We are told that we have to give kids in school explicit information about sexual acts they might one day want to try out for themselves because, it is argued, if we don’t they will learn about these things anyway through online pornography. I don’t accept that argument.
My first bit of what I’ll call sex education was given to me when I was aged about nine. What I was told, I can see now, was appropriate to my age and it gave me knowledge that helped to keep me safe from danger. What happened was this. The nun in school told us about kidnappers who would try to get children to get into their cars and how we had to run away from any man who tried to get us to do that. I got home and told my mum about these kidnappers. My mum gave me a bit more information. She knew about the scare that had caused the nun to tell us this story. She told me who the particular individual was in our town who had come under suspicion and she further told me that this man liked to take little boys away with him to kiss and cuddle them and that this was not a nice thing for a man to do. I thought, yuk! I would absolutely never let that man do that to me. Of course, I know now that that man liked to do a lot more than kiss and cuddle boys but I wouldn’t have understood all that at my age. I realise now that those two women, my mother and the nun, gave me age-appropriate information to help keep me safe.
This article is premium content
Get unlimited access to Gript
Support Gript and get exclusive content, full archives and an ad-free experience
Subscribe
Already a member? Sign in here