The Unspeakable Word: Censorship in Schools Essay

Sex education should be implemented at an early age beginning at the middle school level. A discussion of contraception, the risks of diseases, the risk of becoming an unwed teen parent and the disadvantages of not having an education will help decrease the number of teen pregnancies with future generations. Parents should not feel threatened of having their children learning about sex in class. Parents should feel empowered; it will allow their children opportunities to feel they are able to discuss future topics of sex at home to help promote

First off, why would you want to teach high school students about sex if you know it’s going to be too much for their young, innocent minds? Let’s face it, once when the teacher begins to talk about the males’ baby maker and the females’ “foo-foo” the students are going to start laughing, or getting very uncomfortable. Very mature children, won’t you say? Of course, the teachers are not going to call it “baby maker” or “foo-foo” they’re going to say the correct terms. Furthermore, sex education will most likely have to touch on the more sensitive topics like sexual harassment, or prostitution. Students having to hear about innocent people being raped is already crossing the line, and learning that women--and maybe men--are willing to have sex just to gain money. Might as well drop the class, or start skipping it.

Barr et al. (2014) study reported in the study that sexual education taught only by the teachers would be effective in preventing teen pregnancy. The teachers would have to be competent, skillful and content on the subject of sex with the student. The National Teacher Preparation Standards for Sexuality Education is an unexpected effort but with years to come the program will become active (Barr et al., 2014). The results of the study indicated that by letting teachers teach teens about sex education decreased teenage pregnancy (Barr et al.,

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.).

Censorship has been around for millions of years. Although censorship is still practised in some countries today, almost anyone would agree that censorship is never the right answer; as we have seen in the past, it has seldomly ever works out. Which is why it is so concerning that schools are starting to allow censorship in classrooms. As a result of this, the world is seeing an alarming amount of young millennials who are fresh into the workforce, expecting to always be catered to. More and more millennials are not being properly prepared for the real world due to censorship in schools; schools have been giving in and catering to students by allowing the censoring of books and microaggressions in the classroom, as a result the students are being taught that the world will cater to everyone, which is very inaccurate.

Let’s talk about sex. In western culture, many consider sex to be an inescapable topic. We are both fascinated with, and terrified of, talking about sex. For many of us, we “learned” about sex in a school sanctioned environment. Halting conversations, riddled with immature giggles at the first sign of a penis diagram, and ominous warnings that sex would lead to diseases, pregnancy, and death. Personally, my health teacher insisted on abstinence and refused to speak of sex at all. She explained New York State required schools to teach an abstinence-based curriculum. Sound familiar? In that case, I must apologize.

Recently there has been a lot of debate about the new sexual education curriculum being taught to children from a younger age and how it will affect them. Some people say that children are too young to be learning this information and then how they use it will be in a negative manner. What frightens most parents is that they can raise their children as they wish, but have very little control over what other people do with their children (Wolfe, D. A. 2015, February 28).The Ontario sex-education curriculum is an necessary step to address the fears of parents that their children could be victimized, harmed, or take part in behaviours that carry significant risk but the new curriculum is quite different from the older version because it is more explicit, it also is going against catholic school

In a busy and complicated landscape of sexuality and gender, it is generally recognized that children need instruction in how to behave. Unfortunately, the way that adults wish young people to be introduced to sexuality is governed by diverse worldviews and values, and the subject is seen as so important that this disparity leaves little room for neutrality, much less reasoned compromise. In many cases, the education of children in sexuality is regarded on all sides as a life-and-death issue, involving fundamental assumptions about the role of public and private institutions and even the very stability of society, to say nothing of the potential risks to individuals. As When Sex Goes to School puts it, there is very little within the domain of American politics and the infamous “culture wars” that is not touched by or based in the realm of sexuality and gender, and sex education is an arena where each side seeks to have its values publicly established for the benefit of students.

Sex education has been an ongoing debate for decades. In the early 1970’s, twenty states voted restricting sex education from the school curriculum, leaving the District of Columbia and only three states (Maryland, Kentucky, New Jersey), requiring schools to teach sex education. By the mid 1980’s, a deadly disease permitted through sexual intercourse was recognized; the fear of catching a disease sex education quickly became accepted. In 1986, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop felt sex education should start as early as third grade stating, ‘“There is now no doubt … that we need sex education in schools and that it [should] include information on heterosexual and homosexual relationships. The lives of our young people depend on our

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

These discourses focused on preventing pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS to legitimise sexual activity, where information was purely factual and scientific understandings of body development and largely explained sexuality in terms of reproduction. While this approach educated students about methods of safe sexual practices to reduce and prevent physical consequences it still failed to address the psychological factors and influences of sexual relationships ( ).

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

Sex: the elephant in the room no one likes to talk about. It is a natural act humans have done for years but also a taboo to show or acknowledge. Sex, despite being taboo, is omnipresent. It is present in discussions of God, television, dating, and other areas, all of which have played a role into my understanding of sex and sexuality. However, public education has ultimately been the main factor in maintaining my personal safe sex life. Many parents debate whether sex education should remain in school and be exposed to their children, despite the fact sex is already pervades in other aspects of life such as religion, gender roles, media, and relationships. Sex education should remain a part of public school curriculum because it educates teenagers about its consequences and how to do it safely.

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.

There are many states that do not provide the kind of sex education that New Jersey strives to convey to its students. It more often than not ties in with the religious right proclaiming that students are too young to be exposed to sexual material, and thus sexualized as a result. These fundamental groups oppose any suggestion towards a comprehensive approach. Instead, they ask that their children be taught after grade school and additionally, they steer towards ‘abstinence-only’ education. Instead of teaching students how to protect themselves, they teach that the only way to protect oneself is by abstaining from sex. The problem arises, then, when these students decide to have sex. They are unaware of how to conduct themselves responsibly, how to take precautions to prevent against unwanted pregnancy and disease. What kind of ‘education’ are students receiving when they are withheld crucial information?