Sex Education is Necessary in High-School

Does sex education encourage sex? According to Benjamin Spock the author of Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care, “Many parents are afraid that talking about sex with their teenagers will be taken as permission for the teen to have sex. Nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, the more children learn about sexuality from talking with their parents and teachers and reading accurate books, the less they feel compelled to find out for themselves. ” Before 1910 there is no recollection of the history of sex education.

We managed as people to “replicate” ourselves very well for decades and absolutely nowhere near our level of family disruption. In 1915 the first of anyone who introduced a significant change in all of this was Margaret Sanger [The founder of Planned Parenthood, the largest promoter of sex education and abortion in the U. S. and in the world. ] She wrote, What Every Boy And Girl Should Know. Sex Education should be taught in High-Schools because the research on sex education has shown that the prevention programs have a high affect on behaviors and they help achieve positive health impacts.

It has helped reduce the frequency of sex, new number of sex partners, and also the unprotected sex mishaps which are increasing the use of condoms and contraception’s (“Sex Education”). About every year over 800,000 pregnancies and young adults under the age 25 experience about 9. 1 million sexually transmitted infections (STIs) (“Effective Sex Education”). Criticize that by age 18, 70 percent of U. S. females and about 62% of males have engaged in sexual intercourse.

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In the program no abstinence-only-until-marriage has shown results that they help teens to be able to delay in engaging in sexual intercourse or to at least protect themselves when they actually do engage in sex (“Effective Sex Education”). Sex education and HIV/STI prevention programs do not increase rates of sexual engagement, and do not lower the age at which youth engages them in sex, and they do not increase the number of sex partners and the frequency of sex among young adults.

But do consider that between the 90s and 2004 the U. S teen birthrate fell from 62 to 41 per 1000 female teens. Experts say that 75 percent of the decline is due to increased contraceptives and 25 percent in to being abstinence of sexual intercourse. Others might say contraceptives and abstinence are very equal, but regardless contraceptives have been very critical to reducing the teenage pregnancy (“Abma et al”).

Some might say that parents should teach their teenagers about sexual intercourse or to at least talk to them about it, but some will say that it is easier for someone who actually knows what they are talking about such as a sex education classes to give the reasons of why being abstinence is more important than being sexually active because teenagers tend not to listen to their parents they would rather listen to their peers and the society. Also consider that some teenagers don’t like to be embarrassed especially when talking about their gender based anatomy.

But what they don’t know is that classes are gender exclusive, which saves the embarrassment amongst their peers and teaches them only what is necessary for their gender. If taught properly sex education could become a regular course such as the human anatomy and biological science are taught as high school credits that go towards their graduating credits. If students are taught the correct terms of reproductive systems, sexually transmitted diseases and birth contraceptives instead of the “street lingo” and the appropriate sexual education can have such an impact on preventing the sexual problems in adulthood.

As for the Planned Parenthood issue it just “promotes comprehensive sex education in schools and for school-aged youth as an important way- along with parental guidance- to help young people lead sexually healthy and responsible lives”(“Sex Education in Schools”). Advise that parents and teachers do have doubts about the sexually education but Planned Parenthood just helps assist schools in developing and delivering medically accurate, age-appropriate sex education curriculum, so teens just don’t learn things beyond their age maturity.

Although about 13% of U. S. teens have had sex by the age of 15, most of them initiate in sex in their late teen years. By their 19th birthday, 7 in 10 teen men and women have had intercourse (Abma et al). Between the years of 1988 and 2006-2010, the proportion of never-married teens aged 15-17 who had ever engaged in sexual intercourse declined from 37% to 27% among females and from 50% to 28% among males. Conclude that during the same period, among teens aged 8-19, declined from 73% to 63% among females and 77% to 64% among males (Martinez G et al).

Experts at the Guttmatcher Institute say 86% of the decline in the teen pregnancy rate between 1995 and 2002 was the result of dramatic improvements in contraceptive use, including increases of teens using a single method of contraception’s and increase of using multiple methods simultaneously and a substantial decline in nonuse. But only 14% of the decline is attributable to the decrease in sexual activity (“Facts on American Teens’ Sources of Information About Sex”).

Public school systems have been implementing sexual education into their classrooms as a regular part of instruction for decades. The controversy are very abundant and when dealing with such delicate issues and there are many pros and cons to the sexual education being taught in the public schools. It seems that most parents are either strongly against or strongly in favor of sexual education classes, but very few parents are in the middle ground. But in fact there are more parents that are actually in favor of sexual education classes.

As the result of polls they have estimated that less than 7% of the population does not believe that sexual education should be requirement in schools (“Pros and Cons”). As of 93% who are actually in favor of the subject matter that are as part of the regular curriculum such as when teens take human anatomy and physiology or biology the classes are very similar to sexual education but as sexual education tends to be more based to the diseases, STD’s. But as the 7% of the parents/teachers that are disagreeing to the class are considering more of the cons aspect than what good it could possibly do.

Such as being aware of his or her own family or religious beliefs and values and know their child’s intellect and maturity levels, or the myths surrounding the intercourse can be dispelled (such as not being able to get pregnant the first time) (“Pros and Cons”). But even when these such classes are available the sexual education are taught as a brief interlude during a physical education or a health class which in reality is not long enough to relate such serious material.

Also the teachers are not always trained how to properly teach sexual education courses and may transgress their own beliefs and morals into the subject matter rather than sticking with the facts. But what parents/teachers are ignorant to even just a class of appropriate sexual education can have an impact on preventing sexual problems in adulthood, studies show that many teenagers become sexually active before the inclusion of the educational classes.

Early inclusion of classes has proven to help student remain either abstinent or to at least be responsible if they are active (Parker). Conclude that the idea of schools and the state have a responsibility to teach young people about sex is a peculiarly modern one. The rise of sex education to a regular place in the school curriculum in the United States and Western Europe is not, however, simply a story of modern enlightenment breaking through a heritage of repression and ignorance.

The movements of sex education can be understood through several related angles: as part of larger struggles in the modern era over who determines the sexual morality of the coming generation; as part of the persistent tendency to view adolescence especially adolescent sexuality (“Sex Education”). Sex education has always been shaped by its historical context. Much to the distress of sex educators, young people do not simply memorize their school lessons and apply them perfectly.

But all in all sexual education to an understanding and despite the educators’ moralistic tone, sex education met immediate opposition. Sexual education has very well statistics being taught in school when relating it to the pregnancies and more teens being aware of the contraceptives and condom use has proven/ shown fewer percentages of sexual activity, and new numbers of sex partners and fewer less mishaps of unprotected sex mishaps.

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