Many people may agree to the statement but I beg to differ. I believe that there is duality towards this statement, there is never wrong or right for youths to have a kind of mindset. Eventually, many youths assume that having sex education is pointless but a small numbered comprehend that it useful. For example, many schools have organised talks about sex education to acknowledge the students about the importance of sex and the consequences of the pre martial sex.Thus, this could show us why having sex education is so significant.
Firstly, Youths are innocent beings that are simple minded, due to their simple mind they tend to be reckless then considering the consequences. Eventually, causing them to do the wrong things. However, once they undergo some education they will be able to understand more about the "dos and don'ts" of their lifes. In other words, sex education is conducted to let the youths to understand more about the correct way of engaging in sexual behavior. Hence, having the youths to undergo sex education is ultimately useful for them.
Secondly, I think everyone must undergo sex education before they act recklessly. Having basic knowledge about sex education would have them to think twice before making a mistake. 'Sex' is a term which brainwash the mind of the youths, whenever youths heard about the word sex they would eventually compel. In order to prevent it from happening, every youths will undergo sex education to improve their understanding towards sex.However, some youths might just continued eventhough they have undergo the intensive seminar of sex. It is mainly due to youths nowadays are being rebellious and would not mind about the consequences causing youths to engage in sexual behavior easily.
Thirdly, if youths did not undergo sex education and did the wrong things. When something happen out of a sudden, and eventually regret what they have done they would finally know the importance of sex education. When it comes to the stage of no turning back it will be too late. On the other hand, there were many youths that have reached the age of engaging sexual behavior which caused them to do the wrong thing. Hence by organising intensive seminars might eventually lighten the mind of this youths having them to understand the right meaning of sex. Hence, it is definitely useful to undergo sex education.
Lastly, some youths comes from broken families that tends to have a lack of family love which causing them to have the wrong mindset in handling the term 'sex'. Thus, it means that there is a great possibility that they will engage sexual behavior when they grow up. Hence, by having sex education it could help to educate them beforehand and so reduce the risk from happening, with this education it would let them understand that eventhough there is no one to explain, after the talk they might be able to absorb and learn. Hence, conducting sex education is very important.
In conclusion, I believe that attending sex education is actually useful as it teaches us valuable lesson which we can learn from. After all it is important to have a clean mind and do what is right and not what is wrong. By doing the right thing at the right time would let us lead a better life. Thus, by weighing the pros and cons, the pros of sex education eventually contradicts the cons of sex education. Hence, conducting sex education is definitely useful and not pointless.
Written by: Edmund oh jun kiat
My comments are meant for both of you, Edmund and Kelvin.
ReplyDelete(1) Remember what my philosophy for writing is? It is to "write simply, clearly and, above all, naturally." I shall highlight the aspect of CLARITY because, to me at least, it is the most important element in communication. This is also why I played the Clarity Number Game on my very first English session with your class. I made sure I left the instructions on how to play the number game ambiguous so that your class could interpret what I say differently and, as a result, end up with different solutions.
(2) Now, so what is unclear about both of your essays? In the first place, for expository and argumentative essays, we always -- always -- seek to DEFINE AND EXPLAIN the terms in the question first! What are the crucial terms that we need to look at in the question? They are "sex education" and "risky sexual behaviour." In other words, you must be able to tell the reader what you mean by "sex education" and what constitutes as "risky sexual behaviour." What I find striking about both of your essays is that the two of you have failed to describe or elaborate on what sex education and risky sexual behaviour mean. This is the most basic or preliminary thing you have to do in order to allow the reader to be CLEAR about what you are trying to express.
(3) While it is true that both of you have taken pains to tell the reader what sex education is FOR, the two of you have neglected to inform the reader HOW sex education is conducted. What is being taught during sex education lessons? It seems that your essays have consistently taken for granted that the reader would automatically share the same assumptions and knowledge that you may have.
(4) Or how about "risky sexual behaviour"? In what sense does sexual behaviour become... risky? In other words, when do we say that a couple who engages in any sexual behaviour has crossed the line? Only when they forgo the use of contraceptives such as the condom? Or do you mean a male having multiple sex partners within a very short period of time?
(5) What you really want to challenge in your essays is the notion of "pointless." You seek to examine if sex education is indeed useless. How would you go about doing that? In your essays, the two of you (especially Edmund) have repeatedly emphasised the value of sex education, and what it seeks to achieve. But look at the essay question again, CAREFULLY. It says that "youths are STILL engaging in risky sexual behaviour ANYWAY." In other words, the question is saying, "So what? DESPITE sex education, youths don't care!"
ReplyDelete(6) Therefore, you can approach your essay in the following two ways:
(a) Either criticize the current mode of sex education and propose improvements
or
(b) as Kelvin has done in his first half of the essay, study some of the reasons why youths these days may ALREADY have some sort of sexual knowledge or sexual literacy OUTSIDE school (e.g. Western influence etc.)
(7) There is NOTHING wrong with disagreeing that sex education is pointless. I am GLAD that both of you make a very strong stand :) However, from what I sense, only Kelvin actually acknowledges (implicitly or half-heartedly) that sex education is indeed inadequate. What I am trying to say is that when you write an argumentative essay, you MUST ALWAYS CONSIDER BOTH SIDES OF THE ARGUMENT.
(8) If you want to argue that sex education is NOT pointless, then perhaps you may wish to dedicate at least two paragraphs to SUPPORT your stand, and at least one paragraph to AGREE with the question. Once you have made arguments for BOTH sides, then when you conclude your essay, CONVINCE the reader why YOU are still correct or right in your stand. An argumentative essay is NOT meant to be one-sided, which is more or less what both of you have come up with. On the other hand, an EXPOSITORY essay is pretty much one-sided.
(9) Remember the concern you raised about students not encouraged to write argumentative essays because teachers tell them that they lack the knowledge to do so? Well, I would say that if you look at an argumentative essay, the important bits are Logos (logic), Ethos (fluency) and Kairos (relevance). Knowledge only comes in when you write an EXPOSITORY essay ( a bit like the first half of Kelvin's essay).