What About Education? Part 2

In Part 1, we revealed that sex education, morality, and family are the three instruments that will cut the chain-link in the cycle of poverty.

Beginning with sex education, we will explore it from possibly a different perspective. When a child views the body as a positive entity, this begins a healthy foundation. Understanding sex and how it works takes away the mystery of sex, eliminating the “dirty” label, the need for street information, and prepares the child to make health decisions when confronting the views of sex in the world at large.

In my opinion, the strongest factor in building and maintaining a healthy attitude about sex is discussion in a family setting. When children don’t have access to healthy answers, they experience stress, and begin to become secretive about their need for answers. This, in itself, separates them from open communication. They may begin to develop negative ideas about sex.

Jumping forward to puberty and beyond, sex becomes a major factor in the social interaction expectations of peers. Now the questions are: should I or shouldn’t I, do I want the experience, what will people think, do I care what people think, could I get a disease, and what will the results be in the future? Without healthy sex education, many of these questions probably will not even cross the mind of the youth. Have you ever heard a youth say, “Well, I never thought about that.” Sex education promotes thought. It teaches us to consider the outcome of our actions.

 This leads us to morality. Morality may be seen as a list of do’s and don’ts, but I see morality as a guideline. Guidelines seem to be more acceptable than a rulebook, more intellectual, and more thought provoking. When a youth has a moral foundation, he/she will approach each situation, sexual or otherwise, in a thinking mode. I believe that the youth will approach all of life in a thinking mode, evaluating each situation with some degree of wisdom. Of course, it is much more involved than these few words, but I want to lay the foundation for the series.

Finally, family is the social cornerstone for the development of the child. Having parents, a mother, and a father, to nurture the male and female psyche balance in the developmental stages, is very important. I don’t think that this balance is very common today, but it does exist.

People, from birth to death have a need, a deep inner need, to belong to a relationship of family. No matter how strong a person seems, he/she needs mom, needs dad. It is how we are built. Family is an intricate part of who we are as human beings.

In Part 3, we will look at the Ukrainian orphanage system, (the Internat). How does it differ from the orphanages of other countries. What are the living conditions like? Most of all, what are the futures of the children?