Sex education

Sex education is a way to give youngsters proper knowledge about sex. Nevertheless, studying the physical male and female body structure , or taking  safety precautions while  having sex are not the main objectives of having sex education. Students should be aware of their responsibilities when having sex in order to combat against underage sexual intercourse. Therefore, giving a positive view of sex to students is the expected syllabus of promoting sex education. Students are taught to respect the opposite sex and they should learn how to deal with the other sex in their daily life, such as how to start dating. This is the base of sex education. In this essay, I will discuss the reasons for neglecting sex education in Hong Kong. I will also show the danger of ignoring it and suggest how sex education can best be provided for young people.

The impact of conventional Chinese culture and unconventional Western culture in Hong Kong leads to neglecting sexual education in Hong Kong. Nowadays, youngsters have misconceptions about sex. Many parents don't intend to share their sex experience with their children openly. Consequently, youngsters find  other means to learn about sex themselves. Nevertheless, it shouldn't be encouraged! Therefore, many people ask for sex education in secondary schools in order to change the negative concept of sex among  youngsters to a positive one.

What is the danger of ignoring sex education? The rationale behind sex education is to prevent youngsters from having negative concept of sex. Many parents don't intend to teach their children about sex because sex is a kind of taboo; or they think that they are too young to know about it. However, out of curiosity, children will find ways to learn about it themselves. Nevertheless, there are  misconceptions about sex in society, such as the showing of pornographic films and the publishing of sex comics. It is dangerous for them to learn about sex themselves. On the other hand, if sex education is promoted at school, students will be able to understand sex in a proper way and positive ideas can be transmitted.

Although sex education is essential for students,  the messages they can get are all dependent on the means of teaching in school. Therefore, how does a school carry out the assigned programs effectively?

Schools should carry out the assigned programs step by step.  Research is needed in each form in order to find out how much the students in the respective forms know about sex. Besides, the general trend of different age groups on the sex problem should be known. Therefore, schools can arrange different kinds of programs based on different conditions in each form. Students can get the knowledge more sufficiently and efficiently.

As far as moral concepts are concerned,  sex education should be arranged during the general education lessons. In fact, sex education is a kind of moral education. If students have positive moral concepts, they will think seriously before having any sexual intercourse. Therefore, many social problems such as sexual harassment and underage sexual intercourse can be slimmed down. As moral education is the main topic of our general education lessons, sex education should be involved as a part of such a program.

All in all, sex is not `dirty'. We cannot close children's minds and prevent them from learning about it. Nevertheless, parents, instead of teachers, should teach their children openly because children feel shy when asking their teachers such  questions. On the other hand, the misconceptions transmitted by the mass media shouldn't be encouraged. The government should take action to deal with such a problem. However, we should start to educate our new generation when they are young; therefore, sex education is necessary for secondary school students.