Sex Education

I was reading through a certain book that is supposed to educate teachers on how to teach pupils about HIV/AIDS (i just read things). In it there are tiny sections where they feature the kind of questions that pupils (p4-p7) ask on sex. Here are some of them. (The way they were written by the pupils):

1. If you are still a virgin until the age of 18, is it true that you will never have a child? (Question from P.7 girl)

2. Is it true that if a boy doesn’t play sex early his sperms won’t mature?(question from 12 year old P.6 boy)

3. Can a girl of 10 become pregnant? And if a girl is 12 or 13 and she has sex with a boy older than her, can she get pregnant?(13 year old P.6 girl)

4. Some boy told me that if a girl does not have sex, her vagina will close. Is it true?(13 year old P.6 girl)

5. There is a boy who forces me to have sex in the banana plantation . I always tend to refuse. I have not told my parents because I fear they will beat me.(girl in upper primary)

6. What happens when one uses a condom for more than one round?(P.7 Boy)

7. Whenever I wake up in the morning, I find myself wet dreams but my friends tells me to play sex, is it true?

8. There is a widow in my village who come at my house. She says open the door that she wants me to sex her. What shall I do to escape her?(11 year old boy in upper primary)

9. I have my brother who asked me for sex when I told him that I am still young for sex, he told me that he will find me on the way and kill me. (16 year old BOY in p.7) Editor’s notes: this is so so screwed up!!

10. When I sit with a girl my penis elects and others say I should have sex to stop the election. Will this help? (p.6.11years. boy)

And this one really puzzled me because I was reading it for the first time: myths about sex: when you wash your vagina with Coca Coal after having sex, you do not get pregnant! (Where do kids get such things from?)

There are so many! When I read these questions, I realized that I had never had sex education from any of my parents. I just picked stuff from school, t.v and from all over. I can even bet my mum thinks I do not know I am a girl yet. Which makes me dread the day I will get married because it will hit her real bad. Poor mother!

To you reader: when was the first time heard/learnt about sex? What myths did you hear about it? Where were you told babies came from? (My mum told me that they picked me from a market. To date, when she is upset with me, she jokingly asks me when my real parents will come for me. Imagine!)…and to borrow a question from African Woman, “How easily do you talk about sex?”

I have an inquisitive 4 year old nephew. When you say a word he has never heard of he always asks. The other day I said “mukwano” then he said: “what is mukwano?” I dread the day when he will hear a condom advert on radio and will come and ask me or his mother what a condom is. How do you explain that to say, a 7 year old?

Blogger parents, have you prepared yourself for such moments?

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“I believe the children are our are future

Teach them well and let them lead the way

Show them all the beauty they possess inside

Give them a sense of pride to make it easier

Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be.”

Whitney Houston. Greatest Love of all lyrics