Sexual Education

This past weekend I went to a training course to qualify to teach a sex education class known as "Our Whole Lives."  At the beginning of the OWL class, the children’s parents are to be asked ahead of time which version of the beginnings of human life they would like presented to their children.  In version one all that is mentioned is that a man’s sperm meets a woman’s ova and the fertiziled egg grows in the womb to become a baby.  In version two, the very basic mechanics of hetersexual intercourse is explained in how the sperm reaches the egg.  I can understand a parent objecting to version two believing that is too much information or not age-appropriate for a young child.  We, the trainees, were asked if it was our children in the class which version would we want presented.  There were a couple of objections to version two but not for the reasons I believed would be an issue.

There were two women in the group that had an issue with version two not because of the disclosure of the basic mechanics of heterosexual intercourse but because the mechanics were of a heterosexual nature.  These two women were lesbians, independent of each other.  One of the women seemed to be involved heavily with the GLBT community either socially and/or as an advocate.  She did not want her child to feel different if her child’s means of conception was not included in the beginnings of human life explanation.  The other woman wanted the means of how same-sex couples obtain children so the same-sex couples would not feel alienated.  *rolling my eyes* The times we are living in.

There was a school nurse in our trainee group.  She was not being vocal during this discussion but I could tell she was just as aggrevated as I was about these particular reasons against version two.  Earlier in our group discussions, as a school nurse she has seen the effects of poor sexual education given to children.  I could tell she was thinking that these same-sex couples would be doing a disservice to their children for not disclosing the basic mechanics of heterosexual intercourse on the grounds that the couples themselves are not heterosexual.

That got me to thinking, would these same-sex couples be disappointed if the child they raised grew up to be heterosexual?

These particular homosexual parents need to realize that when their child grows up and has homosexual sex, there is no risk of pregnancy.  But, if their child has heterosexual sex, there is a risk of pregnancy.  And, that is a goal of sexual education, isn’t it, to better educate because education is supposed to be the best prevention.