While researching texts on sexual education, one of the crucial points one comes across to reveals the many misconceptions about sexual education among the young population. Scholar literature have cited how today’s teens have a wide information source about sex from movies, magazines, the internet, sexual images and messages everywhere. From this source of popular culture, schoolyard lore and personal experiences, young people get disillusioned from the understanding of sexuality inevitably leading to misconceptions. Consequentially, people end up risking fame, fortune and their lives in pursuit of the ultimate sexual experience all result of having learnt little about sex while they where children. Adding to this, instead of sexual education stressing risk avoidance, abstinence and responsible behavior in young people at an early age, children have been made to believe that sex is wrong unless one is married. To address this issue, Scholar literature cited in this research paper asserts that sexual education should be taught in middle schools. In order to achieve desired outcomes, relevance of teaching sexual education in middle school provide motivation and enhance behavioral skills in addressing the gaps in knowledge that characterizes children in middle school in their progress through puberty.
In the book “Addressing Sexuality in Middle School Language Arts’ Laurel Puchner and Nicole Aydt Klein (3) argue that the most appropriate time for discussions and relaying of sexual education was in middle school. Further describing, the book states how middle school is the most appropriate time to do this emphasizing that at around this age is when children are beginning to experience sexual attractions. In addition to this the book continues to detail the importance of children taught sexual education at this age also being attributed to how today’s media messages and their accessibility begin affecting children from a very young age. Sexual education should be made available for preteens in middle school who are at the crucial beginning phases of adolescence with the sole purpose of situating them at well informed phases in adolescence to become sexual healthy adults. In defining sexual health, the books describes how early sexual education leads to the ability of having pleasurable, disease-free, safe and mutual respectful sexual life (Klein 13).
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"Sex Education in Middle School".
Laurel and Nichole in their text detail how sexual education in middle school has been viewed as a controversial topic with teachers practicing avoidance of the topic with fear of negative outcomes (13). The article further describes this by detailing how sexual education in middle school has been constantly viewed as a distraction to real academics often relegated to the sidelines of health education curriculum which is often portrayed as formal sexuality education. Apart from the relegation of sex education to biological education ignoring issues of power, desire and emotions in sexual practices the article identifies unfortunate circumstances that arise when sex education is not integrated into middle school curriculum. Most noted of the repercussions is that sexuality messages in media lead to the encouragement of unsafe behavior and with the vacuum of sex education created knowledge to counteract these messages leads to middle school children left with unchallenged lessons.
In addressing this issue Laurel and Nichole argue that sex education in middle school should be viewed as a forum for the encouragement of academic achievement and democracy in schools in situations that sex educations in extended across the entire school curriculum (2). Providing more insight into this statement, the books states how sexuality often links well to other academic principles and the high interest in sex issues can be used to make topics more interesting. Consequentially, the avoidance of educators not integrating sex education in school curriculums implies that this an actual avoidance of engagement with specific parts of academic subjects like language arts, social studies and science. Prior research of the text (11) indicates how sex education has been omitted in academic subjects contrary to the topic of sex enhancing engagement rather than decreasing student mastery in the situated subject’s standards.
In the book ‘An Adolescent Perspective on Sexual Health Education at School and at home: Middle School Students’, a study conducted by the University of New Brunswick’s Department of Psychology (7) also agrees with Lauren and Nichole’s text that there is tire need for sex education to be included in middle school curriculum. Constituting a study on attitudes and experiences with sex education, the study highlighted the need for more factual information and practical skills that were associated with sexuality in academic curriculum. Out of a sample of 745 middle school students enrolled from grades 6-8 in New Brunswick, most of the students agreed that sex education entailed topics that were most interesting, were positive about the approach their sexual health teacher had taken and all of the students asserted that sex education should start in middle school or sooner (Byers, Sears and Voyer 12).
In addressing the conventional perception that sexuality communications of middle school children tends to be low, the book conducted an elicitation research in pursuit of evaluating whether middle school curriculum fully addressed students perceived needs. Referencing previous research the book details how most middle school children were in strongly in favor of receiving sexual education at school in learning about a wide range of topics that they deemed useful not only in their academic work but in their later lives. Drawing from conclusions of the previous study the book reviewed the negative evaluation of sex education with many students detailing how the preferred sex education to go further in providing information and teaching practical skills(2). Borrowing from these findings the study implemented different approaches in providing teachers that were knowledgeable and comfortable with the subject matter and provision of separate single-sex classes that were deemed more appropriate for some sexual health topics. Concluding results of the findings the survey detailed how attitudes and experiences of middle school children differed from other adolescents as middle school students tend to focus more on intimacy and reciprocity opportunities. The survey also found out that gender differences in adolescences’ attitudes and experiences are more relevant in middle school reflecting the earlier age at which girls start and go through puberty and dating.
Whether being safe sex practices or abstinence, sexual education should be made mandatory in middle schools. Due to the high rates in teen pregnancies, sexual transmitted diseases an education setting about sexuality should be made comprehensive in pursuit of delaying the onset of sex among adolescents particularly preteens in middle schools.
Other than the misconception of sexual education, the challenges facing adolescents in middle school demand critical attention to address strengths and weaknesses. Children at middle school are between the ages of ten to fourteen years. This period presents the transition to adulthood. This stage is also associated with the first stages of adolescence which demands a lot of maturity especially on the girls. As it has been explained, sex education has been wrongly perceived as a path to motivate sexual relations. However, it will be clearly seen that it is the pathway to promoting independence and personal (self) responsibility.
Through sex education teens and preteens are required to comprehend their role in society. According to Nichols, Moravcik, and Tetenbaum, sex education help s individuals to understand who they are and what their place in the society are (41). The adolescent period brings into focus the sheer changes and features of adulthood. These features are responsible for the changes in sexuality experienced in teens. Hall (as cited in Nichols, Moravcik, and Tetenbaum) showed how adolescence was also referred to as “storm and stress” (41). The changes that accompany adolescence are indeed stressful. Moreover, it is unrewarding for teens to come to terms with the fact that it is normal.
The unpredictability of these changes due to variance in rates of development among individuals makes adolescence to be altogether very challenging. Additionally, this period is associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Adolescence alters the cognitive process where physical age is not affected as badly as the emotions. ASDs therefore, come in as a mental detraction that hinders social interaction, prevents healthy communication and is responsible for behavioral changes. Failure to carefully consider ASDs means that girls will succumb to their emotional feelings especially when boys are involved. The pressure to give in amid “abnormal developments” makes girls to be vulnerable to sexual advancements made by boys. Female preponderance is thus of great consideration.
During the adolescence period, girls unlike boys exhibit greater cases of anti-social behaviors such as frequent depressions. According to Bebbington, Emslie, Hunt and Macintyre, “social and psychological explanations” are used to shed light on this preponderance rate as well as the high rate of adolescence among girls (as cited in Moffitt 1). However, researchers also established male preponderance although no indication is made of proportional increase in antisocial behavior. Moffitt states, “neuro-biological explanation” is responsible for “male preponderance, stability across age and low prevalence of hyperactivity, dyslexia and autism” (1). On its part, the anti-social behavior is seen to be caused by heterogeneity (Moffitt 2).
The differences and similarities found in sex are so profound that they give a clear picture of how people associate with each other. It is worthwhile to note that more males (boys) are involved in “anti-social behavior” as opposed to girls (Moffitt 38). On top of that, males are more likely to show a very serious case of anti-social behavior when contrasted to girls. Without sex education, it will be hard to explain to a boy how he will be violently involved with people of the opposite sex if he does not control his emotions. The major problem was that the victims see themselves as suffering from something different.
Motif conducted a Dunedin Study on girls and boys and established that the middle age of 15 years was enough to exhibit negative behavior of both parties (40). In addition to this finding, Moffitt also concluded that “parents and teachers” are able to assist their children strictly “at the younger phases of the study” (40). It is worth remembering that middle school is the boundary between childhood and adulthood in terms of cognitive development. Adults such as parents and teachers have a weaker influence at “the older phases of the study” (Moffitt 40). Failure to teach sex education to children in middle school hides the truth about sexual risks among the teens.
Sexual intercourse on premarital grounds should be approached with medical facts rather than parental warnings. Through sex education, teens in middle school should be taught about the “risk of pregnancy, contraceptive failure rates and the risks of HIV and other STDs” (Fields 38). Fields cited the “House Bill 834” that advocated for public schools to teach teens about “contraception or abortion” (38). The legislation proposed parents to have oversight over this curriculum that was established in the North Carolina from as early as 1995. The major goal was not to make parents overseers but to give them a glimpse of what they will enforce back at home to their children.
It was a fact that abstinence was supposed to be the supreme message heralded by the parents and teachers in front of their teen age children. As the primary purpose of sex education, abstinence would see to it that teens respect the institutions of “family, marriage and morality” (Fields 38). Sex education would thus be recognized as a way to protect teens from promiscuity and infection of diseases. Although, there was doubt about the sexual active nature of teens in middle school; the current reasoning about sex makes education more imperative. Additionally, the corrupt state of sexual orientation in the current era helps to streamline sexual relations.
Fields explains how North Carolina possesses a law against sodomy. Sex education helps in “self-actualization” (Fields 40). The law allows middle school student to have a curriculum that “explore the experiences of lesbian and gay people” (Fields 40). Teaching on abstinence helps them to realize that homosexual actions are not only illegal but unnatural and immoral. Only sex education will prepare young minds to overcome the challenges that are perverse today.
- Byers, E Sandra, et al. “An Adolescent Perspective on Sexual Health Education at School and at Home.” Middle School Students (2003).
- Klein, Laurel Puchner & Nichole Aydt. “Skirting the Issue: Teachers’ Experiences.” Addressing Sexuality in Middle School Language Arts (2012).
- Fields, Jessica. Risky Lessons: Sex Education and Social Inequality. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2008. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 3 Dec. 2014.
