It might be a convoluted topic, but I think children should get started in sexual education from an early age. Granted the strike of consciousness doesn't start when you go out of the womb, being aware of your whole self in important.
I can't talk much about other countries; however, maybe the same idea repeats itself through our region. Parents try to avoid talking about these topics. It is seen as a shameful idea. Then, bad things happen. Teenage pregnancy. Disease. Abuse. More. My sexual education at home wasn't stelar. It can be summarized with one phrase that's actually a threat:
"¡Cuidado con una vaina!"
Trying to piece a translation out of this might be something similar to Don't fuck it. It meaning your life and the life of another person. I had more sex ed at school. And I studied at a Catholic School. Yes, surprising. It had a reason. There are some chances people get pregnant at that place. It actually happened and Nuns were scandalized. They opted to get into programs of promoting teaching about things related to sexuality from elementary school.
We didn't talk about sex. During those years, it was all about genitals and how we should not let anyone but ourselves and some medics (in certain context) touch them. It might sound like common sense, lest you know there are many cases of children's abuse just because these topics are not covered at school or home.
Some years ago, there was a discussion about these things around a table. My aunt was retelling some bad stories of children' sexual abuse that had been told at the school she was directing at the moment. It was a really bad case. People ended in jail (probably dead, as they should be). Trauma. And lots of complains in that community. But it was all because there was a lack of information around the family about these topics. It seems like children are to be protected from everything with euphemisms. This includes sex. And the whole chain of shame has to stop at some point to make the mention of reproductive organs be something normal.
This also helps give children the edge at understanding when someone has a weird attitude towards them. It works just in the same way you teach them to stay away from other kinds of dangers like fire, animals, etc.
And to be honest, if the Nuns at my school could put two and two together to avoid these cases of teenage pregnancy from early, why can't the rest of the world?
I might be just rambling about things that could be normal right away. Then, let's include the kind of filter such information should have to give children the kind of information they should have according to their age. The whole deal about sex and protection can come later in their life. But having some background knowledge would be beneficial. Sex is another important part of life. It the way it keeps going. In the same way children learn about math and language and anything else, giving them the chance to start on another field of knowledge is an advantage at understanding more about life.
Let's just hope such things are added to the curriculum at school alongside financial education and topics on mental health.
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