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Myriam Hernandez
English 1010
Irene Peterson
12/04/15
Can we talk about sex to kids?
All across the US, schools are debating whether sex education should be added to
their curriculum, if they should give any education on it at all or if parents should talk to
their kids about sex. They do not even know when they should talk about it. People seem
to have the same answer as to why they should not talk about it. I do not want my child
to have sex until they are married. Most parents believe that abstinence is the key to
keep teens from having sex before they are married, and some parents are even too afraid
to talk to their own child about sex. Growing up my mother did answer and questions I
had about sex, but my father was the one who made it seem like a sin. He always got mad
at my mother for talking to me about sex. After sometime she stopped talking to me
about.
I grew about somewhat confused on when I should have sex and with who.
Walking around my high school and hearing all the stories of people going to parties and
hooking up made sex seem exciting to me. Though seeing teens at my school getting
pregnant and people saying their life is ruined made me terrified of sex. I than realized
that if parents or schools would just educate teens more about how to have safe sex and

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less about why they should not have it. The teen pregnancy rate would drop and the
spread of STIs and STDs would also drop, but the only thing parents and the school
system tell kids is that sex is bad and you should not do it.
Parents refuse to give children comprehensive sex-ed because they want young
hormonal teens to wait at least until after high school. My understanding is that parents
want their kids to be perfect little angels and not do anything wrong. Parents do not
understand that mainly all humans will have sexual interactions with someone. The big
problem is not that teens are having sex, but that teens do not know how to have safe sex.
What Kaufman talks about in her article titled Sex Education: What Children Should
Learn and When. is when you should start talking to your child (ren) about sex,
pregnancy, genital areas, etc. Kaufman discusses in the article about what is appropriate
to say to your kid at a certain age.
Kaufman goes through the ages and states what is appropriate to talk about at that
certain age. At infancy: age 0-2 Kaufman says the child should be able to name all their
body parts including their genitals. Kaufman states, Most two-year-olds know the
difference between male and female, and can usually figure out if a person is male or
female. At early childhood: age 2-5 kids should understand the basics. Such as a man
and a women make a baby and it grows in the womans uterus. Kids should also
understand body privacy and know what someone can and cannot do to them. At middle
childhood: age 5-8 Kaufman says that the child should know basics about a persons
sexual orientation. For example they can tell that some people are homosexual, bisexual,

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heterosexual, etc. At this age they should know about sexuality in relationships and about
their privacy. The understanding of reproduction should continue and knowledge of
puberty should commence. At tween years: age 9-12 they should learn about safe sex and
about what is right and wrong when it comes to sex, while still talking about what was
taught before. Finally at teen years: age 13-18 they should feel comfortable enough to
speak with you about any questions or concerns.
Miriam Kaufman is a pediatric and public educator. In 1976 she graduated from
Dukes school of nursing. Later on she graduated from Queens University in 1980. She
was a pediatrician for two years at McMasters and then moved to SickKids to continue
her work as well as a fellowship in adolescent medicine. Miriam Kaufman has written
five books and goes around speaking to schools and talking to the media very frequently.
Miriam Kaufman is the head of the division at SickKids on adolescent medicine and a
professor at the University of Toronto on pediatrics. Kaufman has had plenty of education
and enough knowledge to know when and where children should be learning about sex.
This article helps establish that children should learn about sex and their genitals at
an early age. Parents should not just try and cram it all in the child or teen years or worse
not talk about it at all. This article defines what most parents call the talk into the
talks! Kaufman establishes how a child should be taught and it gives great advice as to
what kids should be learning whether in school or by their parents. I thought it was great
when Kaufman says that all kids are different and not all of them will be able to
understand at that certain age, but this is just the normative. She gives a great point that

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by the time the kids become teens they will be able to come to you with questions if you
have taught them correctly and effectively growing up.
If parents and schools would teacher kids what sex is and that it is not a bad thing
to have kids would learn more than just abstinence. In the article "Should Sex Education
Be Taught in Schools?" by Peter DeWitt they talk about what some students learn from
the sex education in their schools. They are:
[one]"has as its exclusive purpose teaching the social, psychological, and
health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity;[two] teaches
abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage is the expected standard for all
school-age children;[three] teaches that abstinence from sexual activity is the only
certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and
other associated health problems;[four] teaches that a mutually faithful
monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of
sexual activity;[five] teaches that sexual activity outside the context of marriage is
likely to have harmful psychological and physical side effects;[six] teaches that
bearing children out-of-wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the
child, the child's parents, and society;[seven] teaches young people how to reject
sexual advances and how alcohol and drug use increase vulnerability to sexual
advances,[eight] and teaches the importance of attaining self-sufficiency before
engaging in sexual activity."

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Youth believe that sex education should include topics such as protection for both men
and women. The youth believe the more people know the less likely people are to having
negative outcomes in their sexual lives. For example unwanted pregnancies or sexually
transmitted infections are huge topics people should know and understand before they
decide to have sex with someone. Education like this can help people obtain decision
making skills and make relationships they have more enhanced. Youth believe that this
basic human right is being shown as something that its not by the media public
health/education organizations and mostly parents.
As of Jan. 1, 2015 all states somehow involved sex education in public schools some
are required to teach sex Ed including HIV education. Others just receive instruction on
HIV/AIDS. The rest require that sex education be medically, factually or technically
accurate. State definitions of "medically accurate" vary, from requiring that the
department of health review curriculum for accuracy, to mandating that curriculum be
based on information from "published authorities upon which medical professionals
rely." More than half the states requires that the parents either get involved or have their
opt-in or opt-out of the class.
Though this website is a blog and is mainly opinion based, it does give great facts
about sex education in our schools and showing what the youth group has to say about it.
The youth says what they believe is most important to them and what they think will help
the people. The article is mainly one sided but it does talk about the other side of the
argument, but it states the other side in such a negative way that it persuades the reader to

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agree with them. What I got was all the facts I was looking for in this article because I am
agreeing with what they have to say. I like the facts that they give to help support what
they have to say. The part that got me the most was when he gets responses from the
youth about what they are learning and what they want to be taught in relation to sex ed.
The state laws they give were very shocking to me. I did not think all states in some from
had to teach sex ed. Growing up I really did not learn much from my teachers it was
mainly from the internet and my friends. Though most people always say that they would
want their students/children to be educated on the subject and know how to be say
abstinence only is still being enforced. A survey study was done for the span of six
months. The survey was to examine and obtain information about the public methods and
opinions about sex education. The public mainly responded in three main ways of sex Ed.
The first, which got most of the votes, was a program that teaches about abstinence and
also how to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The second, which got
more than half the votes, was a program or class that showed how to properly use and put
on condoms. The third and last one was abstinence only education that received about
less than forty percent. Though most people knew the other ways of sex Ed were a lot
better they still chose the abstinence only education.
The survey shows that people do know that non-abstinence education is better for
the youth, half the people still chose the abstinence only education. This shows that some
people do know the benefits but they are just either too scared, too lazy, or too closed
minded to teach the youth that way. This article has some real world facts from the course

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of six months. Though it was taken about ten years ago, and maybe peoples views on life
and sex Ed have changed with all these studies and change in the culture. It does break
done all the educations and shows facts about them.
This survey summary is great because it does not seem to be leaning for one side
because it shows all the facts about the certain type of educations and it is just that. It
does not word the context for one better than the other. It talks about all the terms and
qualifications that the educational system has to go through to have the course or class. I
found this article very insightful because it went it to depth on all the subjects and
methods of teaching it and talking about it. They also write about sample things and what
the outcome would be if you said this or this. The one thing that really got me was when
it talked about why people choose. Why the people believe it is beneficial to the youth.
Another thing thats stood out was the background behind the educational way, and how
people have been using that sex Ed program. The graphs they show really help put the
words and facts into perspective as well.
The importance of this debate is to show that we can and should talk to our
children about sex and be able to answer their questions. They can still talk about
abstinence but still educate the child(ren) about what sex is and how it works. Parents and
schools have to realize the numbers of teen pregnancies and the spread of STIs/STDs are
growing, but still have not changed anything. I discuss both sides and facts about each
side to show the benefits of one and the disaster of the other. Sex is a touchy subject it
should be taught to kids in a controlled environment by well-known people.

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Work cited
Bleakley, Amy, Michael Hennessy, and Martin Fishbein. "Public Opinion on Sex
Education in US Schools." JAMA Pediatrics. American Medical Association, 1
Nov. 2006. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
DeWitt, Peter. "Should Sex Education Be Taught in Schools?" Education Week. Editorial
Projects in Education, 4 June 2015. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
Kaufman, Miriam. "Sex Education: What Children Should Learn and When." About Kids
Health. 13 Oct. 2011. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
<http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/En/HealthAZ/FamilyandPeerRelations/Sexuality/
Pages/Sex-Education-Age-Appropriate-For-Children-what-they-should-learn-andwhen.aspx>.
"State Policies on Sex Education in Schools." National Conference of State Legislators.
StateNet, 13 Feb. 2015. Web. 11 Nov. 2015.