Innocence and Sensibility: A Child’s Innocence vs. A Parent’s Comfort
by Lanae St.John, a.k.a. The MamaSutra, board-certified sexologist with the American College of Sexologists and professor of human sexuality at City College of San Francisco. Originally published here.
Let’s examine an example of a position I hear often as it relates to childhood sexual education:
“Childhood is a protected state where they can learn new things slowly, once they’re mature enough to handle them.
That’s why I think a child has the right not to know some things. I think they have a right not to know about the horror of war, except in general terms, until they enter the teenage years. I think they have a right not to know about sexuality inside and out. I think they have a right to be told only in vague terms about their parents’ neuroses, marriages or love lives.
Once you open that door into the adult world, you see, children have a difficult time just being children. Childhood innocence has been taken from them.” (Source: https://tolovehonorandvacuum.com/2014/08/childhood-innocence/)
Yes, children are innocent but here’s the problem with keeping them ignorant:
Adults are not innocent. So far trying to teach men not to rape isn’t working. We tell women how to lessen their chances of being raped, but even then they cannot avoid it completely. Which is a sad statement.