Sexual Education

Sexual Education

How did you learn about sex? Odds are your parents reluctantly explained “the birds and the bees” to you around the time you learned about it in school. When you were young, you may have heard the Stork story, in which a huge bird carries children to their parents when the parents are ready for a baby. As you grew older and more inquisitive, they may have given you the classic “When a mommy and a daddy love each other very much….” Then, in your teenage years, you learned about the exact names, places and complications involved with sex. Immature sex jokes are inevitable, and sometimes found as very funny, but with all events that revolve around sex, you have learned more and more. The school, your parents, peers and your religion have played major roles in your current beliefs on sex. Children need to have sexual education in late elementary school or early middle school because more sexual education has contributed to less teen pregnancies and abortions, some parents may neglect to explain some factors to their children, and they may not know very much about the subject themselves, and religion may not offer enough information to be entirely safe.

Teen Pregnancy and abortion rates have been declining during the past few years, although the United States still has the highest rates in the industrialized world. In teenagers, the ones who have received an adequate sexual education have lower pregnancy and abortion rates the in teens with inadequate education or in abstinence-only programs. Sexual education contributes for 50% lower risk for teen pregnancy than abstinence programs (SIECUS, 2008). Did you know most teens that get pregnant in high school don’t finish high school, let alone college? They’re also more li...

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...efore they learn about it from other children or the media. This will help them make responsible decisions as a young adult.

Works Cited

Bryner, J. (2009, September 16). Teen Birth Rates Higher in Highly Religious States. Retrieved February 9, 2014, from LiveScience:

Kesterton, D. (2012, May 30). Sex Education: What Role Should Parents Play. Retrieved February 9, 2014, from The Guardian:

SIECUS. (2008, March 8). National Data Shows Comprehensive Sex Education Better at Reducing Teen Pregnancy. (Sexual Information and Education Council of the United States.) Retrieved February 9, 2014, from SIECUS: