Sex education is the teaching of responsible sexual behavior and abstinence. It has been one of the most controversial social topics due to the misconceptions of its actual benefits to society. Sex education comes in forms of abstinence-plus and abstinence only. I believe that abstinence plus is the best way because it conforms to society since young teens and adults are engaging in sexual activity. Sex education was created in an effort to instruct adolescents on sexual activities and teach them the consequences that come with being involved in sex before marriage. Sex educators have applied various methods to find creative ways to get teenagers to abide by the things they are taught from sex education. Parents are meant to be the ones to teach their children on sex, but many parents and their children share a common barrier. This barrier is most likely due to the lack and fear of communication between adolescents and their parents. It also has contributed to the worldwide problem of underage pregnancy, unwanted pregnancy, abortions, and continued spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Sex education is necessary so that educators and caregivers can limit these occurrences and bring down alarming statistics to a minimum. Many parents and educators feel that sex education is good because it will cause adolescents to rethink certain decisions and participate in safe sex by use of condoms. In July of 2001, Surgeon General David Satcher wrote A Call to Action that discussed the promotion of sexual health. He wanted to convince parents that their children would not participate in sex just because they have more information on it. In his review he wrote, “Evidence gives strong support to the conclusion that providing information about contraception does not increase adolescent sexual activity…[and that] some of these evaluated programs increased condom use or contraceptive use more generally for adolescents who were sexually active.” (Morin 9). Ultimately, abstinence plus sex education is essential in today’s modernized society, because it is improving sexual awareness among adolescents. The reality is that children are having sex and they need to be educated on this issue. Sex education provides proper guidance to adolescents and gives them the opportunity to voice their opinions or even seek help if necessary. There are many children who are either misguided through peers or not guided at all by their parents or caregivers. Sex education is gradually declining the numbers of adolescents engaging in premarital sex or casual sex on a regular basis. It is a topic that has been closely looked upon by overseers. It seems to be an issue that goes either way in both the positive realm and the negative realm, but I can say that the good things outweigh the bad. Sex education has come a long way since it first began and its purpose will be accomplished as people begin to see that it is affecting teenagers in an affirmative manner.
Morin, Stephen. “Abstinence Only vs. Comprehensive Sex Education.” Policy Monograph Series 1: San Francisco: MLA, 2001
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2 comments:
I think that the parent's should choose to teach their kids either abstinence only or abstince plus, but the teaching of sex education I do think should be done in the schools. Kid's should know what their parent's think on sex and parents should be talking to their kids about sex before the school does. I believe this will allow the parents to bond with their kids and allow for them to have open communication with all types of topics.
Some children are not as fortunate as others when it comes to have parents you can communicate with. For that reason I think the sexual education classes should be taught. You supplied very interesting facts about how prevention can lowered stds and more. We should not limit that knowledge for the children who can not access it from their households.
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