Sexual Education for Children Essay -- Sex Ed Education Essays

Sexual Education for ChildrenSex education materials for children more than often serve to confuse than to inform. These materials generally present females as passive and males as professive. The books describe heterosexual norms while ignoring the existence of homosexuality and bisexuality. M both books describe sexual intercourse as existing for the purpose of procreation only. Pictures and descriptions of this sex act more often mystify than inform. Finally, these materials target young children and assume that these children are incapable of understanding most elements of sex. Children can often understand far more than they are given credit for. Most materials offer descriptions of sexual intercourse as an act devoid of passion involving an sprightly male partner and a passive female partner. Across publication dates, sexual education materials portray women as passive and men as active. Dr. Blocks Do-It-Yourself gay Sexuality Book portrays the girl as passive whe n she says Hell never leave me now after she and the boy have sex (18). She has no active control over her liferather, she waits to see whether or not the boy will stay or leave (Block, 18). In So Thats How I Was Born, the father explains that the daddy puts his penis inside the vagina (Brooks, 28). Thus, the man is the active partner while the woman is passive. Brooks tho emphasizes that the womans passive determination exists in all areas of life when, at the end of Brooks story, the boys mother satisfies stereotypes of docile women by speaking softly (28). Many of these authors further perpetuate stereotypical gender roles in their stories. In his book, Brooks shows the mother wearing an apron (25). In her book Mommy, Where Do Babies Come F... ..., far more conservative than those of some of the other, earlier works. The earliest works appear to be the most progressive. Is society adopting an increasingly restrictive and negative view of pre-marital sex, or is this s carce a coincidence? Aside from these observations, it is difficult to make generalizations about the works according to dates of publication because there do not seem to be any other strong chronological trends. Sex education does not appear to be growing more comprehensive with time. Sex education books continue to lack crucial information. They confuse children, (and sometimes even teens,) with cryptic descriptions and diagrams. Feminine and masculine stereotypes, while not acknowledged in any constructive way, are strongly perpetuated. Sex education materials, such as those cited above, fail to provide comprehensive sex education.