Advantages And Disadvantages Of Sex Education Vs. Comprehensive Sex Education

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What is possibly a more delicate topic to introduce to kids than that of which concerns the birds and the bees? I know that I never got a talk from my parents as it just wasn’t to be discussed in our house and we would learn about it in our school’s Health class. Living in a small rural community in the heart of the southern “Bible Belt”, I can say from experience that the sex education my peers and I received was not sex education. The problem is, many sex education courses teach based on abstinence from sex until marriage. These programs use fear, shame, and even religious influences in order to prevent adolescents from having sex out of wedlock, thinking that less information will deter them from risky sex. However, it is the lack of knowledge that promotes these actions. By not providing kids with the information they need for sexual safety, abstinence from sex education is actually ineffective compared to comprehensive sex education. ‘Abstinence-only’ sex education is a mostly American form of sex education that teaches abstinence from sex until marriage and typically avoids discussion of contraceptives and sexual and reproductive health. ‘Comprehensive’ sex education on the other hand covers both the use of contraceptives and practicing abstinence. Due to the lack of information presented in …show more content…

In a comprehensive sex education class, students are instructed in a way in which they can make informed, healthy decisions about sex. There is a stress on abstinence (as it is the only fail-proof way to not have any sexual issues) HOWEVER, the curriculum These includes “age-appropriate, medically accurate information” on subjects related to sexuality including puberty, growth and development, personal relationships, LGBTQ information, decision-making, prevention of sexually transmitted disease, contraception, and abstinence

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