Should Sex Education Be Taught?

The role of educating students about the importance of healthy sexual relationships has fallen hard and fast on public schools. School aged boys and girls are not receiving information from their parents on what decisions they should make in regards to sex. Parents are finding this topic of conversation too taboo to breach and as a result, students are getting what little information they are receiving from school. Less then half of school aged adolescents talk to their parents about sex and abstinence (Smith, 2005).

A subject that is talked about a lot in today’s society is whether or not kids should receive sex education in public schools. With rates of teen pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases on the rise, it is essential that school aged adolescents receive appropriate sex education courses. Though many parents across the nation believe that it is crucial to curriculum, how much they should be taught and what exactly should be taught is up for dispute. Articles such as “Abstinence and Abstinence-only Education: A Review of U.S. policies and Programs” written by John Santelli, Mary A. Ott, Maureen Lyon, Jennifer Rogers, Daniel Summers and Rebecca Schleifer and “The Impact of Abstinence and Comprehensive Sex and STD/HIV Education Programs on Adolescent Sexual Behavior” Douglas B. Kirby analyze the two types of sex education in the U.S. and their effectiveness on teens. In “Abstinence and Abstinence-only Education: A Review of U.S. policies and Programs” Santelli et al. claims that even though sex education programs that only offer abstinence-only instruction are ethically flawed, abstinence from sexual activity is efficient behavioral choice for teenagers to make. In order to support their claim, the authors focus on the federal government’s involvement on funding for these abstinence programs and the censorship of the information that they portray. In “The Impact of Abstinence and Comprehensive Sex and STD/HIV Education Programs on Adolescent Sexual Behavior,”

Should sex education be allowed in high schools? This has been a controversial issue nationwide for over a decade. The American culture is immensely sexually oriented. Sex can be seen through the media and with the younger generation being heavily influenced by technology; they cannot avoid it. In light of this, many of the youth today lack information on sex which highlights the problem. Some people believe that sex education only diminishes one’s rectitude because they feel that sex education encourages the students to partake in sexual intercourse. Although sex education degrades the virtues of children by informing students how to use birth control and condoms, it is imperative in high schools because it prevents sexually transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancy, accommodates in case of parents’ absence, and gives children the idea of morality.

To further understand sex issues facing adolescents today; let’s take a general look on what issues are being taught in schools. 69% of schools say there is a policy on sex education. The Alan Guttmacher Institute, which is a nonprofit organization that is focused on sexual reproductive health research, policy and analysis on public education, studied sex education today and compared it to a decade ago. 23% of schools in 2000 taught abstinence-only education, which was up 2% from 1988. The study also found that classes today are less likely to talk about birth control, abortion, obtaining and using contraception, ad sexual orientation, compared to the late 1980’s (The Alan Guttmacher Institute). The Henry J. Kaiser Foundation put together a survey asking students what was being taught in their sex education class. The Henry J. Kaiser Foundation is a major philanthropy foundation that focuses mainly on major health care issues facing the nation. The survey questioned 1,501 students nationwide and asked them questions concerning several topics. First, they asked what is considered to be “core elements” of sex

Should sex education be taught to young adults in school? This has been a major controversial topic for many years amongst parents, teachers, and other community members. Their biggest concern is that it teaches students that it is okay to have sex at a young age and think that the program shows them how sexual intercourse is done. Although, this is not the intent of the class, like some may think. They tend to believe that abstinence-only programs should be taught in schools. Allowing sexual education to be taught in public schools and not in an abstinence-only point of view is something that every school should do because it can help them understand the facts about their bodies. “Sex education aims to reduce of potentially negative outcomes from sexual behavior, such as unwanted or unplanned pregnancies and infection with sexually transmitted diseases including HIV.” (AVERT) By teaching sexual education it can help them to understand the emotional values it has by resisting peer pressure and how to recognize it.

According to studies, Teens become sexually active before they actually learn about sex. Kids who take Sex Education at a younger age (Junior High) would be less likely to have sex. Sex Ed should be unquestionable.

So many teens go through all of these changes and turmoil in their lives completely alone and uneducated, or even made uncomfortable by it all. Schools refraining from teaching proper etiquette of sex and personal health care won’t fix any problems. They are often written off to just keep it to themselves, and so some certain dangers are presented by this. Adolescents should absolutely be taught all the gory details about the human body and its functions.

Minnesota is ranked number six out of all states in teen birth rate. Minnesota is ranked number three in teen pregnancy rate. The average ages for all of these results are girls aged from fifteen to nineteen. With the most recent statics, in 2012 there were 3,295 teenage girls to give birth to a child and in 2010 there was 146 million spent on teenage childbearing. The last statistic I found was there were are 18.5 births per 1,000 teenage girls. (National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, pg.1) With regards to reading this information it makes me think back to my high school years, were we taught the right information? What type of sex education should be taught to decrease the numbers of teenage pregnancy? In my opinion students need to get taught the comprehensive sex education program. This is a program where abstinence is taught that it is the best way to avoid pregnancy and STI’s but students are taught ways of contraception and condoms to prevent the pregnancy and STI’s is they do decide to become sexually active.

When it comes to having the “the talk” with children, who would be the appropriate persons to do so? Some parents would rather that sex be taught at school. As long as it’s in a safe environment of course (Sex education should be mandatory in all schools). Meanwhile more than fifty percent of parents do not think it is appropriate for it to be taught at school (Sex Education Should Not Be Taught in Schools). Those who are more than fifty percent of parents would like to be the one who has the talk with their child.

For such a complex and multifaceted problem, the solution is actually quite simple. Schools should include pornography in a more thorough and inclusive sex education system. If pornography was a required topic in sex education, every student would learn how it influences its consumers. This would provide a strong incentive for students to reject all forms of pornography. The sooner consumers recognize the effects porn has on their lives, the sooner they can break the cycle and the easier it will be. (UK Schools)

Teenagers and sex are two words that are often heard together, whether we like it or not, teenagers are having sex. Some schools don’t teach sexual education and because of that students are suffering. There’s no way to make teenagers not have sex but there is away to teach them about having safe sex, that is why I believe that we need to require sexual education be taught in high school.

The policy issue that I chose to write about is Sex Education in the classroom. Almost all student in the USA receive some type of sex education between the grades 7th and 12th. Sometime even as early as 4th grade.

Should sexual education should be taught in schools? The answer is simply yes. Sexual education should be taught in schools because it can help many teenagers prevent life threating things that come without knowledge of the subject. Without any knowledge on the subject of sex, many teenagers can put themselves in danger that can easily be prevented.

“If the Liberals' law is passed, will sex education in the schools, including elementary grades, include the same portrayals of sexual activity which presently exist in heterosexual instruction? Will there be the same presentation of homosexual activity? Of course there will.”

With sex being a sensitive subject for parents to discuss with their children, they believe it is not appropriate to discuss these types of delicate subjects at any age. It is not because they don’t want to inform them, but because they want to protect them. Even though they don’t know that be keeping it from them, their children are far from safety every day. However, with today’s high birth rates at early ages, the question is no longer “should sex education be taught?” but “how sex education should be taught?” With teens engaging in sexual activity, which results in pregnancy and the contraction of STD’s such as HIV at such a young stage, sex education being taught in schools should be of higher demand now than ever before.