Sex education belongs at home … and at school

Frontiersman editorial board

What are they teaching those kids, anyway? It's often said that, to avoid difficult situations, it's best to stay off the subjects of politics, religion and sex in public situations. Maybe education should be added to that list. Everybody has an opinion about education, and when people disagree about how and what our children are being taught, they usually don't disagree a little bit.

When you combine public education and sex you've really got a powder keg on your hands, and the subject came up at last week's candidate forum sponsored by the Frontiersman. Candidates were asked where they stand on the subject of sex education in the Valley's public schools. It's important to point out first, that Mat-Su public schools do not teach a subject called sex education. Students do learn about the human reproductive process during health education classes.

Rob Wells essentially took the status quo route. He said the way things are being handled right now seems to be working, and he was comfortable with it. Konnie Shuey and Sarah Welton took firmer positions on either side of the issue, however.

Shuey said she believes there's no place for sex education in public schools. She said she believed parents should play the role of moral educators, and essentially said she wasn't comfortable having a stranger teach her children about sex.

Welton, on the other hand, said she believed it was important to educate students about sex and that some parents simply aren't equipped to teach the biological and medical aspects of the subject. And there, perhaps, lies the rub. For Welton, the idea of sex education is a pragmatic, scientific one. For Shuey, sex education is a personal, moral issue.

In reality, human reproduction works on both levels, and it's important for parents to provide the moral and responsible framework for children to make the best decisions based on all the information at hand.

Before the debate can ever be completely settled, we're going to have to reach some kind of consensus. To that end, it's important to understand what goes on in sex education discussions at schools. Health teachers are not teaching children how to have sex, or that having sex is a great idea. Students learn about the medical and scientific aspects of human reproduction, and they learn about the risks and ramifications, as well. When children are only learning about sex at home, they're all getting a different story, and some get incomplete or even harmful information. Whether we like it or not, all of that information gets shared between children when parents are not around and, short of locking them in the house, there's no way around that.

The concept of sex education in schools is to provide all children with the factual, scientific information that will help them make better, more informed choices as they grow older. No matter what the subject matter is, the people with the most information are more likely to make the best choices.