Anna Quindlen, author of “Sex Ed”, believes that sexual education is vital to America’s future due to the fact that teenage girls are getting pregnant. Children should have the tools they need in order to understand their own body and sexuality. Quindlen uses compare and contrast in order to differentiate between what sex culture was, and how it is in 1986. In “Sex Ed”, Quindlen speaks about her experience at a family planning clinic in one of the poorer neighborhoods of New York City. She uses strongly uses irony in the first part of the excerpt, stating how all of the teenagers perfectly understood the reproductive system, yet they were all pregnant. The answer to teenage pregnancy is sexual education; how someone gets pregnant, how someone avoids pregnancy and how to handle unplanned pregnancy. However, educating students about pregnancy and the reproductive system is not a magical solution …show more content…
Many teenage girls understood how the reproductive system works; did not quite comprehend the consequences of being sexually active. Quindlen once again compares her high school experience with present days by stating that girls who got pregnant in her high school dealt with it in silence, most disappeared. Nowadays teenage pregnancy is handled up front, many girls still continue with school. She also notes that sex culture has changed; being a virgin is no longer cool, instead it has become slang for geek or nerd. Not being a virgin made you mature, grown up. The girls at the clinic informed Quindlen that “everyone was doing it”, therefore not having sex made them outcasts at school. However, one difference was that boys cannot get pregnant and girls can, therefore they are the ones who have to live with the consequences. The teenagers also condemned birth control, stating that the pill presented the possibility of having a stroke, and a diaphragm was
Reading Chapter 11, “Genders and Sexualities,” written by Carrie Hintz was to construct and enact alternatives for these two traditional categories. Data is clearly indicated that sexual material is some of the most controversial content in literature. Children’s literature that is involved with adolescent’s childhood are key battlegrounds for attitudes about gender and sexuality. The significance of gender and sexuality in children’s literature is the persistent investment in what is perceived to be the innocence of children. Innocence is defined in part by children’s enforced ignorance of sexual matters. According to James Kincaid, “Youth and innocence are two of the most eroticized constructions of the past two centuries. Innocence was that
Sex Education. (2010). In Current Issues: Macmillan social science library. Detroit: Gale. Retrieved from http://ic.galegroup.com.byui.idm.oclc.org/ic/ovic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?query=&prodId=OVIC&contentModules=&displayGroupName=Reference&limiter=&disableHighlighting=true&displayGroups=&sortBy=&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&action=2&catId=GALE%7C00000000LVZ0&activityType=&documentId=GALE%7CPC3021900154&source=Bookmark&u=byuidaho&jsid=97f094e06dbbf5f2bcaec07adbde8e61
Author Amy Schalet ultimately brings up a delicate and sensitive topic about teens having sex, comparing the different mindsets of families in the Netherlands and in America. By Schalet carrying the interviews, she found out that teens in America are a lot more secretive with their personal lives, and would not discuss it with their parents, unlike teens from the Netherlands that eventually told their parents. While some people might say that it’s a matter of common sense, some other people might argue it has to do with culture. Catholics, for example, believe in celibacy until you have decided on the person you will marry. You are taught from young age to protect your body and mind from carnal desires and focus on other things that will benefit you on the long run. Obviously, times have changed, and not many people practice this anymore. We can see an example on shows on television about teen pregnancy, while these shows aren’t necessarily telling to go ahead and have children at young age, it might have negative impact on younger girls, almost like a unintentional role model. On the other hand, writer Jamaica Kincaid, demonstrates the In The Girl we see the other side of the coin, a mother that is so demanding and is always right, no matter the outcome, she is right, and things have to be done a certain way. I think a figure like this would not benefit
Today’s young Americans face strong peer pressure to be sexually active and engage themselves in risky behaviors (Merino 100-109). Anyone deciding to have sex must first think about all the risks involved. Kekla Magoon, author of Sex Education in Schools, says that “half of all teens aged 15 to 19 years old in the United States have had sex” (Magoon 64-65). It is currently not required by federal law for schools to teach Sex education and those few schools that do teach Sex education have the decision to determine how much information is allowed. Advocates from both sides of the Sex education debate agree that teens need positive influences in order to make practical decisions (Magoon 88-89). Opponents of Abstinence-only education believe it fails because it does not prepare teens for all the risks of sex (Magoon 64-65).
Freely accessible birth control for teenagers has always been a topic of debate, but it prevents pregnancy, abortion, and it also has many health benefits. There are cons to the argument that suggests a rise in promiscuity in the adolescent demographic, but in spite of these cons the rise of birth control continues, because access to birth control helps adolescents make an informed and safe decision on whether or not to participate in sexual activities. It doesn’t make the decision for them.
Sawyer, Kate. “Sex Education Is The Key To Curbing Teen Sex.” Teen Sex. Olivia Ferguson. Michigan: Greenhaven Press, 2011. 29-39. Print.
The first article is by Hadi Danawi, Zenobia Bryant and Tala Hasbini and is entitled Targeting Unintended Teen Pregnancy in the U.S.. This article is all about the numbers and statistics. The authors state that we should take the statistics that we know and use those as a jumping off point on where to direct resources. If we know of a community where there is a higher rate of teen pregnancies, then we can go into those communities and inform the teens of the resources available in the area and offer the teens sexual education classes. The authors also suggested that the best way to end teen pregnancy is not to necessarily target the issue directly but we should target differences within our own communities first. The article also examines which individuals may be more apt to have a teen pregnancy verses others.
Two drastic Emergency Room cases were handled in 1998 at Mary Washington Hospital. Concerned mothers brought their 12 year old daughters into the hospital thinking they were suffering from severe stomach pain or even appendicitis…both girls were actually in labor (Abstinence, 2002). The United States has the highest teen pregnancy, birth, and abortion rates in the Western world (Planned Parenthood, 2003). Are teens getting enough knowledge on sex and how to prevent STDs and unwanted pregnancies? Another heartbreaking statistic is that teenagers have the highest rate of STDs of any age group, with one in four young people contracting an STD by the age of 21 (Sex-Ed Work, 2003). Is sex education really working in school? Or do we need to change the type of curricula that is taught? There is no question that sex education should be taught in schools, but the question is how? The purpose of this paper is to determine which curricula of sex education should be taught in schools to be most effective in lowering STD and pregnancy rates among teenagers.
Sex education or Sexuality Education is described by Kunwar and Yudav (2011) as an education that tackles about the different aspects of sexuality such as human sexual anatomy, sexual reproduction, sexual intercourse, human sexual behavior and, etc. It seeks to decrease the possible negative effects on human sexual behavior such as teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases; it also seeks to amend the quality of relationships. This shows that the broader concept of human sexuality will be taught in sex education, aiming to give awareness and deeper understanding of these concepts. This term is also given a definition by Fontanilla (2003) as an instructional tool in helping and forming wholesome demeanors, values, and practices in
Currently, sex education in schools is primarily centered on the distribution of information without elaborating about the moral implications dealing with sex. Teenagers are well versed on things such as how long sperm lives inside the body and can identify all of the workings of the female reproductive system. However, they are still getting pregnant and still contracting sexually transmitted diseases. Anna Quindlen examines this trend in her essay, “Sex Ed”. Quindlen points out that it is the moral implications of sex that have been left out of the curriculum and it is the responsibility of parents to make those moral connections with their children (277). Understanding the morality of sex, she argues, may help teenagers to make more informed decisions on taking the next step towards sexual activity. They must understand that “…when you sleep with someone you take off a lot more than your clothes” (Quindlen 277). Sex is not simply a...
What is otherness? Otherness is defined as “the quality or fact of being different”. We see this term thrown around, but what does it really mean? In the world we live in today, being viewed as “other” is considered a negative aspect of a person's personality. Through the society that impacts how we see ourselves, the thought of otherness has been constructed based off of a person's social identity. In the essay “Between the Sexes, a Great Divide” author Anna Quindlen states that different genders should not define the social aspect of one another. Similarly, in Paul Theroux’s essay titled, “Being a Man” he acknowledges the fact that in the society we live in, “being a man” is a standard stereotype that men should not compare themselves to in order to be considered “manly”. Both authors identify the problem of gender expectations that results from otherness; however, while theroux makes the divide worse by generalizing with a bitter tone, Quindlen invites everyone to “do the dance” despite the discomfort and awkwardness that might occur between both genders.
Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” shows in society how a woman should be placed and what it means to be a woman. A women doesn’t question her partner, instead she is subservient to him. A woman’s duties include staying at home taking care of the children and cooking; while the man works and brings home the money. A feministic approach to Kincaid’s “Girl” points to the idea of the stereotypes that women can only be what they do in the home, they should only be pure and virtuous, and their main focus should be satisfying their husband.
First of all, it is the many younger teenagers who are inexperienced that get in to trouble like teenage pregnancy. The experience that is so needed is supposed to come from their parents, but that doesn’t happen because, the parents don’t want to talk about the sex issues. With the strict parents the experience is hard to ...
The condoms display in the Hidden Heroes: the Genius of Everyday Things exhibit is a showcase that would cause an individual to wonder about adolescents’ overall knowledge of human sexuality. In today’s society, children are susceptible to learning about such a delicate topic not only from their families and peers, but through the media as well. These sources often provide misrepresentations of the information due to ignorance and biased views. Therefore, in order to inform individuals more accurately, sex education programs have been created with the intention to be implemented into schools across the country. This has led up to being one of the most controversial issues hovering over educational institutions, where the inclusion of such programs has been hotly debated. However, recently, the dispute is not so much about whether sex education should be taught in schools, but rather what content should be taught and what approach should be taken.
1- Introduction : Sex education should be taught in public school is often discussed in America today. Some schools allowed their teachers to teach sex education it is where the students learned about protections ,pregnancies ,STD's.They say that sex education demolish the moral code of people because they think that sex education instruct students about how sexual interaction is done and encourage them to do it . Teaching sex education in public schools will stop sexual diseases and teenage pregnancy it gives the youth the idea of what is right and what is wrong.