Without trying to be sarcastic or attempting to be intellectually mischievous, I am often confused about the usage of the terms “sex education” and “sexuality education,” which I often find being used interchangeably in most academic literatures and advocacy resources of a good number of our reputable NGOs.
Sex education is broadly defined as
instruction on issues relating to human sexuality, including sexual
anatomy, sexual reproduction, sexual activity, reproductive health,
emotional relations, reproductive rights and responsibilities,
abstinence and birth control. The term, “sex education,” may have been
adopted from the more liberal developed countries where issues relating
to sexual activity are freely discussed for a lot of our advocacy
programmes in reproductive health.
Continue reading after the cut...
Human sexuality is broader than mere
sexual activity, as it encompasses all the issues that define us as
girls and boys, men and women, and everything in-between; potently
shaped by cultural values, religion, history, family tradition,
parenthood and community.
In our contemporary society, children are
exposed to sexual imagery and language, especially in the local and
international media; and their bodies are experiencing and developing
sexual responsiveness earlier than it used to be, coupled with
globalisation of values. Their curiosity is inevitable and the answers
they get should educate and not confuse them.
Adolescence is a particularly stressful
and confusing time, as both physical and cognitive aspects of sexual
expressions begin to align and the opportunities for personal
decision-making expand as they move to high school or the university.
Parents and guardians, as stakeholders,
desire that they correctly manage their sexual drive as they navigate
through myriads of counsels in the process of maturing into adulthood.
As a response to this perceived need, typical African parent, after
years of refusing to discuss it despite evident signs of sexual
maturation in the adolescent, may come up with a deceitful sex education
augmented by several rules and regulations deliberately designed to
discourage the adolescent from doing anything about the sexual drive
which is potentially active as a result of the elaborating hormones,
especially at this time.
This strategy, although puritanical,
largely ignores the fact that the adolescents, according to the
cognitive theory of Piaget, is at the stage of
hypothetico-deductive-reasoning when they attempt to validate or
otherwise discard evolving strategies emanating from strange bodily
experiences, personal observation and counsels from other sources. Such
adolescents may feel deceived by parents, and thus shut down
communication avenues, especially concerning sexuality; and subscribe to
external, unreliable sources, especially from peers.
The other extreme is the liberal,
educated parents who adopt the explicit, heavily biological and
demonstrative sex education designed in conformity to the very popular
sex education programmes of our public health advocates, with a view of
preventing teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases,
especially HIV.
The two hypothetical parents have the
same goal in mind but taking different pathways. The first is typically
African, restrictive, with abstinence in mind; while the latter is
purely scientific, liberal and may teach contraceptive methods to the
adolescents.
The two groups have very valid points,
borrowing strength from science, religion and culture. The ultimate goal
of any form of sexuality or sex education is eloquently captured in the
concept of sexual health, which is a state of physical, emotional,
mental and social wellbeing in relation to sexuality, and not merely the
absence of disease, dysfunction or infirmity.
Sexual health requires a positive and
respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships as well as the
possibility of having pleasurable and safe sexual experiences free from
coercion, discrimination and violence.
Sigmund Freud had envisaged that the
biological quality of the sexual drive might be overemphasised when he
described it as the underlying unconscious motivation for all of life
activities. This premise makes us human and challenges us to come up
with continuous personal appraisal and management of our sexual drive in
the direction of wholesomeness, not just an inevitable physiological
dissipation.
For the contemporary sex educationist, it
seems there is an overemphasis on the biological dimensions of
sexuality to the detriment of other sophisticated dimensions of human
sexuality such as self-dignity and respect, taking responsibility for
choice of partner and the act, taking informed decision for the timing
of the act and possible outcome, developing skills for the consideration
of the feelings of sexual partner, evolving personal strategies for
control and responsible expression.
Human beings do not want to be enslaved
by any appetite, hence our sex education must take into consideration
the inherent self-transcendent passion that differentiates human beings
from animals, especially our sexual drive.
This graduates the concept of sex
education from a narrow paradigm of the adolescent need and makes it
relevant and applicable across life span, with the ultimate goal of
developing sexually healthy human beings.- Adeoye Oyewole
Share your thoughts...thanks!
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