"You can't just keep clipping off the leaves of the tree ... . The tree will only make more leaves because it is planted in soil that is favourable. You need to look at the hidden causes to the problems - the root."

I agree with Dr Doreen Brady-West's assessment of our Government's approach to the social ills that beset our country. Dr Brady-West is a consultant haematologist and clinical oncologist at the University of the West Indies who is part of the Coalition for the Defence of Life.

We are concerned about women and girls having unwanted babies, so we provide abortion. We are concerned about children indulging in early sexual activity, so we say, give them condoms. Isn't something missing from this approach? We are dealing with the leaves and ignoring the root of the problem. As a nation, we need to change some of our cultural norms.

accepted cultural practices

Some of our accepted cultural practices help to give rise to our irresponsible and even tragic sexual behaviour. We need to change the belief that to be a man, you "mus have gal in a bungle". We need to wipe out the thinking that if you are female and at age 15 you have not had a child, then you are a 'mule'. We need to eliminate from our cultural consciousness the idea that to cure sexually transmitted disease, all you need to do is to have sex with a virgin.

Instead, we need to so value our children that our first priority would be to keep them safe from early sexual initiation. This includes the initiation provided by persons, such as the dons in the communities, who feel that they must be the first ones to taste the fruit of the nubile young virgins. In addition, there are the fathers and stepfathers who feel that they have spent money on their daughters, therefore, they deserve to have sexual relations with them as payment.

These ideas are among the beliefs that are helping to destroy the healthy psyche of our people. Many might say that this thinking pattern is an offshoot of our slave history. If this is so, then we need to actively work to change this pattern. To do otherwise is to behave like the adult who has had an abusive childhood and who resents his parents for the suffering that they have caused him but who, on becoming a parent, turns around and abuses his child. As a people, the majority of whom are descendants of slaves, we need deliberately and intentionally to break away from these negative cultural effects of our past. We must begin a public-education campaign to deal with these issues.

In the same way that money can be found for the "pinch, leave an inch and roll" condom campaign, then money should be sourced to effect a broad and intensive public-education campaign concerning how we should be thinking about our children, and to establish healthy sexual beliefs. This is an urgent matter.

Dr Glenda Simms in her article 'Child sexual abuse and underdevelopment' in The Sunday Gleaner of June 28, commenting on research conducted by the Ministry of Health, noted: "At all levels of the society, we must understand that young children having sex in the first place, and by extension, having multiple sex partners, is a threat to the foundation of development in any society." She further pointed out: "The time has come for the entire Jamaican society to confront the high and enduring levels of damage caused to children and women by sexual abuse." This view is further supported by a group of principals who were invited to a meeting by the Ministry of Education where we were presented with a document on the creation of child-friendly schools. A number of principals pointed out that even when there was a child-friendly environment in the schools, there was the bigger problem of a child-destructive community.

Our societal norms need to be changed. This is the root of many of the problems that relate to our children's early sexualisation and overexposure to adult sexual behaviour. The Church and other civil organisations must help to raise voices which counteract this negative pattern in our communities. The church needs to speak to sexual issues in an honest manner. Not only does the general society need to hold up sex as a beautiful creation of God to be enjoyed by male and female in the context of marriage, but even more does the Church need to do so. The Church needs to address sex as God created it. There needs to be multi-generational conversations within the Church about sexual values and mores. The older persons need to share their life stories with the younger ones so that they can learn from them. This includes sharing about the wrong and painful choices that some persons made.

Bible is not prudish

The Bible is not prudish in discussing sex, and neither should the Church be. The book of The Songs of Solomon is a wonderful poetic creation reflecting the joy of a man in the body of his young wife. The stories of Joseph and David are replete with incidents of sexual encounters, which we see replicated in modern society. Let us begin to be less embarrassed in the Church about discussing sex and begin to lead the way in the conversation that needs to be heard by our people. The Church could also sponsor a sex-education programme that could be aired on radio and television. This would be more effective than the written media, since we are quite aware that our people are "reading averse".

On another, though similar note, I was quite encouraged to hear the prime minister announce that the law is to be changed to require that the names of fathers be placed on birth certificates. This is a step in the right direction in pointing our nation towards taking responsibility for our children.

Esther Tyson is principal of Ardenne High School, St Andrew. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.