DANIEL JAMES MORCOMBE
WHO would have thought that in 2012, there would be debate on whether little children should be taught the real names of their "private places"?
For generations, euphemisms have given parents comfort, a place to hide and a little titter here and there.
But such words have not helped keep our children safe, possibly because of all the red-faced snickering.
Talking about the parts of the body that are covered up during swimming lessons is not something we have done very well and, as a consequence, small children have been found to feel ashamed about protecting themselves or telling about touching.
Full marks to the people behind the Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum Program for including sexuality in the areas identified as needing improvement.
Schoolkids to learn correct anatomy words
Suspicious minds limiting our freedom
Parents shouldn't fear kids being kids
Goodness knows we need to do better at teaching our children how to be safe.
The discomfort adults feel with calling private body parts by their real names is perhaps as old as time. The niggly feeling is hard to pin down, and even the most liberal adults hesitate to say "vagina" and "penis" in every context and situation.
While few of us are prudes, the hangover of our own sexual education, or lack thereof - or maybe because of the generations before us for whom talk of sexual parts was taboo - just makes it feel rude to say the words.
But hope floats that the new curriculum will mean that the youngest of our children won't have the same illogical and squirmy problem.
One flaw is evident in the plan - parents of school kids can opt out.
Sexual awareness and education should certainly be primarily the bastion of parents and caregivers.
Of course, we should not be relying on teachers to raise our children and teach them to keep themselves sexually safe.
But there are always parents for whom active, responsible parenting is not a top priority.
And when it comes to it, even the most capable, comfortable parent needs help in raising their kids. No one has all the answers and no one can do it alone.
Sexual safety and comfort in talking about private places appropriately with the right people is a step-by-step process that must start in the earliest years of a child's life. School must play a part in the delivery of that and it should be as compulsory as numeracy and literacy.
Much has been written about the sexualisation of children through TV, music and social media. Sexualisation is both a positive and negative term, but the positive notions of it seem to get lost in the noise the word "sex" still seems to generate.
Advocates and experts seem to agree that trying to eliminate all sexualised messages is futile because ours is a sexual world. Our kids live in it, are influenced by it and have to learn to navigate their way through it. Having the option not to learn about it, as if body and physical awareness and safety are choices in life, makes no sense, but simply reinforces the taboo.
Part of the problem is the blurring of sexuality with sex. Without sensible integration of sexuality in everyday life education, kids grow up to consider sexuality dirty, funny and embarrassing.
And that can cause problems not only with child safety, but with a healthy approach to gender, sexuality and sex down the track.
Kids are far better off having real information to complement the glamorised versions they cannot help but be exposed to.
Queensland is not the only state struggling with sexuality education.
The first national survey of sex education teachers, conducted in 2010 and released last year, found teachers were constrained by a lack of formal curriculum and policy in schools. Regardless of whether they worked in independent, Catholic or state institutions, the La Trobe University study found teachers reported they were unsupported in the delivery and unguided in the content.
Part of the reason is that sex and relationships education is still squeezed in or added on in the education system.
It was a case of a pinch of this and a sprinkle of that rather than measured ingredients carefully mixed in at the appropriate time.
The survey is evidence that in sex education terms, even what is delivered at schools has been approached with immaturity.
Schools are the realm in which formal information can be best delivered. But home is the safe place for exploring and clarifying feelings with Mum and Dad, developing values and attitudes and practising risk-reducing behaviour.
Introducing a school program in which anatomical names are used adds a sensible, mature layer to growing a healthy, safe child.
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