Counterpoint: What Is The Most Appropriate Setting For Sex Education?

Consider that the living of a life is something of high concern for the individual. Sexuality, being an intimate aspect of that individual, is all that much more a private and individual issue. In light of this, an individual’s family is more aptly positioned to provide sexual education than the government or school system.

Our government was built to serve the people as a whole. It is not a fine surgical instrument and therefore is limited in its ability to tailor education to the individual’s needs or setting.

A good example of this limitation is found in a local public school classroom. With an approximate ratio of one teacher to 30 students, the teacher has his or her hands full simply getting through the material, let alone customizing per student.

On the other hand, parents and caregivers are in the position to know their young people well. They also understand the setting of the young person much better.

The opportunity to tailor a life education in general and sexual education in particular is excellent. This is also a setting in which example and experience can be used effectively in the learning process.

Because of the intrinsic nature of an individual’s sexuality, opinions concerning its place and role in life are strongly held. And they must be.

This is not an area of our lives we can afford to play with. The potential consequences, physically, mentally, and emotionally are very high.

To develop a sound opinion, a life perspective must be built. The difficulty in doing this for the government is that it must be more ideologically inclusive than individuals ought to be. We only have one perspective to work from, and thus, much care must be given to its development.

Again, parents, or at least the home context, are the venue for this. The educating process can be given deep meaning and care, and provide deep roots through which young adults can protect themselves and care for others.

Some might point out that there are many home environments with parents or caregivers where young people are abused and not taught or nurtured, if they even have a home environment at all. This is an important point and, as I understand it, these situations are not the exception, either.

Although these situations are devastating, and there are well meaning people in our government who desire to help these people, that still does not mean the government ought to fix the situation. The government guards our general freedoms; we the free must be responsible with the freedoms we have been given.

In other words, it should be extended families, it should be churches, it should be local outreach organizations like Women’s Care Medical Center, The Salvation Army, Boys and Girls Club, or even Planned Parenthood that step in to care for these people.

All this is not to say that information provided by the government or public education systems is bad – it may well be very good and helpful. It would be the prerogative of the family, parents, or caregiver to decide what they subsidize their own educational process with.

I am saying that due to the nature of these different entities and their functions. It is the family and home, the parents and caregivers, and in the worst case scenarios, the churches and local outreaches, that are most aptly positioned to provide sexual education to our young people.