"Forty percent of today's fourteen
year old girls will become pregnant by the time they are nineteen" (qtd.
in "The Effects" 632). This
statistic may indicate that the sex education
programs in the United States are not controlling the effects of sex by
teens. "The United States has the
highest teen pregnancy rate of developed countries" ("The
Effects" 632). I believe that the people of this nation need
to look at the current sex education programs and see if they are properly
addressing the problems that sex education was intended to stop. The three major reasons why sex education is
taught in our schools are: 1) to discourage teens from having sex at younger
and younger ages; 2) to stop the spread of AIDS and other STDs; and 3) to
prevent teenage pregnancy.
I believe
that the sex education programs being used today are not effective at
controlling these three problems.
Today's sex education programs are abstinence based. "Washington has spent some $31.7 million
developing abstinence only curricula" (Shapiro 56). By looking at the problems sex education
tries to solve, we can improve the sex education programs by putting the
problems in order of importance. This
will prove that teens having sex at a younger age is the reason for the failure
of sex education in this country. To
counteract this problem abstinence should be taught to children under the age
of 16. Then when the children reach the
age of 16 they need to be taught AIDS and condom education.
AIDS and other STDs are an important
reason we have sex education. AIDS
education is supported in all fifty
states: "Sex education is only
formally required or recommended
in 47 states" (Gibbs 61). This
shows that AIDS education is considered
1-Peters
2-Peters
more important
than sex education. AIDS can be spread
by the transfer of bodily fluids such as blood or semen from an infected person
to one who is not. This includes sexual
activity, intravenous drug use, and blood transfusions. Many people are still contracting AIDS
through sexual contact even though there has been a nationwide awareness
program. It is a fact that "2.5
million teenagers are affected by sexually transmitted diseases each year"
("The Effects" 632). This
statistic does not take into account AIDS cases. That is a large number of teens that are
missing the message about safe sex and abstinence. This shows how poorly our current system of
sex education is working. Because if it
was effective, these numbers would be much lower than what they are. Condoms
can prevent the spread of AIDS sexually, but the use of condoms requires a
change in one's sexual habits.
"Once patterns of sexual intercourse and contraceptive use are
established, they may be difficult to change" (qtd. in Whitehead 69). "One survey shows that among sexually
active 15 year olds, only 26 percent of boys and 48 percent of girls had sex
education by the time they had first intercourse" (Shapiro 58). This is one reason that AIDS education has
not been totally successful. It relies
on sex education to stress condom use, but many young teens are forming their
patterns of contraceptive use or nonuse before they are educated enough to make
the right decision.
Another major problem sex education tries
to solve is teen pregnancy.
"American teenage females experience about one million unplanned
pregnancies each year" ("The Effects" 632). "About thirty-seven percent of teenage
pregnancies end in abortion and about fourteen percent in miscarriage"
(Whitehead 73). The social consequences
of teens having children are great. If a
teenage mother does not finish high school or become married there is a
seventy-nine percent chance that the mother and the child will be poor
(Whitehead 73). Teenage girls have greater
control over their fertility today than they had
3-Peters
in the past, and
yet the percentage of births to unwed mothers continues to rise (Whitehead
73). This shows that sex education has
failed to slow the rate of teen pregnancy.
Teens in this country are having sex at a
younger and younger age. "In 1970,
five percent of fifteen year old girls and 32 percent of seventeen year old
girls reported having had sex; by 1988 the figures had increased to twenty-six
percent of fifteen year old girls and fifty-one percent of seventeen year
olds" (Whitehead 72). Another
survey by the Centers for Disease Control also came up with similar
numbers. They reported 40% of 15 year
olds reported having sex in 1993; but in 1970 only 10% of 15 year olds reported
having sex (Shapiro 57). This shows how
dramatic the increase of young sexually active teen girls is. This may
not seem like a problem at first glance, but when you look at the
circumstances surrounding young girls having sex the problem becomes clear. "The younger a girl is when she begins to
have sex, the more vulnerable she is to its risks. She is less likely than an older teenager to
be in a steady relationship, to plan her first intercourse, or to use
contraception" (Whitehead 74.)
As a result, girls who had their first
intercourse at age fifteen or younger are almost twice as likely as eighteen
year olds to become pregnant within the first six months of sexual activity
(Whitehead 74). Some researchers believe
that teenage girls are at greater risk for STDs than adult women because their
cervical lining is not yet fully mature and is therefore more vulnerable to
pathogens (Whitehead 73). These facts
indicate that young teens engaging in sex are not protecting themselves
properly. This proves that teens having
sex at a younger age are more vulnerable to AIDS and pregnancy.
Summarizing, I feel that sex education
does not effectively protect teens from the consequences of having sex. I also feel that because teens are having sex
at a younger age
4-Peters
than ever before,
they are outrunning the sex education programs.
These programs were not designed for teens that are having sex at the
age of twelve. This causes sex education
to fail because many teens are having sex before they are receiving sex
education in the high schools. Also,
many of the sex education programs are abstinence based, and teens are having
sex. Without proper knowledge of how to
use a condom, many teens are left unprotected from diseases and pregnancy. To solve these problems a number of changes
in the sex education system need to be made.
Sex education needs to be taught in schools at a younger age. Sex education also should teach teens how to
use a condom and teach AIDS education.
First, sex education needs to be taught in
schools. Many parents do not know the
facts about AIDS or diseases. Having
parents teaching their children sex education at home is only going to put
strain on the parents, and it will leave some teens uneducated about sex. Many parents would choose not to teach their
children about sex education, because they feel uncomfortable talking to their
children about sex. Public opinion
agrees that sex education should be taught in schools. "Nine in 10 Americans agree: Schools
should teach kids about sex" (Shapiro 56).
What Americans disagree on is what form of education should be taught in
schools. I believe that parents should
be offered the opportunity to come to the sex education class's with their
children, so they can learn what information their child is receiving. That way the schools could act as a beginning
point for the parents and child to talk about sex comfortably in their
home. It would also solve the problem of
parents who disagree about what should be taught.
I believe that their should be two
different levels of sex education for children of different age groups. Children under the age of 16 should only be
taught abstinence. This would slow the trend
of 13, 14, 15 year olds having sex. It
would also decrease the
5-Peters
numbers of teen
pregnancy because these girls are the most likely to become pregnant. Teen girls of this age group are also more
likely to get a sexually transmitted disease, because they are more likely to
have sex with older more experienced teenagers.
In a survey 75% of women had first intercourse with a partner older than
themselves, and 51% of these partners were already sexually experienced (Sex
Education 900). Teaching abstinence to
these young teens would encourage them to say no. I also think that teens over the age of 16
should be taught condom and AIDS education.
This would allow older teens that engage in sex the protection they
need. It would decrease the threat of
AIDS and pregnancy. The key to the age
separation is that at some time eventually nearly everyone has sex. By not teaching teens in school about AIDS
and birth control they would not have received much of the information they
need to know about the risks of sex and how to protect yourself.
First abstinence training needs to be
taught in school at the age of 10. This
is a young enough age that all the children should be in the program before
they make and uneducated decision about sex.
The children should be taught some type of abstinence training every
year at least and once a semester would be better. The classes would have to be 30-40 minutes
long 5 days a week for about 2-4 weeks.
That would be enough time to make
the programs effective. These classes
should teach the young teens how to say no to an over aggressive partner, what
the risks of having sex are, and how healthy relationships work. This would provide the young teens a way to
examine their relationships and determine the quality of them before they have
sex. One boy told Sheehan this,
"I'd like to hear more stories....how they met....how they kept the love
alive" (Sheehan 11). This proves
that many teens want to learn about relationships. They
6-Peters
want to learn
about what makes a good relationship and how to maintain it and this is the
perfect age to start teaching these skills to the young teens.
The second part of sex education should
include AIDS and condom education. This
program would be taught at the age of 16 and up. I think these classes should also be taught once a year because at the high school level
it is harder to find time for sex education classes. This program should be 4 weeks long and 45
minutes a day. It should be taught very
interactively not as a lecture. There
should be a lot of time devoted for discussion of the issues covered each day
and for questions. There should also be
a private councilor available to the students that need it. The AIDS education portion of the class would
discuss how AIDS is spread. It should
also discuss the effects AIDS has on your body when you contract the disease
and teach people to be sensitive to people who have AIDS. Along with AIDS education condom education
must be taught. Condoms use is the only
way that AIDS can be prevented sexually besides abstinence. Without good condom education AIDS will spread out of control by sexual
intercourse. The condom education
program should stress that condoms are the best contraceptive devise for most
teens sexual patterns. Condoms prevent
the spread of disease, and they also prevent pregnancy. Condoms education should also stress that
condoms are not 100% effective.
"Changes in temperature, rough handling or age can cause the latex
to weaken or become gummy, it is important to store condoms properly and handle
them with care" (qtd. in Whetstone 98).
The program should teach teens the proper way to use a condom and the
proper way to store them. This would
decrease teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases too. I also think that the relationship aspect
that would be taught to the earlier age group should also be taught to this age
group. The teens at this age would
already have a good idea of what they would like in a relationship and the
program could
7-Peters
go more in depth
that way. This step of the sex education
process would really focus on getting teens ready to handle a sexual
relationship in their adult lives. This
program would not just include condom and AIDS education but it would include
life skills.
In conclusion I feel that sex education
should be taught in schools at the age of 10.
Some teens are having sex at age 12 or younger so sex education needs to
be taught at a very early age. Sex
education should include abstinence training for teens under the age of 16 and
condom and AIDS education for teens over the age of 16. The abstinence portion of the program would
discourage teens under the age of 16 from having sex. This is the highest risk group for the risk
of pregnancy and the spread of disease.
The second part of the program would teach older teens the relationship
skills they will need in the future and stress condom use and AIDS
education. Together the 2 parts of this
program with produce the desired results that other sex education programs in
the past have failed to produce.
8-Peters
Works Cited
Gibbs, Nancy
R. "How Should We Teach Our
Children About Sex?" Time 41 (May
24 '93): 60-6.
Shapiro, Joseph
P. "Teenage Sex: Just Say
'Wait'." U.S. News &World
Report 115 (July 26 '93): 56-9.
"Sex
Education in Schools: Peers to the Rescue." Lancet
344 (Oct. 1 '94): 899-900.
Sheehan, Sharon
A. "Another Kind of Sex
Ed." Newsweek 120 (Oct. '94): 10-11.
"The Effects
of Three Abstinence Sex Education Programs on Student Attitudes Towards Sexual Activity." Adolescence 26 (Fall '91): 631-41.
Whetstone, Muriel
L. "How Safe Is Safe
Sex." Ebony 49 (July '94): 96-8.
Whitehead,
Barbara Dafoe. "The Failure of Sex Education." Atlantic Monthly 274 (Oct. '94):
55-80.
Roy Peters
No comments:
Post a Comment