Does teaching sex lessen the thrill?

'SEX education," Bill Cosby once said, "may be a good idea in the schools, but I don't believe the kids should be given homework." His joke worked on two levels.

We parents don't want our children coming back and working through sections of The Joy Of Sex on their top bunks. But, more pertinently, many mothers and fathers would rather not be burdened with the embarrassment of the sex-ed conversation. They would rather not know that, as last week's headlines proclaimed, sex education is not working in Scotland, teenage pregnancy rates are rising, and the burden of teaching the birds and the bees is to be thrust back on them.

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