From: eyc@acpub.duke.edu (EMIL CHUCK)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Sex education at home Re: Abortion story
Date: 26 Aug 92 13:07:50 GMT
Organization: Duke University; Durham, N.C.

mpolen@suntory.mips.com (Michael Polen) writes:
In article <4733@news.duke.edu>, eyc@acpub.duke.edu (EMIL CHUCK) writes:
|> Michael Polen writes:
|> =EMIL CHUCK writes:
|> =|> 	Children should become educated by their parents with regards to
|> =|> sex because they have the perspective of looking at sex as a sign of
|> =|> love and committment rather than pure anatomy or birth control. I
|> =|> understand it is not easy to discuss, partially because parents fear
|> =|> that the knowledge they accord to their children will be applied too
|> =|> prematurely. This is becomes a family matter of trust.
|> =
|> =The assumption that their children will wait until the parents or the
|> =church decide it is time to KNOW the truth is humorous at best.  What
|> =you have is a bunch of uneducated children out drinking and screwing and
|> =getting pregnant.  Check into you local high school's pregnancy support
|> =program.  At my daughters high school (she worked with the program one
|> =semester), many were white, middle class, baptist girls.  One went
|> =to the junior high school next door.
|> 	I agree that some parents will wait until it's too late. That is
|> humorous in a tragic way. I've said it's a matter of trust in the
|> family: the parents must trust themselves that they are doing the right
|> thing in telling their children about sex and they must trust their
|> children that they will do the right thing and not get hurt. That's the
|> problem with not only sex education but also alcohol.
|But we would place a tremendous burdon on these children who's parents
|waited too long to educate their children.  You talk about a matter of 
|trust in the family, but religious observance doesn't imply always doing the
|right thing.  Previously you talked about responsibility for one's actions.  
|Here the responsibility is the parent's, yet you would have us penalize
|the child.

Religious observance doesn't imply doing the right thing, but caring and
concern for one's children could. Yes, the responsibility is the
parents. Parenting doesn't start with telling children about sex. It is
a life-long responsibility (life-long for the child).

The child who goes on and acts irresponsibly because of a lack of
discipline from the parents reflects badly on the entire family. The
child won't bear all the shame; the parents also share. When a child
does something wrong (i.e., against the law), the parents are (or should
be) aggrieved. How many times have we all heard parents wonder what they
did wrong or how they could've changed their child such that he/she
couldn't do it again? I don't know if those children whose parents
waited too long to teach their children about sex (much less at all)
have a tremendous burden if they already know about how to engage in
sexual intercourse; what they would then be missing is the view of
engaging in sexual activity from their parents and perhaps an
understanding of what their parents view would be the appropriate
emotional context and circumstance when having sex/making love.

-- 
Emil Thomas Chuck (Duke BME '93)		eyc@acpub.duke.edu
I have entered the week of transition from my summer job at NIH to fall
semester at Duke. I will not be able to reply to everyone. If you want
to continue a thread, please email replies to me until I can post again.
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