be allowed to lie quiescent, or be stoked by sex ed. Instead of sex ed, children’s minds should be conditioned towards dharma – which means right behaviour and virtue, and ethical ways of living. Sex ed is wrong. – Reverend Samana, Head Theravadin Buddhist Society.

Certain sections of society are being consulted about sex ed introduction, but students have been ignored. I’m now studying law. I got sex ed from a classmate while at school, which was all incorrect. Trained senior boys and girls must instruct children of the respective sex, with the teachers being largely facilitators. That will remove a lot of embarrassment in imparting sex ed. Sex ed should be treated like any other subject, and students should be required to write exams in it to gauge the extent of knowledge they have gained. – Sandeep.

We all know about sex. Once it’s introduced, it’s going to be boring, as unlike in other studies, we’ll have no practical classes! – Francis Rego, Student High school.

My maid’s daughter is in school, and the mother was against sex ed. She said her nubile daughter was accepted as a grown-up female in the family, and was surely generally aware of sex. But the girl became pregnant while in school! Sex ed is necessary. – Mrs.Mehta, housewife.

Sex ed will corrupt my daughter. She should learn about sex the way I did, at the right time. If sex ed is introduced in school, I’ll insist on school authorities taking parents’ prior permission to teach the subject. If the parent refuses, the child shouldn’t be forced to attend the class. – Mrs.Parvati, parent, housewife.

Let there be sex ed. I remember the difficulty I had breaking in my wife Parvati, who was very, very, poorly informed about sex – Dr.Madhav Das, Pathologist.

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