Learning to navigate through growing up years

“Boys should understand that when a girl says ‘no’ it means ‘no”, is considered to be a great step towards gender sensitising at a young age. Many educators and parents are lauding the effort.

Pavittra Aroon, an educator who works extensively with teenage kids says, “Earlier, in many convent schools there used to be a workshop for children about adolescence. This was a few years ago. Now things have changed and kids are exposed to content at an early age. 

For instance, kids in Class 2 or Class 3 know that there are relationships between two sexes that go beyond friendships. Instead of criticising them or shutting them down, teachers should acknowledge the curiosity and address them,” she says. She further narrates some incidents where they had to deal with a boy who liked to cross-dress. 

“We came across a boy from Class 2 whose mother liked to dress him up like a girl when he was younger. Later he discovered that he liked to be dressed like a girl only. The parents didn’t like this and reached out to the teachers. We had a private counselling for the child wherein he was made aware of his choices when he grows up. We also arranged for a session for the entire class wherein they were made aware that there are people who are different but are very much part of society,” says Pavittra. 

She also adds that there must be a counselling session for kids between ages of six and eight, where they are made aware of the issues that come with adolescence.  Krishna Priya D, who also conducts workshop for children and parents about sex education says that there is a need for genders sensitisation. “We have to acknowledge that there is an issue and there is no time being tightlipped about sex education for school students. If we don’t handle it sensibly, they will get wrong perceptions about it through Internet,” she adds.