Importance of Sex Education on the Sexual Awareness of Elementary Pupils

IMPORTANCE OF SEX EDUCATION ON THE SEXUAL AWARENESS OF ELEMENTARY PUPILS

I.INTRODUCTION
The continuous debate the Catholic Church and the Department of Education on the issue of Sex Education is always a controversial discussion. The DEPED has been teaching sex education before as it was integrated in other subjects like biology ,but this time the church is protesting a specific project of the United Nations Population Fund to introduce the subject in schools.
Education officials insist that the bishops have nothing to worry about because the DEPED is open deleting portions of the teaching modules that the church finds offensive.
Economists have blamed creeping poverty in this nation of over 90 million on high population growth rate placed annually at more than 2 percent. A third of the population earns a dollar a day, the poverty threshold defined by the World Bank.
In Grade V, teaching about the reproductive system is very clinical said the DEPED officials .They have models showing the flow of the sperm cell. Copulation is not there but flow of the egg cell meeting the sperm cell is there. Sex education is not only about physical sexual activity but the totality of being a person. I think it is the right of the students to ask questions as long as they are about their lesson.
Effective sex education also provides young people with an opportunity to explore the reason why people have sex and to think about how it involves emotions respect for one self and other people and their feelings, decisions and bodies. Young people should have the chance to explore gender differences and how ethnicity and sexuality can influence people’s feelings and options. They should be able to decide for themselves and what the positive qualities of relationships are. It is important that they understand and how bullying, stereotyping, abuse and exploitation can negatively influence relationships.
Sex education aims to reduce the rinks of potentially negative outcomes from sexual behavior, such as unwanted or unplanned pregnancies and infection with sexually transmitted diseases including HIV. It also aims to contribute to young people’s positive experience of their sexuality by enhancing the quality of their relationships and their ability to make informed decisions over their lifetime. Sex education that works, by which we that it is effective, is sex education that contributes to both these aims thus helping young people to be safe and enjoy their sexuality.
If sex education is going to be effective it needs to include opportunities for young people to develop skills, as it can be hard for them to act on the basis of only having information. The skills young people develop as part of sex education are linked to more general life-skills. Being able to communicate, listen, negotiate with others, ask for and identify sources of help and advice are useful life-skills which can be applied to sexual relationships. Effective sex education are develops young people’s skills in negotiation, decision-making, assertion and listening other important skills include being able to recognize pressures from other people and to resist them , dealing with and challenging prejudice and being able to seek help from adults including parents, careers and professionals through the family, community and health welfare services.
Sex education that works also help equip young people with the skills to be able to differentiate between accurate and inaccurate information and to discuss a range of moral and social issues and perspectives on sex and sexuality including different cultural attitudes and sensitive issues like sexuality, abortion and contraception.
The chief aim of sex education is to prepare children for love which is equivalent to preparing the young human being for his function as an adult, an education in which a real attempt is made to give each individual the ideals and virtues befitting his or her nature as man or woman.
Sex education in the simplest level means instruction in the basic biology of the male and female reproductive system taught in the elementary schools. The trend is to directly deal with menstruation, seminal emissions and related physiology. Furthermore (Fraser 1972) commented that teaching should aim at showing a personal and social point of view, and cannot therefore, be accepted as norms of behavior. Young people can thus be given a good start to forming attitude which will help them in the healthy development of their personalities. Adolescents are not independent of prevailing social values and standards. They are influenced by them.
The teaching of sex education in the elementary pupils particularly in the intermediate level the DEPED has different approaches in teaching them. For Grade V, sex education will be included in Science and Health lessons on the reproductive system. For Grade VI, it will be part of Edukasyong Pantahanan at Pangkabuhayan and include the lessons on the proper behavior between peers and different gender, personal hygiene and the problems caused by unwanted pregnancy topics also about reproductive system, parts of the body, reproductive cycle and puberty are discussed in Science .The health component of MAPEH (Music, Arts, PE and Health) covers personal hygiene and reproductive health.
Sex education will be taught in Social Studies under Heograpiya Kasaysayan at Sibika such as the position of religion on pre-marital sex and the norms when people of opposite sex interact. In Mathematics, students will use data on issues like pre-marital sex, teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections in their mathematical analysis and exercises .
Regarding religious interest contrary to popular opinion, adolescent of today are interested in religion and feel that it plays an important role in their lives.
Many boys and girls begin to question the religious concepts and beliefs of their childhood and this has led adolescence to be called the period of religious doubt. However, Wagner maintains that what is often interrupted as “religious doubt” in reality, religious questioning according to Kohlberg.
Many adolescents investigate their religion as a source of emotional and intellectual stimulation. Youngsters want to learn their religion on an intellectual basis rather than by blind acceptance. The question religion not because they want to become a gnostic or atheistic but because they want to accept religion in a way that is meaningful to them based on their desire to be independent and free to make their own decisions.
III. CONCLUSION

Sex education must serve as eye opener to the pupils and to orient them about their sexuality so that they will become equip with the skills in order to differentiate accurate information. It will also serve as a door of opportunity to the youth to discuss a range of moral and social issues and perspective on sex and sexuality including different cultural attitudes and sensitive issues like sexuality, abortion and contraception. The importance of sex education to elementary pupils is very vital because they will be guided with the right information related to the sex education and topics will be discussed more on the science of reproduction, physical care and hygiene, correct values and norms of interpersonal relations to avoid pre-marital sex and teenage pregnancy.

IV. RECOMMENDATION The following recommendations should be take into consideration in the teaching of sex education.
TEACHERS
The teachers must be well trained and knowledgeable to teach sex education to pupils. They must know how to handle pupil’s sensitive questions regarding sex. They must be careful in answering the questions of the pupils will not be misled about the information regarding sex education. They must play as a confidante’ of the pupils so that the pupils will not be hesitant to ask questions or tell something about herself with regards to human sexuality.
PARENTS
Parents must be partner of the school in giving the right information with regards to sex educations to their children. It is very important that they guide their children in the right path of information in order that their children will not be misled with wrong information about sex. The parents must be sensitive with the emotional needs of their children because if the parents are always aware about the problems of their children, they can give immediate actions and solutions to the problem of their children.
PUPILS
Pupils must develop skills in negotiation, decision-making, assertion and listening. They must always consult and seek advice from their parents and teachers related to sex education. They must ask a question that they think is unclear for them in connection to sex education. They must go with friends who are of good influence and example to them.

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