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Personal opinions on abstinence education
Advantages of sex education in schools
Advantage of sex education
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Recommended: Personal opinions on abstinence education
Yolanda Ramos-Guistizia
Prof. Ken Knight
ENG-122
September 27th, 2014
Should sexual education be taught in public schools?
Should sexual education be abstinence only?: Sex-Ed In Schools I support sexual education being taught in public school and it should not be limited to abstinence only. A school based program provides accurate information, provides helpful information about protection, and sexually transmitted diseases. Pledging an abstinence only policy means students will not get the most informative education, and will leave them to learn on their own, which may be them experimenting or asking a friend, who provides faulty information. Providing a sexual education program in schools will give children, and teens, valuable
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"Students should be taught safe sex in school"). During 2006 through 2008, 46 percent of males and 33 percent of females did not receive information on contraceptives. What is more scary is that of teens between the ages 18-19; 41 percent say they know little or nothing about condoms while 75 percent say they know nothing about the contraceptive pill (Lickona, Thomas. "Where sex education went wrong"). These numbers can drop drastically if we provide our children and teens with an education program to help them gain knowledge about the real statistics of sex.
With a proper program in our public schools, we can clear up myths about intercourse, such as not being able to get pregnant the first time. Our children and teens can also learn that roughly nine million new STI's occur every year.
Providing an abstinence only program will not give students necessary information. Research shows one in four adolescents received an abstinence only education without giving them any information on birth control. These programs do not convey the entire message to
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It's been found that few educators are formally trained to use gender-specific teaching techniques (Stanberry, Kristin. "Single sex education: the pros and cons").
Page Break To refute these claims it should be noted that experienced teachers usually understand gender differences and are adept at accommodating a variety of learning styles within their classroom. Students will one day live and work side-by-side with members of the opposite sex, educating students in single-sex schools limits their opportunity to work cooperatively and co-exist with members of the opposite sex.
Sex education for teenagers is essential, and the responsibility of every parent. Allowing these programs into our school system, it would also become the responsibility of the teacher. I believe it's better for the students to gain the knowledge from their peers and not from other sources such as friends, or the web. Schools are a major influence for giving instructions and experiences to students to help them in their roles as productive adults. Schools can play a major role in students' health related
Since the HIV/AIDS epidemic began in the U.S. in the early 1980s the issue of sex education for American youth has had the attention of the nation. There are about 400,000 teen births every year in the U.S, with about 9 billion in associated public costs. STI contraction in general, as well as teen pregnancy, have put the subject even more so on the forefront of the nation’s leading issues. The approach and method for proper and effective sex education has been hotly debated. Some believe that teaching abstinence-only until marriage is the best method while others believe that a more comprehensive approach, which includes abstinence promotion as well as contraceptive information, is necessary. Abstinence-only program curriculums disregard medical ethics and scientific accuracy, and have been empirically proven to be ineffective; therefore, comprehensive sex education programs which are medically accurate, science-based and empirically proven should be the standard method of sex education for students/children in the U.S.
Today’s young Americans face strong peer pressure to be sexually active and engage themselves in risky behaviors (Merino 100-109). Anyone deciding to have sex must first think about all the risks involved. Kekla Magoon, author of Sex Education in Schools, says that “half of all teens aged 15 to 19 years old in the United States have had sex” (Magoon 64-65). It is currently not required by federal law for schools to teach Sex education and those few schools that do teach Sex education have the decision to determine how much information is allowed. Advocates from both sides of the Sex education debate agree that teens need positive influences in order to make practical decisions (Magoon 88-89). Opponents of Abstinence-only education believe it fails because it does not prepare teens for all the risks of sex (Magoon 64-65).
Students should be informed about more than just “don’t have sex” because eventually it is going to happen and they need to be educated on the proper way to handle the situations. Because students are mostly taught abstinence it has created the situation to where researchers find” Abstinence-only education, instead of reducing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, has made teenagers and young adults more vulnerable to ST...
How many girls have you see around school who are pregnant? Do you ever come to think that they may not have had the “sex talk” with their parents or any sort of sex education at school? “The United Stated still has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any industrialized country. About 40 percent of American women become pregnant before the age of 20. The result is about 1 million pregnancies each year among women ages 15 to 19.” (The Annie E. Casey Foundation) At the age 15-20 most teen males and females don’t have a stable job and are still going to school. There is much at risk when a male and female decide to have sexual intercourse. Having a sex education class would help decrease the teen pregnancy rate. Learning what one can do to prevent a teen pregnancy and the consequences that can lead up to it, will help reduce the amount of sexual activity among teens. Having a sex education class that is required will benefit the upcoming teens of the next generation. Some parents don’t want their teens to have premarital sex and some parents don’t want the schools to be the ones responsible to teach their kids about sex education because they feel like it’s their job. There has been much controversy on sex education being taught at school.
In today’s society having an abstinence-only education doesn’t lower the risk of adolescents becoming pregnant or catching sexually transmitted diseases, also known STD’s. Teaching abstinence as the only morally acceptable option is wrong. The only thing that will lower that risk is teaching sex education in public schools. Adolescents will become more aware of the risks and factors that come along with sexual intercourse at a young age. Bringing a sex ed course into public schools will set better knowledge into a student 's mind rather than telling them “having sex is bad, just say no”. What happens when the adolescent is ready and says yes?
Stanberry, Kristen. "Single-sex Education: The Pros and Cons." GreatSchools. GreatSchools Inc, 2013. Web. 19 Dec. 2013.
In the United States, there is a rising problem that is not going anywhere anytime soon, that is if we, as citizens, don 't change it. This problem is causing billions of dollars and people 's futures all because schools would rather teach ignorance than the truth. What’s the problem? Sex education. Although sex education may not seem like a rising conflict, it is actually one of the top controversial topics in our country regarding education. According to Brigid McKeon, “Each year, U.S. teens experience as many as 850,000 pregnancies, and youth under age 25 experience about 9.1 million sexually transmitted infections (STIs)” (McKeon). This number is so unbelievable to any sane person, but somehow schools still won 't take the initiative to teach realistic sex education. Sex education can be taught in two different procedures- comprehensive or abstinence only. The difference between the two methods is that comprehensive sex education teaches abstinence as a secondary choice, so that teens who decide not to wait are well educated on how to keep themselves protected. Comprehensive sex education should be required in every single public school because it is the most effective method on how to keep teenagers well informed and prepared.
For many years abstinence has been regulation among the united states for teaching teens about sex. Students are not taught how contraceptives work, where to buy them, how to get checked for stds and other valuable information that people who have sex should know. Instead, the educators decide that just telling the student body not to do it would cause some magical thinking upon the kids, creating them not to participate in sexual activities. What these schools fail to realize is that it is not about what they want the teens to do, its about what the teens are going to feel obligated to do. The schools fail to see how poorly abstinence really works, how poorly it teaches sexualy active teens to be protected, and how poorly it prepares students for potential STDs and pregnancies.
Single sex education is a controversial battle that will most likely continue for decades. However, research and studies have shown in multiple cases and circumstances that single sex education is an extremely important tool that should be utilized in numerous situations. Many people think that dividing students based on sex will perpetuate gender discrimination; however, this kind of education may bridge more gaps than people realize. Not only do boys and girls develop and function differently, they are distracted by one another. Eliminating distractions and making classrooms conducive to each gender and learning style will ultimately result in a tremendous incline in academic grades and student participation.
Starting at an earlier period of time increases the chance of healthy life choices to become a lifestyle, and allow the students to become accustom to healthy sex lifestyles. Sex education classes provide knowledge about various sexually transmitted diseases and how they are transmitted, safe sex, different contraceptives, and consequences of choosing not to practice safe sex. Providing adolescence with this type of knowledge would decrease STD rates. For example, many adolescent do not know that STDs can be transmitted while performing oral sex or they do not know that they can become pregnant their first time having sex. The awareness of different contraceptives that are offered would help decrease the rate of unwanted teen pregnancies. Most adolescent drop out of high school in order to work jobs or to stay home and care for their children. Changing the trend of unwanted teen pregnancies would result in more high school graduates, which would set the foundation for successful, responsible adults.
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.
Overall, my point of view is that sexual education should be taught in school. It’s a subject that should not be looked over and should be taught before you go to high school when those things come into play. This is my point of view because boys and girls need to know about their bodies, know about STD’s, and know the different types of methods to prevent pregnancy. Sexual education should be taught regardless. Another important thing that everyone needs to learn are the different ways to stay protected so that you do not end up getting pregnant, or getting a girl pregnant. Instead of having unprotected intercourse they need to either use a condom, or be on some sort of birth control. There are many ways to be able to prevent pregnancy but they also need to know that you are never fully guaranteed that pregnancy won’t occur. They need to be informed
Abstinence seems to have the moral high ground, if one listens to its followers. Abstinence sex education only covers the fact that cutting yourself off of any sexual behavior is the only true way to prevent diseases and sickness. While it is true in theory, no average person will be able to or want to do that to themselves. The reason this style of teaching is still used is because the more religious side of America is fearful of discussing taboo subjects, and suspects that once children learn more about the ways of the world, they will eventually grow up to be deviants and criminals. On the other hand, sexual education that includes abstinence along with contraception information covers the whole topic.
...tions and fifty percent of them were from young adults ages 15-24 (CDC). “Every year around nineteen million Americans get an STI infection and out of that nineteen million, nine million of them are young adults between the age 15 to 24” (STD Statistics). We want statistics like these to go down not stay the same or go up. They are not going to go down unless we do something about it. The more people getting viruses, the better chance our children are going to have sex with someone that has a virus and does not know it. There will be a domino effect passing viruses down from generation to generation if something does not change. It is a parent’s job to want the best for their children, education, health and knowing all about everything that can change their lives drastically. More sex education in schools could change the direction that people’s lives are heading.
Single-sex school environments resolve the differences between the learning styles of male and female students because teachers are able to focus on learning-styles that will benefit their students.