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When I was nine years old, there was a song on the radio that I loved. I'd walk around the house singing it. I had no idea what the words meant, but man, I dug that groove. Imagine my mother's shock when she found me dancing around in my underwear, belting out...

"Let's talk about sex, baby! Let's talk about you and me! Let's talk about all the good things, and the bad things, that may be! Let's talk about sex!"

I don't know if TLC intended for elementary-age school children to sing along with their hit and send their mothers into cardiac arrest (good thing she never heard me humming along with Salt N Pepa's "Push It" or The Divinyls "I Touch Myself"), but they did intend to get kids talking about safe sex. Which, considering the goal of most music groups is to make money, is a great and much-needed idea!

Just like my mom had to sit me down and have a "talk about sex", its time we accepted these facts: Kids need to talk about sex. Kids go to school. Kids have sex. Kids have sex in school. Kids need to talk about sex.

School is a great opportunity to educate kids about when to have sex, and how to do it safely and responsibly. Although as adults, we realize sex is a huge responsibility - we should also remember kids are more likely to do what you tell them NOT to do. I believe it was Donna Martin, TV's most famous virgin, who urged parents to support sex education in school by saying something along the lines of... "If you're going to build a pool in your backyard and tell your children not to go in it - shouldn't you at least teach them how to swim?" (episode 2.21 "Everybody's Talkin' 'Bout It")

So - if a character on a Fox TV show - can grasp the basic concept, what are we fighting about? If you don't want your kid to take sex ed, sign the waiver available at every pubic school and have them removed from class. And then be a responsible parent and discuss it, however you deem appropriate, with your child.

If you don't support honest and informative sex education in school, I hope you support school funding for day care (teenage pregnancy) and clinics (gonorrhea outbreaks). We're sure to see a rise in these public health risks if we stick to an "abstinence only" option for sex ed.

You can give kids the facts, or let them figure it out on their own. Either way, they're going to do it. And by "it" I mean sex. So...

Let's talk about sex, baby. All the good things, and the bad things, that may be.

Learn more about this author, L. Layendecker.
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