Persuasive Essay On Sex Education

While sexual education is mandatory in almost all secondary schools across Australia, the level of depth at which it is taught varies throughout every school. Many highly important areas of sex ed, such as learning about consent, contraceptive options and violence in relationships, are less commonly taught in high school, with puberty typically being the prime topic taught in PDHPE lessons instead. But when we look at the increase in things such as sexual assault, sexual violence, Sexually Transmitted Infections and teenage pregnancy among today’s youth, we must wonder why such imperative subjects to educate teenagers on are discussed so minimally.

Did you know that 24 states in the US require their public schools to teach sex education and HIV education to their students (NCL.org)? Do they even need to understand sex or STDs? Well of course not. That’s why schools should not even teach these students sex because it’s just going to be too much for the high school students’ young mind, sex education will definitely motivate the students to have sex—regardless of their sexuality--, and it’s up to their not so busy parents to explain sex—and all its glory—to their children who are attending high school.

I think it is safe to say that no two words elicit more feelings of concern, anxiety, and anger in parents, and stirs up more controversy and debate than the words “sexual education”. This especially true with the implementation of the new, revised sexual education curriculum in Ontario schools. Consequently, this controversy has strongly divided individuals, families, and organizations between those who approved of and those who opposed and protested against school-based programs that providee sexual health education to children. But why so much opposition? This is due to the significant changes made to the sexual education curriculum and the sensitive nature of the topics being taught to children regarding sexuality as a whole, changes which are seen as both radical and “even more explicit and more age-inappropriate than before…” (“Ontario’s Radical,” n.d.).

Sexuality is one of the most powerful and universal forces for human-kind. Whether before or after marriage, everyone engages in it at one point in their lives. Unlike calculus, sex education is something you are going to use in the future. When I took a class survey, most of you either agreed or strongly agreed that sex education was important for teens to learn about. However, many people in America, specifically parents, believe that sex education should not be taught in schools and boycott any measures to educate teens. These people have led me to create this speech. I am up here today to persuade the audience that a fundamental lack of comprehensive sex education can lead misinformation, teen pregnancies, and negative views about sex.

Teen pregnancy is a huge problem in the United States and it mostly as to due with the lack of sex education. In other countries sex education is not shyed away from and children have open discussions with their parents about the ins and out of sex, pregnancy, transmitted diseases and infections and even love. The country proclaims to be free and self-righteous yet many people hold on to conservative outlooks when it comes to having these important conversations with their children. Teen pregnancy is inevitable, especially with hormones kicking in and children having little to no knowledge of how to navigate them will always result in teen pregnancy. However there could be a dramatic fall in the rates if as a nation we decide to educate the children about the topic. Because whether America likes it or not the children of today will be the future doctors and caretakers, so caring for them now will be much more beneficial in the long

Sex education provides the youth with the skills and knowledge needed to practice safer sex behavior, refuse sex, and engage in positive youth development programs. The positive youth development programs provide the youth with motivation and confidence to gain and utilize the skills listed above. The federal government invests $1.5 billion dollars in abstinence-only programs, which have been proven ineffective among the adolescent population (Advocates for Youth, 2009). Nevertheless, there has been proposed budgets to create funding for programs that have been proven effective in reducing teen pregnancy, delaying sexual activity, or increasing contraceptive use (Advocates for Youth, 2009). limit the youth with information that is contradicted through the media everyday.

This is a familiar story that far too many young people go through every day. If she would have received more education about sex and pregnancy prevention, would this story have had a different outcome? We will never know, but can educate other young girls to prevent them from following in her footsteps. To accomplish this, we must incorporate comprehensive sex education into our school’s curriculum nationwide; that way the largest population of students possible is reached to ensure that they will have accurate information about protection and pregnancy prevention.

More than 1 million American teenage women become pregnant each year. Why is this happening when there are so many contraceptives at everyone's fingertips? Why do so many people have unrecognized STD’s? The initial thought that comes to mind is stupidity, but after looking into the topic, the real problem happening is that teens are uneducated when it comes to safe sex. The average age of first sexual intercourse is 16.2 for women and 15.7 for men. That’s a pretty young age to be having sex. Comprehensive sexual education should be mandatory in schools standard curriculum. It’s not necessarily unethical for teens to be having sex, others may have different beliefs and that's okay but to be completely honest, it’s bound to happen someday so

The question of sexuality education is never whether or not it should be taught. If schools and parents don’t teach young people about sex, the hypersexualized modern media will. Research shows that the younger a child is exposed to sexual media, the younger they will become sexually active and the more reckless they will be when they do (Ross), and that children are indeed being exposed to sexual messages at younger and younger ages. The Guttmacher Institute, a sexual and reproductive health organization, reports that forty-four percent of teen girls and forty-nine percent of boys report having had sex (“American”), but other studies and estimates run as high as seventy percent. Moreover, while American culture becomes increasingly aware and accepting of the “sex positivity” movement, which seeks to promote and embrace healthy sexuality with few constraints beyond consent and safety, it also struggles to address issues like LGBTQ rights and deeply-embedded rape culture. Sex, while a very private act, is a very public issue. These conflicting conversations very much affect American teenagers. A close look at sex education programs is now more prudent than ever. A 1996 federal act allocated $50 million for programs that promote abstinence until marriage as the only way to prevent unwanted pregnancy and STDs. Programs outside federal funding teach abstinence as one option among many. Abstinence-only education has been shown largely ineffective in reducing teen sexual activity,

According to the Department of Health and Human Services in 2014, 76% of US public and private high schools taught students abstinence as the most effective method to avoid pregnancy, HIV, and other STDs (American 1). In ¾ of US high schools, just saying “no” remains getting taught as the most effective way to avoid pregnancy and STDs. Abstinence programs are not effective in delaying pregnancy and STDs. If the way this program continues to be taught remains so ineffective, schools need to discontinue teaching this subject that way. If students do not know how to use a condom or how to get on birth control, teens are at an increased risk of STDs. STDs, sexually transmitted diseases, are an extremely serious issue. While some STDs, like herpes, can be cured with treatment, other STDs, like HIV, can turn into a bigger problem and lead to death. If teenagers get educated about how dangerous, and disgusting, these STDs can be, adolescents will avoid STDs at all

As children grow, they accumulate knowledge over the years about a variety of subjects to prepare them for the future. Children learn from parents, schools, life experiences, what they watch and other influences around them, and it can be either positive learning or negative learning. There is one subject that is difficult to teach and have control over because of misunderstandings, lack of teaching, and publicity. Sex education has been a major debate for children under eighteen, because there are some parents that want it taught in schools and others that do not because of different reasons. There are currently eighteen states and the District of Columbia that require schools to provide sex education and thirty-two that do not require

t’s clear that the school hasn’t been doing the greatest job at explaining pregnancy prevention tactics; 1,700 teens ages 15-17 give birth every week. Schools say that teen pregnancy is an issue and how it is the person’s fault, but how could it be their fault if they’re not taught forms of safe sex? As teens get older, they’re going to want to experiment; we can’t stop that. What we can do is make sure that they have the knowledge for when they are willing to experiment and learn more about their bodies. Schools should make sex education classes a requirement for every middle and high school kids, no matter what grade they are in. Most doctors, educators and adults are telling kids to just stay away from

Over the years, teenagers have been pushed to partake in adult behavior due to the sexual nature of the American culture, which is exacerbated by social media, television, and movies. In the media safe sex is not portarted. To combat this, sex education is taught in schools with the goal of teaching students accurate information about the sexual anatomy and activity, how to have safe sex, in addition to teaching all of the options teenagers have if they get pregnant without the input of religious or political views. However, some parents opposed sex education because they believe it promotes sexual activity. In reality, young adults will take part in sexual behavior despite their parents wishes; it is sex education that pushes teenagers to take safety precautions. Also, some parent’s religious views lead them to want to protect their child or children from “socially unacceptable” behavior such as having an abortion. Abortions is an option for women if they get pregnant and determine they can not have the child. There is a stigma around abortions that they are morally wrong, which has manifested through politics. It has separated the country into two sides, pro-choice and pro-life. The pro-choice party believes women should have the freedom to choose if they want an abortion. On the other hand, the pro-life party believes life begins at conception, therefore abortion is killing and should not occur. Although abortions are highly controversial, teenagers should be able to

Meet Ashlynn. She is my cousin’s daughter who is now 7 years old. 8 years ago, my cousin, Eric, was a second-year at Pacific Lutheran University in Washington and had been dating his girlfriend, Abby. A few months into the relationship, Abby found out she was pregnant and decided to keep the child. Today, they share joint custody of their adorable daughter, but it certainly has not been an easy journey. Once Eric and Abby chose to keep the baby, both dropped out of college and continued to live with college debt. In addition, both work full-time, minimally paying jobs and remain disputing custody issues, taking a large emotional toll on the parents, child, and families. While Ashlynn is fully loved and wanted, she came from a pregnancy that was unintended. Eric and Abby had not planned to raise a child in the middle of their college career, and their story is simply one of many. Secretary DeVos, although all unintended pregnancies cannot be avoided, there are certainly measures individuals can take that reduce the chance of pregnancy. One critically important measure includes receiving a sex education, a topic that is in dire need to be reformed in the United States.

Sex education should be increased in schools. Nearly one million women under the age of 20 get pregnant each year. That means 2800 women get pregnant each day. If students are educated about the effects sex has on their lives, it lessens their chance of having children at an early age. Knowledge about sex can also lessen the chance of kids receiving STDS.