What’s the Buzz on the Birds and the Bees?
By Sylvia Robinson, Ph.D., RMCA Curriculum & Instruction Director

Many of us recall the “fifth grade film.” It was the day in public school when boys and girls were taken into separate rooms and shown films about the human reproductive process. Any questions? You bet! Was anyone going to ask them? Not a chance! This whole process is part of the big lie that information and education will change the hearts of kids. You’ve seen the ads on PBS with the open-ended statement, “The More You Know!” That’s just not true. If knowledge is all it takes to keep us from sinning, why is sin ever increasing in the Information Age? We all know what God wants; why don’t we do it or not do it as the case may be? The answer is, it’s a heart issue. Choosing to be moral is not a decision we make because we’ve seen a film. We decide to be moral because we love God and His children. While we do address heart issues and morality at RMCA, we believe that some specific aspects of moral education are better addressed at home.

The best place for children to learn how to treat the opposite sex and how to care for their bodies is in the home. Kids learn courtesy, kindness, and respect for others first at home. It is within the context of family that children understand what it means to love others as you would love yourself. When parents perform their God-given role to set the example by living pure and moral lives, children are watching and learning. If we wait until children are pre-adolescent to teach them these things, no amount of “Just Say No” ribbons or “Purity Pledges” will do the job.

Every child is different. It is primarily the parents who have the kind of relationship with a child that would allow them to know the best time to discuss such delicate issues. This is another reason why schools are not the best place for sex and drug education. Just because a child is a certain age, in a certain grade, does not make him or her ready to learn all there is to know about human reproduction. The parents can do a better job of gauging readiness and teaching their child what they need to know when they need to know it.

School-based sex and drug education programs are popular and well funded but not necessarily successful. Leaders of the nation’s longest-running and most widely used anti-drug education program (D.A.R.E.) acknowledged that their strategy has not had much effect (The Denver Post, 2/15/01). In their haste to convince tax payers that sex education programs would reduce teenage pregnancy and venereal diseases, public school educators failed to mention that teenage pregnancy was actually on the decline prior to the rapid spread of sex education programs of the 1970s. Teen pregnancy rates were 6.8% in 1970 (Sowell, 1993) compared to 9.1% in 1997. In addition, 3 million teens contract a sexually transmitted disease each year (Center for Disease Control). If school sex education programs are so successful, why are the national pregnancy and venereal disease rates increasing?

Surprise!! Your child wants to hear from you! In a recent Gallup Youth Survey some 90% of teens said they believe it important for parents to educate their children about sex. And they are not simply talking about a quick conversation on the birds and the bees at age 12. All teens, but young women especially, feel it is important to continue a dialogue about sexuality all the way through the teen years (Gallup, 1999).

So what do we teach at RMCA? We teach that God made our bodies, and that the ways they work are a testament to His design. We teach that God wants us to take care of the bodies He gave us. We teach that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and we are bearers of His image. We teach about the systems of the human body (including the reproductive system) and how they react, both positively and negatively, to all kinds of chemicals. We underscore that God’s Word has much to say on the issue of moral decisions affecting the body. But, we would not dream of robbing you, the parents, of the opportunity to explain to your child the beauty of the love between a husband and wife to your child.

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