Dear Christine,
After all the discussion surrounding the recent article in the SATURDAY SUN concerning two teenagers engaging in what appears to be sex, I’ll like to share my thoughts with readers.
We can point fingers at the parents, children, teachers, the media and society at a whole. In a way, we all have a part to play when it comes to the raising and development of our children.
When I was teenager I was not taught the fundamentals of having intercourse early. The only advice my mother ever gave me when I was old enough to have a menstrual cycle, was that if I had sex, I’d become pregnant. The word unprotected was never used.
One of my earliest encounters with sex took place with a teacher who taught me at school.
You see, Christine, many students are introduced to sex by those who are supposed to lead and be examples. In my day it was common for girls to engage in sex with fellow students or teachers.
The difference between now and then is that today, there are cellphones which are capable of taking photographs, and so everybody knows what is happening when those photographs go viral.
Who is to blame? I start with the parents, many of whom find no time to talk to their children about the act of sex and who purchase the latest smartphones for their children. Many of our young people live in a world of their own.
They live at home with their parents and siblings, but actually, their friends, boyfriends and girlfriends are next to them almost every minute of every day – during sleep and wake – via their smartphones.
These young people have little relationship with their families. They are too busy chatting away on their phones and messaging their “friends”.
When we consider that the photographs of these students went viral, we must also be glad that it did. This issue has now been brought out in the open to give all of us a wake-up call and help enable us to spend time talking to our young people.
I also believe that teachers [those who hold fast to morality] need to discuss sex education with our schoolchildren and teach them how to respect their bodies.
Having said that, and while I believe THE NATION was right in carrying the story, I am in total disagreement with the manner in which the article was written. In my opinion it was the worst form of journalism.
Why did the writer have to be so explicit – down to the fact of telling the public what the two teenagers did as they engaged in the act of sex? What came across to me was that the writer was quite smitten by what he saw.
Christine, we are living in turbulent times and we need to go back to the Bible. We need to pray for our society and pray for our youth. We need to show them love and to let them know that they are loved.
I want to take time out to commend Corey Worrell for his article in last Thursday’s paper. I commend him for his frankness. I believe he dealt with the subject at hand in the most professional way.
We have got to wake up to what is taking place within our schools and homes and stop from blaming the media for bringing us the news as it is.
Many of us have spent such a long time on whether the article and photograph should or should not have been published, that we have missed the fact that we have a crisis on our hands and must look for ways to deal with it.
Our young people need better role models and they need God.
– S.G.
Dear S.G.,
Thanks for sharing. You’ve given readers some food for thought. I agree that we need to better educate our youth and that parents ought not to purchase the latest smartphones for their children.
You are also right in stating that we need to get back to the Bible and that we must keep praying for our young people. I will go one step further and say, we need to pray for our country as a whole.
– CHRISTINE
