Sex Education
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There is a highly charged social and political debate over sex education in middle and high school. On one side of the debate are those who believe that children in middle and high school should be provided with comprehensive sex education, including information on condoms, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), pregnancy and abortion. On the other side of the debate are those who believe that abstinence-only sex education should be the only sex education offered in middle and high schools. Abstinence-only sex education programs promote abstinence from all sexual activity as the only acceptable standard for school-age children. Advocates of abstinence-only programs also believe that sexual activity outside the context of marriage promotes harmful psychological and physical effects. One of these harmful effects is that comprehensive sex education programs promotes increased sexual activity. As Dan Richey, director of the Louisiana GovernorÆs Program for Abstinence, maintains sexuality, birth control, and other sex education topics promote increased sexual activity. As Richey maintains, ôTalking about contraception is taking children to the edge. Bottom line: When youÆre dealing with teenagers, the more sex information you give, the more sex you getö (McConahay 2004, 26). Many individuals who promote abstinence-only programs do so because they believe it promotes greater values among teenagers, like monogamy, faithfulness, and marriage as th
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transmitted infectionsö (Bush 2004, 27).
Far from needing sex education programs to inform them about sex, teenagers will discover sex in their own time once they meet a committed, loving partner. Revealing comprehensive information about sex to children through sex education programs will hasten their loss of innocence, while encouraging them to explore their sexuality outside of the appropriate context of marriage or a committed, monogamous relationship. Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo, founders of Growing Families International (GFI), argue that sex education leads to a premature loss of innocence and circumvents the natural development of sexual exploration by encouraging teens to have sex earlier than they might. As Francis reports, ôGFI adopts the premise that the knowledge of sexual anatomy as well as the anatomical function of the sex organs takes away from childhood innocenceàGFI states that no sex education is to be provided outside of the flower metaphor, believing that a couple will discover the realities on their ownö (Francis 2004, 1).
Roughly half of all Americans believe that providing teenagers with information about how to ôobtain and use condomsö will encourage them to have sexual intercourse ôearlier than they wo
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Approximate Word count = 2063
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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