Sexual Education for Children

Sexual Education for Children

Sex education materials for children more often serve to confuse than to inform. These materials generally present females as passive and males as active. The books describe heterosexual norms while ignoring the existence of homosexuality and bisexuality. Many books describe sexual intercourse as existing for the purpose of procreation only. Pictures and descriptions of this sex act more often mystify than inform. Finally, these materials target young children and assume that these children are incapable of understanding most elements of sex. Children can often understand far more than they are given credit for. Most materials offer descriptions of sexual intercourse as an act devoid of passion involving an active male partner and a passive female partner.

Across publication dates, sexual education materials portray women as passive and men as active. Dr. Block’s Do-It-Yourself Human Sexuality Book portrays the girl as passive when she says “He’ll never leave me now” after she and the boy have sex (18). She has no active control over her life—rather, she waits to see whether or not the boy will stay or leave (Block, 18). In So That’s How I Was Born, the father explains that the “daddy puts his penis inside the… vagina” (Brooks, 28). Thus, the man is the active partner while the woman is passive. Brooks further emphasizes that the woman’s passive role exists in all areas of life when, at the end of Brooks’ story, the boy’s mother satisfies stereotypes of docile women by speaking “softly” (28). Many of these authors further perpetuate stereotypical gender roles in their stories. In his book, Brooks shows the mother wearing an apron (25). In her book Mommy, Where Do Babies Come F...

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..., far more conservative than those of some of the other, earlier works. The earliest works appear to be the most progressive. Is society adopting an increasingly restrictive and negative view of pre-marital sex, or is this merely a coincidence? Aside from these observations, it is difficult to make generalizations about the works according to dates of publication because there do not seem to be any other strong chronological trends.

Sex education does not appear to be growing more comprehensive with time. Sex education books continue to omit crucial information. They confuse children, (and sometimes even teens,) with cryptic descriptions and diagrams. Feminine and masculine stereotypes, while not acknowledged in any constructive way, are strongly perpetuated. Sex education materials, such as those cited above, fail to provide comprehensive sex education.