Sex education is about informing students about sex so that they can make educated decisions when the time comes to have sex. Sex education helps students protect themselves from unintended pregnancies, STDs, and HIV/AIDS. Students should leave a sex education course with the right tools so they make informed decisions about their sexual health and well-being. The goal of sex education is to provide a student with as much information as possible so that they can use the skills they learned in class for the rest of their lives. However, for some time now, sex education has been a hot button issue in the United States. The debate is over which form of sex education is best for students. In recent years there has been much debate about which form of sex education is most effective: Abstinence, Abstinence-Plus, or Comprehensive. Abstinence sex education does not acknowledge that teenagers will become sexually active, thus, students do not learn about the different forms of contraception, and students do not learn about abortion. Also, students are taught that the risks of contracting an STD or HIV are prime reasons to remain abstinent. Abstinence-plus sex education explores the context and significance of sex. Although abstinence-plus education still promotes abstinence, it is acknowledged that many teenagers will become sexually active. Students are taught about contraception, abortion, STDs, and HIV/AIDS. Comprehensive sex education does not focus on teaching young people that they should remain abstinent until marriage, though it does teach it. Although students learn the benefits of abstinence, students learn how to themselves when they do decide to have sex. In my high school, we were required to have a one-seme... ... middle of paper ... ...f they learn about sex comprehensively. Works Cited 1. http://www.kff.org/content/2000/3048/SexED.pdf 2. http://www.siecus.org 3. http://www.cwfa.org/library/family/1998-07_pp_abstinence.shtml 4. Elliott, Emma. "Abstinence Sex Education Reduces Teen Sexual Activity." Teens at Risk. Ed. Auriana Ojeda. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Opposing Viewpoints. 5. "Sex Education Is More Effective Than Abstinence-Only Education." Do Abstinence Programs Work? Ed. Christina Fisanick. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. At Issue. 6. "Comprehensive Sex Education Is Inappropriate and Harmful." Do Abstinence Programs Work? Ed. Christina Fisanick. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. At Issue. 7. Sendziuk, Paul. "Zipped trousers, crossed legs, and magical thinking: sex education in the age of AIDS." Dissent 55.3 (2008): 55+. (Academic Journal)
Sex Education. (2010). In Current Issues: Macmillan social science library. Detroit: Gale. Retrieved from http://ic.galegroup.com.byui.idm.oclc.org/ic/ovic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?query=&prodId=OVIC&contentModules=&displayGroupName=Reference&limiter=&disableHighlighting=true&displayGroups=&sortBy=&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&action=2&catId=GALE%7C00000000LVZ0&activityType=&documentId=GALE%7CPC3021900154&source=Bookmark&u=byuidaho&jsid=97f094e06dbbf5f2bcaec07adbde8e61
Katz, Nikki. (2004). Abstinence Only Sex Education Program in Schools. Retrived on April 13, 2005 from http://womensissues.about.com/od/healthsexuality/i/isabstinenceonl.htm
Wirthman, Lisa. "Abstinence vs. Sex Education." The Denver Post. N.p., 06 July 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
... abstinence provides such as a decreased risk in contracting STIs and HIV. Lowen has a B.A in English and attended graduate school for communications at Syracuse University. She also received the Exceptional Merit in Media Award from the National Women 's Political Caucus in 2009. Throughout her piece, she states that abstinence promotes focus in school and decreases a teen’s emotional vulnerability. She also adds that abstinence is free and doesn’t come with any side effects, whereas other contraceptives do such as birth control pills. I will use this source to support my counterargument and to emphasize the importance of abstinence, especially when it is a personal choice. I will also use this information to explain why abstinence and comprehensive education should be taught together in order to have an effective sexual education course in middle and high schools.
When thinking about being a teenager, everyone can remember how stressful of a time this truly was. Today’s teens now have one more stressing aspect and that is that of abstinence only policies. Many high schools throughout the United States, are opting out of abstinence only education and going to the much more effective comprehensive sex education. Schools that strictly teach abstinence only, have higher rates of teen pregnancy and are at a substantially increased STD risk rate. While there are two very opposing sides to how teenagers will be taught about sex, the underlying theme is that, young adults should be aware that abstinence is the only 100% safe way to not get an STD or become pregnant. However, they also need to be taught the real
Stanger-Hall, K. & Hall, D. (2011). Abstinence-Only Education and Teen Pregnancy Rates: Why We Need Comprehensive Sex Education in the U.S. PLoS ONE 6(10).
Santelli, J., Ott, M. A., Lyon M., Rogers, J., Summers, D., & Schleifer, R. (2005). Abstinence and Abstinence-Only Education: A Review of U.S. Policies and Programs. Journal of Adolescent Health, 38, 72-81.
Although many school systems teach abstinence-based sex-education, comprehensive sex-education is more beneficial to
Sexual education has been a heated topic for years. The topic started in 1912 when the National Education Association wanted teachers to begin lecturing in sex ed programs.(Pardini, Priscilla) In 1940 the U.S. Public Health Service labeled sexual education an “urgent need” and strongly advocated it in schools.(Pardini, Priscilla) Though sexual education had support from health officials and educators, there were many opponents.(Pardini, Priscilla) Conservatives and health advisors battled over how sex ed benefits and how it should be taught in schools.(Pardini, Priscilla)
If comprehensive sex education is offered at schools to children, it will allow them access to more information that if the parent tried to educate them. The reasons for this are that the teachers are specially trained to teach the children this information in a way that they can understand. Having this class at schools also provides the children with textbooks which offer even more things like drawings, diagrams and accurate information about sex education. Making sure teen have accurate information about sex important making sure that they are ready for sex instead of leaving them guessing or worst using inaccurate information.
Parents and guardians should be the key instructors of sex education for their children. Honest, open communication between parents and children throughout childhood, pre-teen, adolescent and young adulthood can help young people to mature into sexually healthy adults. The primary goal of sex education in the schools should be to help and encourage young people to build a foundation as they mature into sexually healthy adults. These programs should assist young people in understanding a positive view of sexuality, provide them with information and skills about taking care of their themselves and push them towards making decisions about solving problems now and in the future.
Sex education in our schools has been a hot topic of debate for decades. The main point in question has been whether to utilize comprehensive sex education or abstinence-only curriculum to educate our youth. The popularity of abstinence-only curriculum over the last couple of decades has grown largely due to the United States government passing a law to give funding to states that teach the abstinence-only approach to sex education. But not teaching our children about sex and sexuality is not giving them the information they need to make well educated decisions. Sex education in our schools should teach more than just abstinence-only because these programs are not proven to prevent teens from having sex. Children need to be educated on how to prevent contracting sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies and be given the knowledge to understand the changes to their bodies during puberty. According to the Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education: Kindergarten-12th Grade from the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), comprehensive sex education “should be appropriate to age, developmental level, and cultural background of students and respect the diversity of values and beliefs represented in the community” (SIECUS).
The abstinence only and traditional sex education programmes, whilst the most conventional forms of education are not the most effective approach to educate young people about sexual health. The abstinence-only approach to sexual education advocates self-restraint or self-denial as the only-option and typically excludes any discussion on the value of safe sexual practices and refusal skills. Traditionally, American culture has valued the abstinence-only approach to sexual education to delay early sexual activity and reduce unplanned and unwanted pregnancies (Erkut et al, 20013)...
The need for sex education is very questionable in today’s society. An article by Pamela DeCarlo, from the Centre for AIDS Prevention Studies, discusses why sex education is needed in schools. She asks why education on this subject is needed and if will help or hurt today’s children. Her view of the issue is that kids do need to have education to help to protect them but that it isn’t enough to prevent them from receiving STD’s and becoming pregnant. “Knowledge alone is not enough to change behaviors.” DeCarlo also says that, “Programs that rely mainly on conveying information about sex or moral precepts-how...
Sex education is instruction on issues relating to human sexuality, including emotional relations and responsibilities, human sexual anatomy, sexual activity, sexual reproduction, age of consent, reproductive health, reproductive rights, safe sex, birth control and sexual abstinence. Sex education that covers all of these aspects is known as comprehensive sex education.