Wednesday, November 17, 2004
The Controversial Corner
When I was in High School, I had this column in the school newspaper called "The Controversial Corner." It was located at the back of the newspaper and featured articles that I thought needed to be discussed. Of course, it was the first time I experienced censorship - considering I was in a Catholic School that restricted alot of the discussion topics brought up.
My first article was about the difference between men and women and my argument was: What can a man do that a woman can't do? And that was a humourous article that got a bit of feedback. My next article was about WWF Wrestling - sport or spoof? This article was written for my then-best friend who was obsessed with Shawn Michael - the Heartbreaker Kid. :)
The last article that I wrote before the newspaper was canceled was an article called "Let's talk about Sex." I didn't think it would be a big deal because needless to say, we all knew about sex. To my surprise, I was called down to the Principal's office (which I had never seen before in my entire school life!) where he sat me down and talked to me about the values of our school. I explained to him that this article is to promote awareness about some of the issues that we students are facing everyday. He would not have any of it, in fact, he said that the community didn't need to promote sex or have any material that was promoting it - that the school frowns upon premarital sex. Hmph.
Personally, I think that kids nowadays need to be more aware of the issues. Sex is something that nobody takes seriously anymore - finding someone you love or being safe about it is no longer a necessity - it is only about reputation and pleasure. On the news yesterday, there was a study that said the number of HIV cases in KW along as gone from 4 to 16 in the past 10 years - that is 4x as much.
If we can't talk about this in our own schools, and it's too awkward to talk about at home, then WHEN can we talk about it?
My first article was about the difference between men and women and my argument was: What can a man do that a woman can't do? And that was a humourous article that got a bit of feedback. My next article was about WWF Wrestling - sport or spoof? This article was written for my then-best friend who was obsessed with Shawn Michael - the Heartbreaker Kid. :)
The last article that I wrote before the newspaper was canceled was an article called "Let's talk about Sex." I didn't think it would be a big deal because needless to say, we all knew about sex. To my surprise, I was called down to the Principal's office (which I had never seen before in my entire school life!) where he sat me down and talked to me about the values of our school. I explained to him that this article is to promote awareness about some of the issues that we students are facing everyday. He would not have any of it, in fact, he said that the community didn't need to promote sex or have any material that was promoting it - that the school frowns upon premarital sex. Hmph.
Personally, I think that kids nowadays need to be more aware of the issues. Sex is something that nobody takes seriously anymore - finding someone you love or being safe about it is no longer a necessity - it is only about reputation and pleasure. On the news yesterday, there was a study that said the number of HIV cases in KW along as gone from 4 to 16 in the past 10 years - that is 4x as much.
If we can't talk about this in our own schools, and it's too awkward to talk about at home, then WHEN can we talk about it?
