$#*! My Mum Says

We all know parents say the craziest things. Case and point Justin Halpern. I remember once, when I was six my mum sat me down on her lap and thought she could teach me about sex through graphic images in an anatomy book (well graphic enough for any six year old). She couldn't understand why I had to be so overly dramatic as I proceeded to run and stumble into my room clearly traumatized. A few friends of mine just like Brittany from Glee with the sincerity  and anticipation of a little kid waiting for a slightly obese/diabetic  santa clause to shoot his ass down your overpriced  chimney truely believed that storks would deliver their babies. School attempted to teach us about sex education through videos about HIV and Pedophilia (videos always seemed to depict individuals of latin american decent )- I'm still not sure about the connection but I'm pretty sure the videos were quite racist and that  sex + piñata +candy = bad.  But I'm still waiting for Fox News to get back to me on that.

Parents and schools often struggle with the concept of sex education. A lot of schools worldwide do not  provide enough  support , information and general resouces on sex education. In the UK incidences of unprotected sex, sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy are staggering high(http://www.bbc.co.uk/) with girls as young as 9-10 years old (Europe) getting pregnant.

Nowadays it's become quite common to hear about teen pregancies. The common misconception that many schools and parents have is that sex education leads to sex . While schools stubbornly refuse to talk about sex, television programs such as Boston Public, Dawson's Creek, 90210, Gossip Girl, Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant have been accused of glamorizing teen pregnancy. Bill Albert , the chief program officer of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy (MSNBC) highlights the need for governments to invest in sex ed programs and the need to encourage parents to broach the subject with children (MSNBC). Clearly multiple interventions need to be implemented in order to curb incidences of teen pregancy.  Interventions such as a) education b) skills and self esteem approaches, c) peer education (where peers can be used as facilitators) d) parental participation and e) clinical/social services, employment and training (Baker, 2007 Teen Pregnancy. ) Interventions not only need to be targeted at schools but at homes and community centres as well (Baker, 2007). A study by Baker (2007) highlighted the effectiveness of  these interventions in terms of improving knowledge, preventing risky behavior and reducing the rate of teen pregnancy. A number of studies and interventions such  as those  set up by Aral, Douglas & Handsfield ( 2008) support  Baker's research.


However, before any of this can be achieved we need to change  the stigma attached to sex education and our attitudes towards pregnant teens. Moreover, we need to establish a sense of empathy and mutual respect. Only then can one truely move forward.


"I guess it's hard for people who are so used to things the way they are - even if they're bad to change. 'Cause they kind of give up. And when they do, everybody kind of loses. " - Pay It Forward (2000).