Sex education - Responsibility lies with the parents

According to a recent report produced by the Ministry of Education (MOE), sex education is currently implemented in all schools, with two-thirds of all schools outsourcing it to external agencies in complementing their school programmes. Nothing alarming you may say, but today's newspaper article about the disengagement of parents in understanding the need or importance of sex education to their impressionable teens, is causing me unease.

Why? Because to me, sex education must be complemented by counselling from the parents, not just by the school or external counsellors! This concerns our young generation's shaping of moral values towards responsible parenthood, not just knowing the ABCs of the pregnancy process and use of birth contraceptives as taught during sex education classes. What more when school teachers are ill-equipped or embarrassed about teaching the subject in front of precocious students? Wrong or fuzzy concepts or moral values may be passed on and worse still, children learning about sex education through the Internet or illicit publications.

Last year, I bought a book which talks about the teaching of sex to our children in God's context. The title of the book is "I Want to Teach My Child About Sex: An On-the-go Guide for Busy Parents" by Dr Karl & Shannon Wendt (Standard Publishing, 2005). The authors emphasize the need for open communication with our children in creating the right and safe environment for sharing and listening. It has chapters dedicating to relevant topics relating to different age groups, which really help in systematically introducing the children to gender-specific messages, advocating learning through fun activities such as story-telling and the use of virtual aids. What I like about the book is the snippets of key points pointing to biblical truth to reinforce the right spiritual foundation in the process of learning. For example, for the age group of 3-6, key points such as "Tell your kids that God made their bodies and is very proud of His work!" and "Teach your child that God made us as we are --- the perfect and imperfect parts, the public and private parts, the whole thing -- and your bodies are good".

For Christians, it is our duty as parents to guide and teach our children in the ways of the Lord. I pray that Christian parents will rise up to protect our young ones against any wrongful teachings the world has so embraced in the guise of freedom of speech and liberalism, and that God will give us wisdom and patience in teaching our children according to His truth.