Sex, Not only for Reproduction Throw away those abstinence rings and listen up teens! From ages twelve and up, us “young adults” have had adults pestering us to death about sex and all the drawbacks of having it. Well, to hell with that nonsense, sex isn’t as bad as it’s made out to be. Adults are quick to mention gonorrhea, syphilis, and of course that unwanted pregnancy. Yet what they fail to mention is the facts. In reality sex has many known health benefits that can boost a teen’s happiness and overall self-esteem which in turn helps relieve the stress from a teen’s everyday life. As many teens would attest to, the mixing of school and growing up is cause for disaster or more plainly put: stress. A study from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University found that stressed teens are more likely to try alcohol and tobacco. “Stressed teens find ways to unwind. In the high-stress group, 52% had tried alcohol; in the low-stress group, 29%.Thirty-one percent of the highly stressed teens had tried tobacco; 13% of low stress teens had” (Peterson). As my parents have often spewed to me, drugs and alcohol are highly addictive and are in no way something I should be meddling with. Drugs and alcohol have an outstandingly higher rate of deaths than sex does and as far as I know there are no fatalities from “sexing and driving”; if there is such a thing. Sex is scientifically proven to be a more efficient way of eliminating stress. “A big health benefit of sex is lower blood pressure and overall stress reduction, according to researchers from Scotland” (Doheny). All this in turn means that teens are less likely to try coke, meth, vodka, Captain Morgan, and all those other drugs and drinks. If adul... ... middle of paper ... ...sult could help make America a healthier and smarter America. Reference Page Doheny, Kathleen. "10 Surprising Health Benefits of Sex." WebMD - Better Information. Better Health. Ed. Louise Chang. WebMD, 30 Mar. 2009. Web. 28 July 2010. . Anitei, Stefan. "Why Should We Have Sex? 20 Good Healthy Reasons - It's Not Only about Reproduction - Softpedia." Latest News - Softpedia. Softpedia, 24 Nov. 2007. Web. 05 Aug. 2010. . "Is Sex Good Exercise?" HealthCentral.com - Trusted, Reliable and Up To Date Health Information. Health Central, 12 Dec. 2000. Web. 06 Aug. 2010. .
Elliott, Emma. "Abstinence Sex Education Reduces Teen Sexual Activity." Teens at Risk. Ed. Auriana Ojeda. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Opposing Viewpoints.
[2] Michod, Richard E. (1998). Origin of Sex for Error Repair. Theoretical Population Biology, 53, 60-74
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).
As you can see, it is important to research sexual selection across various species’. Similar mechanisms of selection are present in all animals. By learning how these mechanisms act in one species, it is possible to gain insight into the behavior of all animals, including human beings.
...le promiscuity." Nature Genetics 36.12 (2004): 1326-1329. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 24 July 2011.
Abstinence-Only programs are currently the most used in public schools, but this method is seriously out-dated and does not aptly deal with the issue that teenagers are participating in underage sex regardless of whether they have been told that they should not. Without the proper information, teenagers are blindly making a decision about having sex that could impact their lives in far many more ways than they can fathom, most not fully understanding the ramifications of their decision. The implementation across the nation of a comprehensive Abstinence-Plus program teaching: abstinence, health risks, birth control, teen pregnancy, and providing students with information and birth control is exactly what is needed.
As teenagers many of us don’t understand the importance of abstinence especially now that we have media influence and peer pressure but the truth is that being bullied and being grief stricken is not cool. Disadvantages of not practicing abstinence are transmission of diseases, such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, genital herpes and HIV/A...
...r me to discover that there are about 60% more teens acting on abstinence in today’s society than ever before, was just shocking. While it may seem in our culture that sexual activity is a growing normality for teenagers, more teenagers are actually waiting. Studies show that more teenagers are willing to make a pledge to be abstinent if they are educated about it. More teens if given the option would choose a basic sex education program, not an abstinence only program or a contraception only program. Abstinence is the ONLY full proof way to avoid unwanted teenage pregnancies.
...firm that effective sexual education is imperative to the American society as “rates of sexually transmitted disease (STD), teen pregnancy, and teen births are higher in the [U.S.] than in most other industrialized countries” (Kohler). In the contemporary society of America, the involvement of young adolescents in sexual relationships is a reality that cannot be denied and no school-based intervention can undo the pressure of media and natural hormonal urges that adolescents experience; but at least through an effective comprehensive-based sexual education teenagers can be provided with accurate medical and health information about prevention methods for teenage pregnancy, STDs and STIs, and HIV. Engaging in sexual behaviors is a personal decision and teenagers need to have accurate information about sexual self-protection so that they can be well-prepared and safe.
Teaching our young teens to abstain from sex until marriage seems hopelessly obsolescent when television and other media are repetitively reinforcing the widespread notion that promiscuity is acceptable because “everyone is doing it.” (Seagren, 2002). So to teach anything but abstinence is crazy. Comprehensive sexual education is sending teens mixed messages at best and at worst it is unknowingly condones promiscuity. It is does not set a clear understanding of what the consequences are for premarital sex. Comprehensive sexual education is proven affective in the decrease of teenage pregnancy but at the same time it is encouraging the teens to engage in premarital sex, which most of the teens are really not ready
"Teen Pregnancy Prevention Focusing on Evidence: Ineffective Abstinence-Only Lessons Being Replaced with Science." The Nation's Health Apr. 2010: 1+. Academic OneFile. Web. 4 Apr. 2012.
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...
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.
Though I am not a sexually active teenager, refraining from sexual involvement has been difficult. I have been in serious relationships where the desire to have sex has been complicated by emotional expectations. Abstinence is especially hard in a society that seems to promote sex, as long as it is "safe" sex. I feel that the support, which used to come from authority figures such as parents and educators, is crumbling because of the initiation of programs such as condom distribution. It is as though parents and schools have forgotten that some teenagers, for whatever personal reasons, do not desire to be sexually active. I do not minimize the need to educate teenagers about safe sex and the risks of sexually transmitted diseases, for I am ...
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).