“Be Prepared” For Sex

The British Scouts are rolling out a sex education program that will be taught to 14 to 18-year-olds.

It’s called “My Body, My Choice” and is happening because Scouts and their leaders are demanding it. The organization also wants to help reduce the number of teen pregnancies and STIs in the country.

Outside of schools, Scouts is one place were there is a captive audience of young people and if ever there was an issue to be at the top of the list this is it.

It’s great that they have this program, but we have to realize that it’s nothing new. Scouts has been the place to educate young people since 1907 and the message may be different, but the theory is the same. That theory being we want to protect our children from disease and show them how to lead a good moral life.

In the early 1900s Scouts promoted purity or social hygiene. Purity was the idea of no sex before marriage, no masturbation, no sexual thoughts, and basically leading a good Christian life. Boys and girls were trained separately how to be good men and women based on very sex-specific roles, and generally early marriage was promoted to avoid the evils of venereal disease (VD). And of course, loose women were to be avoided because they would infect you with VD and you and your future wife and children would die horrible deaths. Yes, these were very sexist campaigns and I’m glad they’ve stopped.

Thank goodness Scouts has caught up with the rest of the world and kids will now be taught about contraception, STIs, alcohol, teen pregnancy, condom use, and other hot topics from a more balanced and non-judgemental perspective.

Chances are, these are not the kids most at risk. If kids belong to Scouts and are instilled with a sense of belonging, camaraderie, self-sufficiency, and autonomy, as Scouts aim to do, they should be assertive enough to know where their limits are and be able to handle themselves in peer pressure situations.

But we never know what situations kids are going to get into so it’s always best to provide them with the information ahead of time so they can make informed decisions. Scouts is also a place where boys and girls mix, so giving them the opportunity to talk about the relationships that will inevitably happen within the groups is great.

“Be Prepared” is the motto, and sex is one area where kids can’t afford to not be.

Contact the author here: mack@morningquickie.com