...Programs Sex education is important, but many students finish sex education classes with a distorted view of sexuality and without a good understanding of contraception and safe-sex practices. Instead, children only learn that they should not have sex until they are married. Abstinence-only programs in public schools have become popular because of a law giving millions of dollars to schools that teach the programs. These programs have the good intention of persuading young people to wait until marriage before having sex, but abstinence-only programs are not achieving this goal and are flawed by the distorted and biased perspective that they promote. In 1996, the United States government passed a law giving funding to states that offered abstinence-only programs in public schools. Since this time, over half of a billion dollars has been given to states to promote abstinence-only programs (Brody). To receive the money, schools must agree to follow a set of rules. The rules indicate that a school’s abstinence-only program must have "as its exclusive purpose teaching the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity" ("Impacts"). Students must be taught that they are likely to suffer harmful effects if they have sex before marriage. They also must be taught that the "expected standard" is for school-age children not to engage in sexual activity and for adults to engage in sexual relations only within marriage. Schools receiving...
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...Should Sex Education Be Taught In School? Kierra Cobb Dr. Gwendoline Ayuninjam EDU1301-02 November 24, 2014 Abstract Sex education is a big controversial issue today in society. The debate over sex education in the United States centers on the question of who should teach students about issues relating to sex such as intercourse, pregnancy, contraception, gender identity, sexual orientation, sexually transmitted diseases, and relationships. Should sex education be left up to parents, or do schools have a responsibility to inform students about these issues? There are many people who support the idea of sex education being taught in school, and there are others who do not agree. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey, more than 47 percent of all high school students say they have had sex; and 15 percent of high school students have had sex with four or more partners during their lifetime. It also states that among students’ who had sex in the three months prior to the survey, sixty-percent reported condom use and twenty-three percent reported birth control pills usage during their last sexual encounter (NCSL,2013). Sex Education provides positive feedback about sexuality and sexual expressions, including benefits of abstinence, the sexual reproductive system, and also relationships. There are several pros and cons towards teaching sex education in all school systems. Sex education is not predominantly about sex. Other issues originate...
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...Reducing Teenage Pregnancies and STDs through Education An Investigation into the increasing number of teenage pregnancies and STDs in the United States Christene M. Staley Western Governor’s University WGU Student ID# 000259544 Why do we need sexual education? In recent years there has been a large debate on how to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies and STDs in the United States. Although many agree that some form of sexual education is needed there are many opinions on what should be taught in schools and at what age. One approach is teaching abstinence only programs compared with teaching young adolescence about sex and contraceptives use and the risks associated with being sexually active. We compare the United States that currently has both the highest teenage pregnancies and STDs among young adolescence compared to other industrialized countries. This examination will show what methods of sexual education has been proven to work and why. Additionally we will examine why other countries have greatly reduced teenage pregnancies and what they are doing that has been effective. There is a significant impact on society and its costing our nation as well as the children of the teenager mothers. (Manlove et al., 2002). The first thing we need to look at is educating teenagers in order to reduce teen pregnancies and STDs. Second we will look at the need to being the discussion of sex at home and educate our children starting as the...
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...Who is Responsible for Sex Education? Writing 291 Joseph A. Marco 22 July 2010 Public schools systems have been implementing sexual education into their classrooms as a regular part of instruction for decades. Ongoing controversies exist when dealing with this issue whether sex education being taught in the public schools or whether it should be considered the responsibility of the parents. It seems most parents are either for or against it and very rarely are they standing on middle ground. Given the statistics does it matter who teaches the children of the United States the basics of sex education? Children should receive a basic unbiased and informative sex education in school, from their it should be the parents responsibility. By their 18th birthday, six in 10 teenage women and more than 5 in 10 teenage men have had sexual intercourse. Of the approximately 750,000 teen pregnancies that occur each year, 82 percent are unintended with more than one quarter ending abortion. The United States continues to have one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the developed world – almost twice as high as England, Canada, and Wales and eight times as high as the Netherlands and Japan. In addition to the teen pregnancy rate, the teens in the United States contract roughly nine million new sexually transmitted infections (STI’s) each year. Though teens in the United States have levels of sexual activity similar to levels among their Canadian, English, French, and Swedish...
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...What My Parents Told Me Growing up as a child we were taught that sex was nasty, and only married couples were the only people on earth to have sexual relationships. My parents were not open to neither talk about sex nor teach my sibling and me anything about sex. Talking about sexuality or anything to do with our bodies was like an embarrassment to them they were ashamed to talk to us. The communication lines between us were really slim. “A child can learn to express her or his affection and sensual feelings through activities such as kissing and hugging the child receive these expressions of intimacy can have a strong influence on the manner in which he or she express sexuality in later years.” (Cook, 2011, p.346) My parents did not show us any affection no hugging, kissing good night, no saying I love you, no nothing. Growing up I thought it was strange to see other parents kiss their children, hug their children and even tell them that they love them. Playing outside we would play games like “hide go get it”. “Usually around the ages of 5-7, children became interested in the other sex, their own bodies, and inquiries as to where babies come from (Cooks & Baur, 2008). One day I asked my Mom why she didn’t hug or kiss us, she said it doesn’t take all that to show you that I love you. My parents thought that providing a stable home and food and clothing was enough. As I grew older I began to tell my parents that I love them and try to hug and kiss them I only received...
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...1101 April 25, 2013 Sex Education in Schools Sex education is a broad term used to describe education about human sexual activity, sexual reproduction, sexual intercourse, and other aspects of human sexual behavior. Although some form of sex education is part of the curriculum at many schools, it remains a controversial issue in several states. Ignorance regarding sexual matters has resulted in 65 percent of all teens having sex before their senior year and 9.1 million of the 19 million Americans who get an STD in a year are teenagers or between the ages of 15 and 24 (“Teen Sex Statistics”). There is no better place than in a biology class or a special sex education class to inform children of the importance of having planned families; consequently, these classes can reduce teenage pregnancies and much physical suffering caused by AIDS or other serious sexually transmitted diseases. It should never be left to parents because, in many cases, they cannot properly inform their children on the subject of sex education. Sex education must be taught in schools because it will help to prevent STDs from being transmitted, especially among teens, it will help prevent teenage pregnancy, and will help prevent pre-mature sex, which can damage the body from an early stage in life. Sex education does not only talk about sex. It also teaches about reproduction and sexual health. A lot of parents do not support the fact that sex education should be taught in schools, but yet they don’t take...
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...Sexual Education General Purpose: To inform. Specific Purpose: To inform my audience about sexual education. Central Idea: Sexual education has a lengthy history and is still an issue in today’s society. Intro Depending on an individual’s background, sexual education can be taught in many ways. Sometimes parents prefer to be the main source of sexual education. Some parents feel that by talking to their children about this will make them feel more comfortable talking on this topic to them as well as other topics. According to the Open Letter to Religious Leaders about Sex Education, “Research projects held in Mexico as well as abroad have demonstrated, although not conclusively, that communication on sexual topics between parents and their adolescent children is positively associated with safer sexual behaviors.” I can say that this rings true with me. I have had the chance of taking a sexual education course in middle school. Even though I felt uncomfortable and thought that the information discussed was foreign, it opened my mind and eyes to this topic. As well as taking the course, my parents have discussed this topic with me. Even though parents want to be the main source, media has become a contributor to sexual education, such as “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom”. So today, I am here to inform you that sexual education has a lengthy background and is an issue in today’s society. Let me now inform you on the history of sexual education. Body I. Sexual education in the...
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...Sex Education in Schools Anquavese Jones ENG/102 06/26/2011 Becky Wilfahrt Abstract Teenage sex education is a topic of much debate in America’s schools because sex and its health related issues are prevalent in the lives of so many adolescents. Teenagers’ engagement in sexual activities has led to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases, emotional and psychological injuries, and out-of-wedlock childbearing (Rector, 2002, para. 1). Therefore, schools across the nation have been charged with implementing programs that will educate the young about the risks of engaging in sexual activities before marriage. America’s schools use one of the two commonly known approaches in hopes to deter premarital sex. These approaches are abstinence education and comprehensive sex education. Abstinence education is a type of sex education that places strict emphasis on abstaining from sex until marriage. Comprehensive sex education examines abstinence along with sexual reproductive health education and contraceptives. This paper will examine both approaches and show that comprehensive sex education is the most effective method. Introduction Sex is a hot topic that reaches many children through the different mediums to include school, internet, radio, and television. An effective way to arm our children with important data concerning sex education is by providing abstinence education in our schools. According to Powezek, in the United States, maturation classes are usually implemented...
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...Public Schools and Sex Education There has been a decline in teen age pregnancy over the past few decades. Is it because sexual education is being taught at a younger age today? Or is it the lack of knowledge of abstinence? It should be the parents’ responsibility to teach their child about sexual education, not the school system. Although sexual education is important, there are still several students that completes the sex education courses and they are still not sure of what sexuality is or have a solid understanding of contraception and/or safe sex practices. Unfortunately, children usually only learn that they should not have sexual intercourse until they are married. This is where abstinence comes in play. Over the years’ abstinence-only programs in public schools has become more and more popular. This is so, because of a law that gives millions of money to schools to teach abstinence-only. This type of program has good intentions. They are designed to persuade younger people to wait until marriage. Unfortunately, these programs (abstinence-only) are not quite achieving their goal. Back in 1996 when the United States government passed a law to add funds to abstinence-only public schools, more than half of a billion dollars has been given to different state to help with the promotions of abstinence-only programs. (Brody) There were so many different stipulations placed on school system in order for the schools get good funding. In 2007, the United States Department...
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...Why Sexual Education Should Be Taught In Public Schools In today’s society where children are exposed to sex through various media outlets, the need for sexual education in public schools is necessary. Instead of abstinence-only education, which teaches refraining from sexual activity until marriage, today’s youth needs to be informed about the various aspects of sexuality including pregnancy, contraception, STDs, and abstinence. According to a survey conducted by National Public Radio, The Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, ninety percent of American parents believe that comprehensive sexual education should be taught in public schools to students in grades 7 through 12. This type of education encourages abstinence, but also teaches proper condom use and other contraceptive methods to protect youth from unwanted pregnancies and STD (“Sex Education in America”). In order to reduce the risk of teenage pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, Douglas Bernard Kirby, Ph.D. from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy states in his 2007 publication of Emerging Answers: To be effective, such programs must be straightforward and specific; for example, they might discuss realistic situations that could lead to unprotected sex and methods for avoiding those situations, for remaining abstinent, and for using condoms and other contraceptives. (Kirby 16) Even though studies have shown mixed results...
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...Sex Education Yevgenia Dashtoyan ENGL-107 08.26.2013 Sex, in the current world, has almost become a basic need for an individual. It has become a daily subject for the last several years now. People in the society talked about sex as a key way of birth control and means of reducing the spread of HIV and AIDs. Sex has now become an issue especially at this period when communities are experiencing a massive loss o lives through sexually transmitted diseases. It is, however, challenging to deal with the issue because young people are the most sexually active. The local media stations report sex scandals daily. If you go to school, you will find students talking about sex! Even in the middle and grade schools, is also dealing with the same issues. In summary, sex is currently the center of conversations in the society. Controlling this habit of sex has become a challenge not only in the society but also in the entire world. Children, on the other hand, are exposed to sex because of the lifestyle we are experiencing. Sex is a basic instinct in all-living beings; sex education should be encouraged in school with the aim of abstinence. However, it is also essential to advocate safe sex because the most teenagers are sexually active, making it impossible to campaign for abstinence (Erkut and Grossman, 2013). As a teen, watching videos that are sexy can make one not to think about safe sex, especially at the age. Girls might be in safer possible because they might get...
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...Informal Argumentative Essay In his article, “Let’s Talk About Sex,” Charles M. Blow argues that teenage pregnancy is a nationwide shame as society refuses to admit and face the facts that teenagers are having sex, he further states that turning a blind eye is not a rational approach and sufficient information and encouragement is needed. There were over 400,000 pregnant American teenagers recorded in 2007. Although the sex rate amongst girls in the United States is not the highest, the teenage birthrate and abortion is still leading in numbers. Blow expresses that many states and parents are backing out of the “abstinence-only education” approach. By moving away from the norm of society, daring actions must be taken to generate a sex education foundation that recognizes the truth and aid to safeguard our children from unsolicited pregnancies or other harmful outcomes. The author concludes that sex education at an early age may be drastic however Americans themselves are unable to approach the sex topic without being awkward, withdrawn or chuckling. As an experiment, Blow implies that parents initiate the sex talk conversation stern with assurance, “I’d prefer you waited to have sex. That said, whenever you choose to do it, make sure you use one of these condoms.” Ultimately, regarding the importance of sex education, I strongly agree with Blow that comprehensive sex education is needed within high schools so that teenagers can avoid the harsh outcomes of sexual activity....
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...Sexual Education: Who Cares And Why The range of beliefs on sex education is extremely broad and multi-sided. Religious, cultural, gender, and social factors intermix, affecting the way that these different groups believe and act. Most people take a conservative or moderate view on most points of the debate, and liberal views on other points. Very few reside at either extreme. The groups at each extreme are the ones to look at because they make it their goal to make people see their point of view, giving shape to the overall view of the subject. The amount of division near each extreme makes it very difficult to find a view with which the whole group can be happy. Christian religions divide when it comes to how the Bible should be interpreted and what is right and wrong. Within each sect of religion, cultures, genders, and classes divide as to what is right and wrong and how children should be taught. Children from each class and culture grow up in different environments, affecting what and how they learn, inside and outside of school. People in one religion can have similar beliefs as those held by someone in another religion, but the religious differences make it difficult for them to unite in support of the belief. Religion is the most notorious for associating sex with marriage. The Catholic Church stands the most firm on the idea sex should be confined to marriage. The Church says contraception blocks the presence of God in the sexual act and is therefore wrong....
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...Sexuality Education for Adolescents Ashley S. Brown Nevada State College Adolescents are in need of preparedness in regards to self identity especially in terms of sexuality. Sex is a taboo subject especially when considering adolescents. Parents tend to be afraid that discussing sex will encourage their adolescent children to want to engage in sexual activities. Adolescents are being influenced by not only by factors such as socioeconomic status, the media and their peers, but also a lack of a relationship with their parents (Asampong, Osafo, Bingenheimer, & Ahiadeke, 2013). The subject of adolescent sexuality and sexual education and development begs for there to be clear communication between the parents and the adolescent, but often that is not the case. According to a poll conducted in 2004, ninety-three percent of Americans approved of sex education being taught in schools (“Sex education,” 2014). Because parents are not necessarily equipped with the education to communicate with their children about sexual education and development, professionals can provide that information (“Developing adolescents,” 2002). I chose to interview my former teacher Ms. Michelle Jones. She has taught elementary school students, middle school students, college students and she is currently an assistant principal. Ms. Jones explained that she feels that as an educator, she is responsible for providing information to her students about all aspects of life. Her...
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