Audience Analysis: I am writing to the seven chairmen of the ___ County School Board. They are a made up of a group of five men and two women. They are most likely all parents who have a common concern on the material being taught on the issue of Sex Education in schools. Fellow parents vote on them to insure that they make the correct decisions on what their kids are learning in school. They are all from some form of the Christian religion. They are from ages 30 and older. They represent all races. They all have a college degree and the majority of them have doctorate degree in education. They are mainly from the upper economic levels in society. The chairmen are very dedicated to their jobs and take a great deal of consideration when voting on school board codes/regulations. Therefore, they are willing to hear both sides of an issue that is to be voted on due to its’ importance.
Sex Education In Schools: The Argument Continues
Sex education in schools has been a long debated subject among parents, teachers, government officials and students. The need for sex education has increased due the higher numbers of teen pregnancy and STD cases among school age kids. The pregnancy rate has more than doubled and teens have the highest rate of STD cases among all of the age groups (DeCarlo 1). The major questions are the type of material that should be discussed and whether the programs are actually helping the problem or adding to it. There are a lot of other questions that branch off from the major ones also. Since sex education has already been around for decades, it is very necessary for us to determine the effects of the educational programs over the years. This will help us to verify the quality of lessons being taught in the classes.
The need for sex education is very questionable in today’s society. An article by Pamela DeCarlo, from the Centre for AIDS Prevention Studies, discusses why sex education is needed in schools. She asks why education on this subject is needed and if will help or hurt today’s children. Her view of the issue is that kids do need to have education to help to protect them but that it isn’t enough to prevent them from receiving STD’s and becoming pregnant. “Knowledge alone is not enough to change behaviors.” DeCarlo also says that, “Programs that rely mainly on conveying information about sex or moral precepts-how...
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...dents shouldn’t learn these serious topics until things that would be discussed start happening to them (Kilander 57). The problem with that theory is that once they have started it will be harder to coax them away from it later (Moran 115).
The issue of sex education in schools is going to be there for many years to come. The problem is that people want answers that can’t be talked about until more research is done on the effects of sex education. Parents, teachers, schools and students all have on common goal and that is to find a way to accurately discuss sex education in schools. There are problems with that because of all of the arguments surrounding the issue and all the problems with trying to come to a conclusion about it. Since the teen pregnancy rates have more than double and STD cases are the highest among teens we obviously see a need for it, but don’t know how to go about it. Once we research the long term effects of sex education and then come to agreement on what should be taught in schools the sex education problem in America will diminish. We need to break down the educational borders and try to look at all the perspectives to reach the common goal.
Since the HIV/AIDS epidemic began in the U.S. in the early 1980s the issue of sex education for American youth has had the attention of the nation. There are about 400,000 teen births every year in the U.S, with about 9 billion in associated public costs. STI contraction in general, as well as teen pregnancy, have put the subject even more so on the forefront of the nation’s leading issues. The approach and method for proper and effective sex education has been hotly debated. Some believe that teaching abstinence-only until marriage is the best method while others believe that a more comprehensive approach, which includes abstinence promotion as well as contraceptive information, is necessary. Abstinence-only program curriculums disregard medical ethics and scientific accuracy, and have been empirically proven to be ineffective; therefore, comprehensive sex education programs which are medically accurate, science-based and empirically proven should be the standard method of sex education for students/children in the U.S.
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.
What is acceptable when it comes to teaching kids about sex education? “What Schools Should Teach Kids About Sex” by Jessica Lahey uses more of a logical approach to the issues of sexual education given to adolescence, compared to “Sex Education Is One Thing” by Anna Quindlen which tells more of her personal story and opinion using pathos to connect to the audience. After reading both articles about sex education, it is clear that there are many different interpretations of what qualifies as sex education, who is qualified to teach it, and what should be included in the curriculum. Both writers believe that there should be more sex education taught to high school kids but they go about it in different ways, using rhetorical appeals of logic versus pathos.
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...
From a young age, children are bombarded by images of the rich and the famous engaging in torrid public affairs or publicly discussing their increasingly active sex lives. No longer is sex education left to teachers and parents to explain, it is constantly in our faces at the forefront of our society. Regardless of sex education curriculums and debates about possible changes, children and teenagers are still learning everything they think there is to know about sex from very early on in their young lives. However, without responsible adults instructing them on the facts about sex, there are more likely to treat sex in a cavalier and offhanded fashion. According to Anna Quindlen’s essay Sex Ed, the responsibility of to education children about sex is evenly distributed between teachers and parents.
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.
...ve scale. The test simply measured their knowledge of simple kinematics and the concept of vectors. When I reviewed the information and checked for questions the day before the quiz, my observations of the student’s very blank faces, and questions to me that they had learned nothing from the test and that it was not reliable. They could get very little from a multiple-choice assessment that was either right or wrong. In contrast, when I proctored almost (~60%) the same students for a free response essay in history class the next day, the detail and care that they responded to that essay, a subjective assessment, showed me that that group of student was better a performance subjective test rather than traditional objective based testing. Based on this I feel like I favor subjective forms of assessment because they are able to provide more feedback students.
Mental health and the criminal justice system have long been intertwined. Analyzing and understanding the links between these two subjects demands for a person to go in to depth in the fields of criminology, sociology, psychology, and psychiatry, because there are many points of view on whether or not a person’s criminal behavior is due to their mental health. Some believe that an unstable mental state of mind can highly influence a person’s decision of committing criminal actions. Others believe that mental health and crime are not related and that linking them together is a form of discrimination because it insinuates that those in our society that suffer from poor mental health are most likely to become a criminal due to their misunderstood behavior not being considered a normality in society. In this report I will go into detail of what mental health and mental illness is, what the differentiates a normal and a mentally unstable criminal, give examples of criminal cases where the defendant’s state of mind was brought up, introduce theories surrounding why one would commit crimes due to their mental health, and lastly I will discuss how the criminal justice system has been modified to accommodate mental health issues.
In the United States, there is a rising problem that is not going anywhere anytime soon, that is if we, as citizens, don 't change it. This problem is causing billions of dollars and people 's futures all because schools would rather teach ignorance than the truth. What’s the problem? Sex education. Although sex education may not seem like a rising conflict, it is actually one of the top controversial topics in our country regarding education. According to Brigid McKeon, “Each year, U.S. teens experience as many as 850,000 pregnancies, and youth under age 25 experience about 9.1 million sexually transmitted infections (STIs)” (McKeon). This number is so unbelievable to any sane person, but somehow schools still won 't take the initiative to teach realistic sex education. Sex education can be taught in two different procedures- comprehensive or abstinence only. The difference between the two methods is that comprehensive sex education teaches abstinence as a secondary choice, so that teens who decide not to wait are well educated on how to keep themselves protected. Comprehensive sex education should be required in every single public school because it is the most effective method on how to keep teenagers well informed and prepared.
Having comprehensive sex education in the schools gives teens safe place to discuss these issues in fact it has been shown that. Seeing that some teens are shy about asking the important questions from their parents, and the parents themselves are not always comfortable or brave enough to answer these questions which can be harmful the child. Having this be taught at the schools wil...
Sex education should be increased in schools. Nearly one million women under the age of 20 get pregnant each year. That means 2800 women get pregnant each day. If students are educated about the effects sex has on their lives, it lessens their chance of having children at an early age. Knowledge about sex can also lessen the chance of kids receiving STDS.
Sexual education in public schools has been an ongoing debate on whether it prevents abstinence and educates students on teen pregnancy, as well as the transmission of STD’s. There are many different pros as to why sexual education should be taught in schools, one is that in order for students to learn the correct way to be safe when being sexually active, they need to be given the accurate information. Students can be taught the correct terms of the reproductive system of sexually transmitted disease and contraception birth instead of ‘street slang’” (Sex Education in Schools Pros and Cons).
Overall, my point of view is that sexual education should be taught in school. It’s a subject that should not be looked over and should be taught before you go to high school when those things come into play. This is my point of view because boys and girls need to know about their bodies, know about STD’s, and know the different types of methods to prevent pregnancy. Sexual education should be taught regardless. Another important thing that everyone needs to learn are the different ways to stay protected so that you do not end up getting pregnant, or getting a girl pregnant. Instead of having unprotected intercourse they need to either use a condom, or be on some sort of birth control. There are many ways to be able to prevent pregnancy but they also need to know that you are never fully guaranteed that pregnancy won’t occur. They need to be informed
Whereas, the Sexual Education program promotes safe sex and knowledge of the sex and it’s consequences. The motto would be, “Knowledge is Power.” As a result of this program has decreased the rate of unplanned pregnancy and sexual disease outbreak. This is why it is argued that Sexual Education should be taught in the public school system.
First, sex education gives the children general knowledge about the sexual side of life, such as the differences between boys and girls and puberty. Teachers must clearly and intelligibly ...