A Need for Comprehensive Sex Education
In America, we look up to a school education board as trustworthy to teach our children their daily requirements for gaining knowledge throughout their school years but what parents should take into consideration is to put comprehensive sex education as part of a high school curriculum. There are different oppositions with this topic but it can be seen as a way to help decrease teen pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. However, the fact is many teens go through school without knowing the real facts about sex and prevention.
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With many teens that lack knowledge about sex and prevention, comprehensive sex education programs can provide these aspects of knowledge with teaching our teens about safe sex, contraceptives, and abstinence. According to Advocates for Youth (2009), comprehensive sex education programs helped youth “delay onset of sexual activity, reduce the frequency of sexual activity, reduce number of sexual partners, and increase condom and contraceptive use.” Schools that include comprehensive sex education programs can see results that teens “were 60 percent less likely to report becoming pregnant or impregnating someone than those who received no sex education”(Dotinga, 2008). With great results coming out of sex education programs, schools should invest their time to help their students in providing them valuable knowledge. School education boards all around America need to stop and pay attention to see the lack of knowledge teens have about sex today. We must educate the youth and we also must not let them be ignorant of the problem in America today.
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In this generation today, teens are exposed to the social media and the internet that has “created a cultural that makes having sex OK, and creating an environment where promiscuity is excepted” (Alvarez, 2010). Without emphasis on the consequences of having sex, we can expect to see a serious problem in the future facing high rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. This one of the main reasons why comprehensive sex education should be implemented in a high school education for students because "the likelihood of pregnancy was 30 percent lower among those who had abstinence-only education compared to those who received no sex education" (Dotinga,2008). There are results everywhere but school education boards must act now on this issue. However, most teens feel uncomfortable and embarrassed to talk about the sex with their parents, but comprehensive sex education as part of a high school curriculum can help teens learn the true facts and myths about sex.Although, teachers shouldn’t be the only ones to teach their students about sex, parents should also take part of their child’s life to talk to them about sex.Parents can contribute a lot if only they talk to their child, at the appropriate age, to talk about sex because it shows how much to a teen how much their parents care about the decisions they make in their life. Comprehensive sex education can help parents engage in their child's life for the better. Now is the time for change for school education boards to consider taking this action in providing comprehensive sex education classes and together they can help fight the cause.
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Today, we need to face the problem of teen pregnancy and put a stop to it. With comprehensive sex education, we can hopefully see a decrease on teen pregnancy and other factors such as sexually transmitted diseases. As a country, we must take action now and unite to together to help fight the cause of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. In order to do this, it is up to school education boards to open the doors for future generations and organizations by providing comprehensive sex education as part of a high school curriculum. We must change the future together as one before it is too late. Education will always be a key factor for the youth, but with comprehensive sex education included in student’s high school curriculum I assure you that we will see a change in future.
References
Advocate for Youth. (2009). Comprehensive sex education: research and results. Retrieved February 27, 2010, from http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1487&Itemid=177
Alvarez, M. (2010, January 26). Incredibly disappointing: u.s. teen pregnancy rates on the rise. Message posted to http://health.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/01/26/incredibly-disappointing-u-s-teen-pregnancy-rates-on-the-rise/
Dotigna, R. (2008, March 19). Comprehensive sex education might reduce teen pregnancies, study finds. Retrieved from http://www.cfah.org/hbns/archives/getDocument.cfm?documentID=1676
Alvarez, M. (2010, January 26). Incredibly disappointing: u.s. teen pregnancy rates on the rise. Message posted to http://health.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/01/26/incredibly-disappointing-u-s-teen-pregnancy-rates-on-the-rise/
Dotigna, R. (2008, March 19). Comprehensive sex education might reduce teen pregnancies, study finds. Retrieved from http://www.cfah.org/hbns/archives/getDocument.cfm?documentID=1676
