With the U.S being one of the worlds leading country for teen pregnancy’s a person would think the country would be talking more initiative towards the subject by educating kids on how to stay protected. (“Teen Pregnancy.”) Although when it comes to the topic of sex education in public school’s the reactions range from positive to negative assertions. Some people think it’s a class that schools should definitely offer for students while others are on the fence about it. The controversial topic of sex education in fact, should be taught about in public schools because it promotes a safe environment and educational lifestyle for all students.
To begin with, some kids don’t have parents they can talk to about this matter and by the time they
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(“Abstinence-Only Education. ”) In recent years' abstinence only education programs have grown wildly in support and has had its government funding aid increased drastically receiving millions of dollars in funding all throughout the U.S. (“Abstinence-Only Education. ”) The question though is does abstinence only education really work? Some common taught ideas under abstinence only education is that the standard behavior for teenagers is to abstain from sex until marriage, and that abstaining from having sex is the only sure way to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (“Abstinence-Only Education. ”) A recent “CDC study showed that among teens between the ages of 15 and 17 who have had sex, nearly 80% did not receive any formal sex education before they lost their virginity. (“Teen Pregnancy.”) Or, if they did, it was only to discourage them from being sexually active and following an abstinence only lifestyle.” (“Teen Pregnancy.”) In all reality, even though someone is telling these adolescence not to have sex until married a large sum of the ones listening are not actually going to abide by what they have been told. This is one of the reasons why abstinence is not the answer, because students like this and students in general need to be taught how to protect them self’s for future
The primary argument which most advocates for abstinence only education have is that sex before marriage is immoral, not appropriate and that abstinence is the only completely effective method of preventing teen pregnancy and STI contraction. These advocates also emphasize that condoms are not a sure-fire way of preventing pregnancy and STI contraction. Many of the proponents for abstinence-only education believe that educating youth with information concerning sex and contraception will embolden them to become to begin or increase sexual activity. Such advocates accredit the lowering of teenage pregnancy to abstinence only education (Collins, Alagira, and Summers 12-13).
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).
In the documentary Abstinence Comes to Albuquerque, abstinence-only education stirred up a controversy. The controversy brought a variety of social and political issues out into the light. One social issue is the stigma associated with sexual behavior or sexual experience and a policy concern is that religion is influencing public policy. Even after a federally authorized Mathematica study exposed the ineffectiveness of abstinence-only education both Congressional Democrats and Republicans continued to fund these programs. The reasons behind this action includes fear of the topic of sex and not wanting to do anything that will upset their constituency, thus hurting their chances of reelection.
We all want what’s best for our teens, and sometimes, the hardest part is deciding what is best. We could teach our children that sex is a very special thing that should be saved for marriage, and leave it at that. We wouldn’t inspire any crazy ideas or experimentation, we would tell them the risks and then they would know why sex before marriage is a bad idea. Or, we could tell them how to protect themselves from the risk of sex, it wouldn’t strictly teach teens to abstain from sex, but they would know how to protect themselves if they did try to experiment. For years, teens have been taught that the only way to avoid the dangers of sex is to not have it and that just hasn’t been working out. Therefore, abstinence-only education shouldn’t be taught in schools.
In the United States today, many teenage girls are facing lots of problems. New problems are rising such as an increased pregnancy rate among teenagers. Our teenage girls are less developed and unprepared for the problems which come along with their decision to have sex. It is also too early for teenage girls to become pregnant. Many teens think having a baby is some sort of joke. They believe it will never happen to them but the reality is that every time teens have sex, there is a possibility that the sperm will find its way to the egg if they do not get protection. As a nation, or society, it is in our common interest to protect our teenage girls from getting unwanted or unplanned pregnancy. However, this issue of protecting or preventing our teenage girls from pregnancy plays a dynamic role and is a matter of choice. Many parents and educators have long argued over whether teens should get a comprehensive sex education or abstinence only education. The question is which of these programs is more effective at stopping teen pregnancy. To prevent teenage pregnancy, the United States, should force schools to teach comprehensive sex education for many reasons. For many people, instructing teenage girls about the usefulness of birth control and condoms is more important than just simply mentioning to avoid sex until marriage. Comprehensive sex education is needed to teach teens about the usefulness of condoms.
Teenage sexual activity is a major problem confronting the nation and has led to a rising incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and teenage pregnancy. The existence of HIV/AIDS has given a sense of urgency to the topic of sex education. The issue of sex education in schools especially in the formative years has been a subject of intense debate among parents, school officials, health scientists and religious authorities worldwide for a considerable period of time. The debate centers on comprehensive sex education versus abstinence-only sex education in school. Abstinence only sex education is a sex education model that focuses on the virtue of abstinence from sexual activities; therefore, encouraging sexual abstinence until marriage. This form of sexual education completely ignores all other elements of comprehensive sexual education like safe sex and reproductive health education issues like the use of contraceptives and birth control methods. Comprehensive sex teaching encourages promiscuous sexual activity as “a natural part of life.” Proponents of abstinence only education activists cite several reasons why this type of education is the best. It focuses on the upholding of moral virtues. They also claim that sex outside marriage hat is “encouraged” by the comprehensive sex education which as a result, has some emotional and physical downfall especially when done at a very young age. They blame the comprehensive sex education for failing to discourage premarital sex especially at this time when the HIV pandemic is busy devouring young people in various parts of the world (Deborah 2). In fairness, both programs were designed to decrease the incidence of STDs...
Students should be informed about more than just “don’t have sex” because eventually it is going to happen and they need to be educated on the proper way to handle the situations. Because students are mostly taught abstinence it has created the situation to where researchers find” Abstinence-only education, instead of reducing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, has made teenagers and young adults more vulnerable to ST...
Sex education in public schools has been a controversial issue in the United States for over a decade. With the HIV and teen pregnancy crises growing, sex education is needed.
For many years abstinence has been regulation among the united states for teaching teens about sex. Students are not taught how contraceptives work, where to buy them, how to get checked for stds and other valuable information that people who have sex should know. Instead, the educators decide that just telling the student body not to do it would cause some magical thinking upon the kids, creating them not to participate in sexual activities. What these schools fail to realize is that it is not about what they want the teens to do, its about what the teens are going to feel obligated to do. The schools fail to see how poorly abstinence really works, how poorly it teaches sexualy active teens to be protected, and how poorly it prepares students for potential STDs and pregnancies.
The act of abstinence is taught by many teachers in American high schools nowadays as the correct and only way to educate teenagers on pre-marital sex, but does this education method actually benefit students or is it sending them a bad message? To me, I believe that schools, which are teaching abstinence as the only way to approach pre-marital sex send the wrong message to teenagers because contraception is also a vital part of the education because not everybody will want to take part in abstinence. Nowadays, teenagers are more exposed to sex on mass media such as the radio, television, the Internet and many other sources. There are myriads of advertisements that contain sexual innuendos and subliminal sexual messages and this has led to
The government likes to pretend that if high school students get taught the “abstinence-only” method they would never think of taking part in sexual activities. Statistically this is incorrect. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “56 percent of high school students are virgins”(Martin). For the 56 percent abstinence only is doing them well, but there are still 44 percent of high school students engaging in sex without knowing the precau...
Abstinence education teaches children and adolescents to abstain from sexual activity, and that this is the only certain method of avoiding pregnancy and STIs, and that abstinence until marriage is a standard by which to live. State governments spends millions of dollars on abstinence education every year and all of these states have some of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the US and the World; Abstinence education spends the majority of their time talking about love and saving one’s self for marriage when they fail to even properly educate on the physical sex anatomy; Abstinence education does not properly explain the way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases; Therefore abstinence education is not effective.
Sex among teenagers is one of the most controversial topics of our time. The teen pregnancy and STD rates in the United States alone have become a major problem over the years. Despite these skyrocketing sex cases, sexual education is not being taught in some schools, and the ones that do are extremely limited. Parents, the government, organizations, and school boards do not teach the proper curriculum necessary for students to thoroughly understand sexual behavior. This essay will explain the need for proper sexual education in our schools.
Three million teenagers will contract a sexually transmitted disease and one in three women will become pregnant before they are twenty years old. Teens are contracting sexually transmitted diseases and getting pregnant at an alarming rate causing the government, schools, and parents to scratch their heads. America is the country with the highest teen pregnancy rate in the world. Many are wondering what can be done to stop this. A debate has been going on about whether abstinence only education is doing any good for high school students in America. Abstinence only education teaches teenagers to abstain from all sexual acts until they are married. It does not teach about pregnancy or the different types of contraceptives that are available to prevent pregnancy. On the other hand, there is safe sex education. Safe sex education teaches teenagers facts about intercourse they need to know, acknowledges the potential consequences or risks of sexual behavior, and helps them make better decisions to protect themselves and their bodies.
Sex education in our schools has been a hot topic of debate for decades. The main point in question has been whether to utilize comprehensive sex education or abstinence-only curriculum to educate our youth. The popularity of abstinence-only curriculum over the last couple of decades has grown largely due to the United States government passing a law to give funding to states that teach the abstinence-only approach to sex education. But not teaching our children about sex and sexuality is not giving them the information they need to make well educated decisions. Sex education in our schools should teach more than just abstinence-only because these programs are not proven to prevent teens from having sex. Children need to be educated on how to prevent contracting sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies and be given the knowledge to understand the changes to their bodies during puberty. According to the Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education: Kindergarten-12th Grade from the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), comprehensive sex education “should be appropriate to age, developmental level, and cultural background of students and respect the diversity of values and beliefs represented in the community” (SIECUS).