Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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6 UCW SEPTEMBER 20-26, 2023 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM And just like that, our breezy summer schedules are gone, and routine has returned with a vengeance. Students, parents and educators settling into a new school year with all the promise it brings. While most of us are looking forward to cooler temperatures, many adolescents and older teens experience warmer and warmer libidos as they greet old school friends and make new ones. Many of us remember that time in our own lives, even through the mists of time. A quick Google search finds that 30 states, including North Carolina, mandate some form of sex education in public schools. Our schools begin this process in the 7th grade, about the same time many adults recall such instruction in our own youth. But there are wide gaps in what is being taught. e emphasis is on reproductive health and safety, important information for our young people, and abstinence is taught as the standard for school age children. As a mother of 3 children—now thoroughly adult, I agreed with the abstinence message for them and continue to agree with it for today's teenaged students. As in my day, not much besides abstinence is part of the state mandated curriculum. Abstinence, however, is not a realistic message for all students. It was not for my generation or for my kiddos' generation, and it is less realistic than ever in the age of social media where absolutely anything and everything goes. Our young people are bombarded with highly conflicting messages. Parents counsel and school instructs them to be abstinent, also suggesting ways to achieve that goal. At the same time our larger culture glamorizes all sorts of sexual behavior with all sorts of people, blasting them with ideas and images even adults struggle to understand. No wonder so many young people are confused and feel pressure from parents and educators on one side and the world around them on the other. If we teach our young folks that honesty is the best policy, then we must be honest with them. While abstinence may be the best option as North Carolina school mandates maintain, it is not the only option as most of them know well. Not to provide them with accurate information in a safe school setting is a disservice to our students. Knowing about contraception is a safeguard, as is the knowledge that sexual preferences and practices are different for different people. ose of us who are parents know how long and hard that job is, and young people should know how too-early-sexual experiences and parenthood can derail their life plans and their dreams. So can associated medical conditions, both physical and mental that can come with early sexual activity. It is simply a disservice to provide accurate but limited information about human sexuality and reproductive health to young people, many of whom may already be sexually active and physically mature enough to reproduce. Parents who disagree can already opt out of sex education for their children under the recently enacted Parents' Bill of Rights, and some parents do. Many public school parents, however, are grateful that our schools provide accurate information about human sexuality and would welcome an expanded curriculum. ese parents understand that what their children do not know can and does change the trajectory of their lives permanently, and not for the better. Filling in the sex education gaps by MARGARET DICKSON OPINION MARGARET DICKSON, Columnist. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. (910) 484-6200. Image by Zdenek Sasek via IstockPhoto Get FREE BOOKS for your child D o l l y P a r t o n ' s I m a g i n a t i o n L i b r a r y m a i l s f r e e h i g h - q u a l i t y , a g e - a p p r o p r i a t e b o o k s t o c h i l d r e n f r o m b i r t h t o a g e f i v e ! T h e N o r t h C a r o l i n a P a r t n e r s h i p f o r C h i l d r e n a n d t h e S m a r t S t a r t I n i t i a t i v e h e l p f u n d t h i s w o r k . www.unitedway-cc.org S i g n U p T o d a y !