The Importance of Sex Education

Several reasons have been put forward for the various and often opposing approaches to sex education. For example, Paechter (2004) proposes that

Many topics around the world spark controversy within social dynamics. Sex education, is a big controversy today expressed throughout every nation. The controversy originates from the simple fact that all people are different. Every person was brought up separately and therefore everyone has a different religion, culture and belief that leads up to different opinions in the matter. Sex education is widely debated because many people have different views on whether we should educate our children about sex, and on what we should teach them about. Although many believe that teaching our teens about sex is morally wrong, not educating the nation's youth about sex will cause more detrimental problems in our adolescence social

Since comprehensive sex education has little funding but a plethora of support, it could be alleviated through advocates spreading awareness through the community through social media and communication to enlighten individuals on the topic. Therefore, developing a potential curriculum could become possible for local school boards to approve. Many supporters of comprehensive sex education believe that it should start from kindergarten until 12th grade. By doing so, instructors can use behavioral goals and age-appropriate language that is understandable and coherent for the respective age group. Also, there is a large amount of time to cover the necessary topics on sexuality, reproduction, sexual organs since this curriculum would occur for nearly thirteen years of the student’s life. As mentioned earlier, the state and school board direct the type

The implementation of sex education in schools will provide teenagers with the appropriate information about sexual disease and early pregnancies. In the last five years, this theme about Sex Education is expanding ever so gradually within the schools. However, the statistics keep the subject of Sex Education alive in schools by having it be implemented as programs. Schools administrators should have more programs and people who are well trained to help students with learning about Sex Education. After all, the teenagers would be the most vulnerable victims for not being well informed; they could catch a sexual transmitted disease or perhaps get pregnant. Also, the parents and community are an important role in learning about Sex Education. Simply by having an open mind and thinking about the safety and future of their children, we as parents can create a safer environment for our children. One technique could be by providing condoms at schools to teenagers as a demonstration of consciousness about how to protect the teenagers from early pregnancy or a sexual disease.

In life, high school especially, sexual education is very important and can truly impact a person’s life. Improper education on sex can lead to many life-changing mistakes. These blunders can be avoided with proper knowledge. Although students should be encouraged to remain abstinent, they should still be taught about contraception and practicing safe sex. With proper sexual education, abstinence rates will increase and the numbers of teenage parents will decrease.

Comprehensive sex education gives people the knowledge to make responsible choices about sexual relationships. It consists of age appropriate, medically accurate content about sex, puberty, contraceptive use, and human development. In many forms, it can be categorized as a helpful way to teach young children about choices they can take in order to prevent many sexually transmitted diseases, teenage unwanted pregnancy, and delay sexual intercourse. On the dark side, comprehensive sex education can arise many controversies and disagreements between people with distinct cultural and religious views, and the person that should take responsibility in teaching young people. In this paper I will discuss the positive and negative sides on teaching comprehensive sex education in schools.

The first position on this topic is Abstinence-only until marriage sex education should be taught in public schools. According to the heritage foundation, “teens who abstain from sex have improved life outcomes” (“Sex Education and Abstinence”). Safe sex can never be guaranteed to be 100% effective. Safe sex only merely reduces the risks while abstinence completely eliminates the risk (Garth 112). Modern sex education techniques are too bold and in turn, desensitize adolescents, encouraging promiscuous behavior. According to researchers Marsiglio and Mott, comprehensive sex education is associated with a rise in sexual activity in teenagers (Richard 22).

For many decades, sex education has remained an important class that many students across around the world are required to take. Since sex education classes were first introduced into secondary schools in the early 1900s, the government has taken steps to alter how the topic is taught. While many parents feel that teaching sex education in a classroom setting is appropriate, a large portion of America believes that parents are responsible for educating their child on the subject. The country seems to be deeply divided into two groups: those who support school-led sex education, and those who believe sex education is the responsibility of the parents. The article “Obviously, Sex Education Should Not Be Taught In Schools” by Cullen Herout presents the opinions of one parent who is against government-sanctioned sex education courses. Herout provides ample support and reason to back up his thesis, but his argument is poorly written due to its strong personal bias, unreasonable language, and lack of credible sources. *comment *another comment

Sexual education in the classroom has been a topic of controversy for years. Outside influences, such as increases in media and television exposure to children and adolescents cause an overwhelming exposure to sex. As a result, sexual education, like most school subjects, is far too important to be left in the hands of parents alone; teachers must educate students on the importance of sexual behaviours. Sexual education serves an important part of the classroom curriculum requiring proper education on individual sexuality, safety, and morals to students.

Furthermore, school officials should also introduce sex education to students at an early age in order to inform students about the risks of undesired pregnancies and severe transmitted diseases. At a young age, students do not tend to think about the real consequences of being sexually active and the risks they are being imposed to. The US Department of human and health services stated that, “ About 77 percent of teen pregnancies are unplanned. In other words, they are unwanted or occurred “too soon,” according to a national survey of adolescents” (Office of Adolescents). Due to the high percent of teen unexpected pregnancies, school officials have to impose the topic of sex education to students in order to think before comming actions they cannot change. Although at this age, the students that experience unexpected pregnancies do not want to keep the child, due to the fact that they are learn that it is a huge responsibility after getting pregnant. Teenagers that do not want to keep and take care of the child will search for way to get rid of it, which ends in miscarriages or abortion. Once again, The US Department of Human and Health Services stated, “In 2010, the majority of pregnancies to adolescent females ages 15-19 in the United States—an estimated 60 percent—ended in a live birth; 15 percent ended in a miscarriage; and 30 percent ended in an abortion” (Office of Adolescents). Students who decide to stay with the child tend to experience a difficult life, due to the

In America, teaching children about sex is something that is seen as “inappropriate” or “wrong”. However, making sure teens and young adults know how to have safe sex is something that is extremely important, especially now. When teens are equipped with the knowledge to make safe, healthy decisions it helps prevent unwanted pregnancy and STD’s.

.Compared with older adults, sexually active adolescents aged 15–19 years and young adults aged 20–24 years are at higher risk of acquiring STDs for a combination of behavioral, biological, and cultural reasons (CDC 1). For this reason, sexual education should continue to be taught in schools. According to “Obviously, Sex Education Should Not Be Taught in Schools,” Cullen Herout believes that sexual education should not be taught in government run schools. He goes on to explain why sexual education should not be taught in schools with multiple reasons with evidence to back up his claim. These reasons include: it will normalize HIV and AIDS, the children will be brainwashed with sexual perversion, and government money should not be used to pay for it. He claims that parents have the sole responsibility of teaching their children sexual education. The only thing he believes should be taught in schools are the main subjects of reading, writing, math, language, spelling, and science. He is convinced that government run anything is corrupted and that the government has some hidden agenda for educating children on sexual education. Overall, he feels the best solution to the issue of sexual education is not having it taught in schools at all.

When hearing the term “sex education,” most will immediately think of “the talk” that parents have with children. “The talk,” a phrase widely used through everyday life, movies, television, etc. is intended by parents to inform their children of the consequences of unsafe sex and to explain how babies are made. Despite being a necessary conversation at home, this “talk” is generally vague and uninformative in comparison to classes on the subject. However, this topic causes chaos when dealing with courses in middle and high schools on it. Surprisingly, a substantial amount of adults would argue that the more you say to younger people in regards to sex, the greater the risk of them having unsafe sex at a much younger age than desired, despite proof that states otherwise. That type of mindset is primarily why a vast amount of schools in the United States rely solely on having abstinence-only sex education courses for students. I strongly believe that needs to be modified immediately. In this paper, I will argue why students in the United States need a more comprehensive sex education class in their curriculums in school for the following reasons: higher rates of pregnancy in teenagers, higher rates of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, and the negative aspects of the aftermath of teenage childbirth.

I was a senior in high school at the age of 17 when I had my son Zachary. Up until that moment I lived just as my other classmates did. I played the sax in the school band, football games on the weekend and hit the books on Mondays. Although I wouldn’t trade my son for the world, I wish I would have waited after college and a degree to raise him. The only thing my parents ever told me on the topic of sex education was “Mijo, debes de tener relaciones sexuales” simply meaning don’t have sex. My schools sex Ed class or lack thereof, was a faded memory at best. I was taught close to nothing about contraceptives, STD’s and HIV, but if I had there would be no doubt the last 6 years of my life would have been much less complicated.

Results showed over 335 out 4,214 were cutting themselves at this point in their life. That shows 7.9% of the students have this addiction (Hall, p. 623, 2010). While these numbers are everlasting changing, self-harm needs to be addressed to all ages just as other addictions are spoken about. Eating disorders are taught in the early ages of elementary school. Sex-education is taught the fifth grade. Self-harm is not a discussion in sex-education (Khantzian 668). The only way this addiction is taught to children is by explaining suicidal thoughts and having those thoughts turn into forms of self-injury. Teachers and parents are not able to recognize the effects until it reaches a point where the person can no longer hide their pain. With the numbers of this growing addiction and the urge to begin this addiction rapidly increasing, the factors of self-harm need to be discussed as one entity instead of comparing them to another addiction (Wang 666).