National Sex Talk
May 15, 2008 by superratty
Dear all. I apologize for the very long gap. I enjoy writing about issues, but lately I’ve been sorta tied down by a million other things and this blog got the rough end of it. Anyway, I came across this piece of news the other day. It’s a basi news. But it’s not a basi issue so I’m going to write about it anyway.
Yesterday, The Star ran a newspiece that caught my attention:
Sex education for NS trainees
KUALA LUMPUR: Sex education and the dangers of HIV and AIDS will be among several new courses to be introduced under the national service (NS) training programme starting October.
Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is also chairman of the Cabinet Committee on the NS Programme, had agreed to this.
“The new courses are part of the four new modules which have also been approved for implementation under the life skills management programme,” she said after officiating the Siemens Run 2008 here yesterday.
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Here are my thoughts:
1) The average age of NS trainees are 17+. They are mostly people who have just finished SPM. And I am pretty certain most people by that age would have had a pretty interesting collection of knowledge about the issue of sex. They would’ve learnt, from a wide variety of sources, the concept of a penis and a vagina, and how people ‘do’ this and ‘do’ that, and so on and so forth. They learn it either from books, movies, good friends, bad friends, or in some rare cases, parents.
The dangers of HIV/AIDS and the other consequences of pre-marital/unprotected sex shouldn’t be taught at age 17. By that age, youths have already formed their perception of the whole issue (and have perhaps, out of whatever reason, practiced/tried it). How did our Women, Family, and Community Development Minister come to the conclusion that National Service will serve as a good platform in educating the youths about this subject matter?
2) The key is in the Women, Family, and Community Development ministry itself. FAMILY should be where sex education starts. Why not talk publicly about the need for our parents to stop keeping this subject a taboo and leaving it up to someone else to educate their kids? Is it embarrassing? I can imagine that it is, but are you really wanting to risk a child’s first exposure to the concept of sex with a movie like say… Deep Throat, or Midnight Cowboy, or something along those lines? The answer is no. The first contact is usually a very formative experience, and it should come from parents.
Parents should be the first contact when it comes to sex-education. National Service can’t possibly be a good nanny at age 17. Parents need to talk about reproduction as and when the kid can comprehend and make sense of these things. Minister Ng needs to put pressure on the family unit, both in urban and rural areas to, to take responsibility in educating our youths in this very basic trait of humankind.
3) If, however, the government feel that sex education should be implemented on a national level, then take it out of NS and do it in school. Why not? Is 14 years old too young to talk about sex, it’s hard to say. but 17 is definitely too late. The ‘F’ word (in it’s many languages) is associated with the act and is inseparable by then. Negative connotations are already cemented by age 17.
Other than the home, school is the place where kids spend the most time in. It’s the place where they learn how to live as human beings. The news piece above says that NS is where ‘life skills management’ happens. Well, our primary and secondary schools need to stop hammering students with the life-threatening importance of As and Bs and start taking responsibility for teaching kids ‘life skills management’. Schoolteachers need to bother about life-skill knowledge and not leave it to their porn addict friend to use some close-to-forced-sex-ala-rape porn video to explain what sex is to another kid.
All in all, I’m glad the article came out. It just put a spotlight on how far behind we are in reaching out to the youth. The intention is good, but the tools are wrong, and with this NS thing, it’s applying pressure on the wrong people at the wrong time.
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Related articles
The Star - Sex Education for NS Trainees
Malaysiakini - NS: Scrap the Whole Silly Thing. Period.
superratty
this comes abit too late la…….malaysia boleh la and clearly shows ns is ill planned since day one…..just for the sake of making $$$$$$ with no trainees safety in mind…don’t talk about heart la….these people have no heart.
I think they want to introduce the Sex Education to attract these teenager to enrolled in the program…
Well … Sex sell…
Yes, it is too late for basics at 17+ but nothing is completely too late. Sometimes we harp on the wrong things - positive teaching and guidance is always more better. I think the nurses coming in to speak to us when we were in school was good but these days, you don’t need nurses, there is the prirated CD and the Internet porn for young people.
My little niece surfed the net and she was looking for cartoons, kitty cats, love etc and out came via the yahoo search engines, all sorts of sites on porn. She asked me what those are and I had to tell her it is dirty pictures and things not suitable for her to see; adults can’t see either but they like to watch so I told her to type other key words instead. Gay sites, lesbians in love sites etc.
Children unsupervised can look at sites deploringly base and banal. I am afraid for our children and by 17, they have had 7-10 years of banal stuff, if they have unsupervised computer surfing. So what sex education do you want to teach, Dr Ng need to look deeper into t his issue first and then prescribe a total and holistic solution rather than NS!!!! Forbid it to happen!
I suggest parents to be really careful. Gay sites and lesbians sites and horrible porn have word sensitive features that when one types in the words they come out.
They come out when your children are surfing. We need to look at this issue… to teach our childrent hat some words when used at so innocent to them but are not “innocent” at all on the web. It is scary.
Perhaps others may have a solution?
I believe that sex education should be implemented at standard six. kids these days have a higher rate of exposure due to the internet.
i agree that it should be the parents responsibility to sit with their children and discuss the subject. but the schools should also be responsible in educating kids on the consequences (emotional, physical, and medical) with sex.
we should be assisting the govt on this front. bear in mind that a large percentage of our population is still ignorant on how HIV/AIDS is and how it is contracted, and we have a high rate of unwanted pregnancies.
lets not let political biasness prolong ignorance. IT IS A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH.
I agree to your points in fact. The age is a time when one wants to have experimental experience. Putting these youths away from parents and teaching them sex education, though it is meant for good purpose it may bring adverse consequences.
It is better they don’t introduce at these camps.
Please, no! The most important is not the Sex Talk, especially National, the sharing of vital and valuable information is, I suggest The Art of Self-refrain.
intentions are good? aint the road to hell is paved with good intentions?
as in your same vein of logic, is it not too late in trying to integrate them at a late age of 17 when opinions and prejudices have already been formed?
I think there is enough said on good intentions. look behind the good intention for the real intention. meantime, prepare more body bags, please. and pray hard your kid wont be the next. as for me, there is still a 6 year window before my kid is eligible to be sent to this russian roulette program and I intend to fight tooth and nail to have this program scrapped during this period.
I think “Sex Talk” or “Sex Education” was not appopriate by it’s names. Misleading!
First think and reaction comes to the mind of the young ones is: “Something Interesting!” The curiosity haunts to get to know and discover about the opposite gender’s parts. This will contributes to more misconceptions and motives to sneek to look at or even feel it. Correct me if I am wrong.
Why don’t they test on posting the questions to the young ones and see how they feed back?
Some even misunderstood as something we should try to learn and practice or discover it in secret but they are underage. (If it were to introduce to the standard 6) Children now aday have wide exposure in sexuality through social exposure such as T.V., Astro, Movies and Internets.
It should beimplied as “Sex Awareness and the Consequences”
Such implications will be better, atleast they are educate to understand and aware of there own body with the do(s) and don’ts.
Given a choice..
I will not send my kid to NS. Period!
I have a poll setup at my blog. Tell me your choice!
Shiok Guy