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)
... 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.
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.
It has been almost thirty three years since the first federal funding was put to use in “. . . sex education programs that promote abstinence-only-until-marriage to the exclusion of all other approaches . . .” according to the article “Sex education” (2010) published by “Opposing Viewpoints in Context;” a website that specializes in covering social issues. Since then a muddy controversy has arisen over whether that is the best approach. On one hand is the traditional approach of abstinence (not having sex before marriage), and on the other is the idea that what is being done is not enough, and that there needs to be a more comprehensive approach. This entails not only warning against sex, but also teaching teens about how to have “Safe Sex” (“Sex Education,” 2010).
Masland, Molly. “The Sex Education Debate: An Overview.” Sex Education. Ed. Kristen Bailey. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005. At issue. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.
Collins, Chris, Priya Alagiri, and Todd Summers. "Abstinence Only vs. Comprehensive Sex Education: What Are the Arguments? What Is the Evidence?" AIDS Research Institute. University of California, San Francisco, Mar. 2002. Web. 19 Feb. 2011. .
Sexual education programs taught in high schools nationwide would be much more effective if instead of focusing exclusively on abstinence only programs, they taught a much more comprehensive program, which informed the adolescents how to be safe when it comes to dealing with sexual activities. Abstinence only programs are the widely favored programs of the past and of present time, but now more and more adults are starting to believe their children would be better educated if they were involved in a more comprehensive program, that not only emphasized the teachings of abstinence but taught their children how to be safe, and how to deal with the consequences of their sexual activities. Each program offers a wide array of information, but taking both of those programs and putting them together, will really help teenagers deal with their sexual drive and issues.
Wirthman, Lisa. "Abstinence vs. Sex Education." The Denver Post. N.p., 06 July 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
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.
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)
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
Although many school systems teach abstinence-based sex-education, comprehensive sex-education is more beneficial to
Martinez, Gladys, Joyce Abma, and Casey Copen. “Educating Teenagers About Sex In The United States”. CDC.GOV. Center of Disease Control and Prevention, 15 Sept. 2010. Web. 09 Feb.2014
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)...
Sex education is imperative and necessary, but most teenagers finish sex education classes with a faint view of sexuality and without a good base knowledge of contraception or safe-sex practices. Instead, teens only learn that they should not have sex until they are married. Abstinence-only programs in public schools have become popular due to government funding millions of dollars to schools that teach the programs. These programs have the good intentions of convincing young people to wait until marriage before becoming intimate, but are not fully accomplishing this goal and are inconsistent by the one sided viewpoint they support.
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.