Sex Education. Traditionally sex education has consisted of parents explaining the facts of human reproduction to children reaching the age of adolescence and of setting down the “do's” and “don't's” of sexual behavior. Increasingly, however, authorities in health education have come to consider such instruction inadequate. They believe that sex education should begin early in childhood. It should, they feel, include not only biological facts but also the basic principles of wholesome human relationships. In addition, these authorities believe, parental guidance should be supplemented by sex education programs in the schools and by counsel from the churches and other concerned institutions.
These authorities are of the opinion that early and comprehensive sex education is essential for many reasons. They believe it is important that children early be made aware of what it means to be a male or a female. These experts assert that sexuality—the quality or state of being male or female—is much more than a physiological process. It is a major aspect of personality and, as such, is closely tied to emotional and social adjustment and to physical development. Sexuality, they say, has a profound influence on the pattern of an individual's life within the family and in society.
