Teaching Sex Education in Schools

There is an ongoing debate about what to teach in sex education in schools, and whether to promote abstinence or to distribute condoms. Part of the debate centers around who should be responsible for such decisions - the parents or the teachers. Opinions vary greatly from state to state and from school to school within states. This lack of consensus of opinion makes it harder on students because they do not know whose advice to follow when they hear conflicting sides of the story.

The one thing both groups agree on is that teens need protection from pregnancy and venereal diseases which result from unprotected sex. With the enormous numbers of teen pregnancies, and the spread of HIV/AIDS, this is an enormous problem everywhere, and educational institutions as well as parents need to get together on this and make sure that teens are fully informed and fully protected from unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Both these problems can be readily avoided with a little common sense and some good education.

Side A: Students are entitled to comprehensive, medically accurate sexuality education, which is becoming the exception rather than the rule in abstinence-only programs (Planned). Abstinence-only programs also do not give adequate information on HIV/AIDS. Since 1996, $1 billion in federal and state matching funds has gone into abstinence-only programs. Because of a requirement that states match federal funds for abst

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rientation and abortion (Planned). This is despite the fact that the U.S. has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the developed world, and American adolescents are contracting AIDS faster than any other demographic group. Side B: Former Surgeon General Jocelyn M Elders says that teens need a comprehensive sexuality program that provides them with all the information they need to become empowered and responsible for preventing pregnancy and disease (Elders). She says that we have to stop trying to legislate morals and teach responsibility instead, and abstinence-only does not do that. She says teens need more information to be responsible, and that studies have shown school condom availability programs do not increase the sexual activity of students. Elders says there are more than three million cases of sexually transmitted disease every year in people under age 19, and that genital herpes, which cannot be cured, increased 30 percent in the 8 or 9 years preceding 2002. With 900,000 teen pregnancies a year and the sharp rise in HIV/AIDS in teenagers, condom use is a high priority and their distribution on schools cannot be questioned. Elder says that it is alright to teach abstinence in kindergarten and elementary scho

Category: Psychology - T