The media are wondering why sex education is so inadequate in this country and why teenage pregnancies and STD’s are so high.

It boils down (like most things) to communication. Sex education starts early, usually about the age of ten, but assumptions are made about what children understand and comprehend.

For example I can remember adults muttering that the birds and the bees were to do with sex education but it was not until I was in my twenties that I understood the relevance. Boys used to call girls ‘birds’ so I thought that ‘bees’ were a slang name for them.

Children are taught to ‘use a condom because it will protect them’, but they are at the age of Harry Potter and other fables and adventures. They still believe that they might wake up one morning into an adventure whereby they leave home and go to face danger in the big wide world. It is understandable that they might think a condom is some kind of shield of protection which they can hold before them when enemies approach.

When they are told that a condom is worn, it is not always clear where, unless the mechanics of sex have been clearly explained beforehand.

Couple all this with our National reticence and shyness it is no wonder that sex education in this country needs a complete overhaul.

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