.::still blinking::.

One time in high school, my english teacher told us that the next chapter in the book that we were reading had a sex scene in it. We all went home and read like crazy looking for the sex. I did not find it, but you know that everyone was at home dilligently searching and reading the next chapter hoping for a glimpse of this secret adult world. That was a good way into tricking us into reading.

There is one of the girls in the young women who does not know what sex is. Nothing about it. I have been aware of this for about a month and it has bewildered me for this long. I am finally thinking that something needs to be done though.

We have a lesson about sexual purity a little while ago. The lady who was teaching the lesson called all the parents of the girls to let them know what we were going to be talking about. So that if anyone had any questions when they came home, the parents would know why. I thought that was very considerate of this teacher. There was one set of parents though that said that their daughter did not know what sex was, she had never heard that word before. She would not know what we were talking about.

I found out after the lesson about all this and was discussing it with the young women’s president. I was kind of shocked. I remember coming home from school when I was in like 2nd grade and asked what sex was. My parents sat me down and told me the entire process, all the sickening details. I was shocked and I definitely think that is to early to tell a child. But isn’t 12 old enough to know. The girl is in junior high, she is going to find out from someone sometime. The young women’s president said that her seven year old knows in a very basic sense what it was. She said that he knows that mommies and daddies that love each other make babies. He may not know the words, but he is seven. But this seven year old knows more than this oblivious 12 year old.

Today the teacher started the lesson off by saying something about chastity. This girl asked what chastity was. The leaders tried to answer the question the best that they could with out actually answering it. They used the word morality. She did not know what that was either. When everyone was done trying to explain what it was I leaned over to her and told her to ask her parents. They are a better source of the knowledge then we are and they will know how to tell her better than we will. Hopefully they will do the job and inform her. Later on the young women’s president said something about skinny dipping and how she had accidently found something about that on the internet. Everyone laughed and the girl leaned over to me and asked what that was. I told her it was swimming with no clothes. I did not expound on my skinny dipping adventures. Probably not to acceptable for church youth.

I am perplexed though. Isn’t not telling her about sex, like not telling her about drugs and hoping that she makes the right decision in a strange situation?

I don’t think that her parents are doing her any favors by keeping her in this bubble. I know that we use this word a lot in Utah. But really, some things need to be taught. No matter how uncomfortable they make you. This is not the kind of stuff that you wait to teach your child right before she turns sixteen. This is the kind of stuff that you have open dialogues about. This is the kind of stuff that you need to be incredibly open and willing to talk about. This is not an off limits subject.