Abstinence Only Education

Sexual education is a thoroughly debated topic in the United States today and almost every parent or teacher has a strong opinion of whether sex ed should be taught in schools. Of the two main types of sexual education, abstinence only education and comprehensive sexual education, both have spread throughout the country. The influence of sexual education began in the 1800s when the normalization of sexuality began to come into focus and the act of lowering unwanted and teen pregnancies became a main concern. Since the 1960s, conflicts have flourished about whether sexual education is effective, appropriate and should be taught to children and young adults. The so often hidden topic of the birds and the bees being exposed in schools has become an ongoing

Abstinence programs and curriculums are solely based on encouraging young adults to avoid sexual activity at all costs and to wait until marriage. This kind of education can have it’s benefits because abstinence does have a one hundred percent effectiveness in protecting against pregnancy and STIs. Although abstinence does have this positive outcome, abstinence only education has been observed to also teach about the psychological, emotional and physical repercussions of having sex before marriage. Students are sometimes scared into abstinence only and teachers are told to tell students that having sex is a sin. Comparisons to girls being like an old shoe or a chewed up piece of gum are used to show what a girl will be if she has sex before marriage. This kind of curriculum also skips over any information about the uses of contraception and discourages teenagers from ever accepting that sexuality is a normal and healthy part of being