Sex Education

Should the public teach sex education

Introduction

            Sex education can be termed as the process of gaining knowledge and skills regarding to human sexuality. Sex education, is significant to learners as it aids them in understanding physiological, emotional as well as social changes that they undergo as they mature (Magoon p4). Sex education assists learners establish healthy and significant relationships make informed and responsible choices concerning sexual matters. Sex education helps learners understand themselves where they acquire knowledge and skills that help them relate in respectful, positive and supportive ways with other people. All states in one way or the other are involved in sex education for learners.  According statistics, 24 States in US teach sex education, which mandate HIV and sex education and require that the information provided to the learners about sex and HIV be scientifically, medically as well as literally accurate (Hoff et al., p7). Additionally, the results showed that teenagers in America are more likely to conceive compared to teens in Canada and four times probability than teens in Germany and other states such as Norway.  The primary cause to the high rate of teen pregnancy in America is mainly attributed to poverty as well as other social issues; federally funded sex education in schools will help solve the problem as well as other sexually related issues facing the teens.

Knowledgeable Choices

            Classroom is definitely the place where most learners are offered vital and precise information and in this case about sex. Parents find it hard and are reluctant to talk to their children about sex thinking it is shameful and they get ignorant that their kids are not likely to engage in sexual activities. Unfortunately, their ignorance and thinking is far from the truth since teenagers who do not talk sexual matters with their parents will certainly learn it from other sources, which might be unreliable (Grossman et al., p739).  Mull it over, children are exposed to many things from sources such as television, internet, friends as well as magazines and sex is inevitably one of them.  Such sources are likely to offer one-sided information as well as communicate misinformation. There are many inaccurate assertions hovering out there, which can be tricky for teenagers to decode the reality from the fiction (Magoon p35). Due to this reasons, it is significant to teach sex education to teenagers through the school systems since they will offer accurate and reliable information, whereas it is also the parents’ duty to ensure parental guidance as the kids’ progress to adolescents.

Teen Pregnancy

Luckily, teenage pregnancy rates have declined gradually according to a recent research in recent years but America continues to lead in teenage pregnancy cases more than twice compared to their neighboring states such a Germany (Hoff et al., 7). Nevertheless, teen pregnancy is quite a frequent incidence. The incidence is usually resulted by poor sexual education, which promotes the carefree stance and ignorance. Teenagers are risk takers and hormonal, therefore, despite the warnings they still participate in vulnerable sex.  Besides, most teens are uninformed about the durations when they are fertile and therefore fail to pay attention to when they are likely to get pregnant. Conceiving as a teenager can be extremely difficult.  It results to school dropout cases and others have a rough time before they graduate, similarly, teen pregnancy becomes a barrier to furthering education in higher levels. Statistics shows that only 40% among teen mothers are able to graduate high school and among them, 2 % graduate at college level before they reach 30 years (Hoff et al., 7). This statistics also note the emotional and mental distress faced by teen mothers as well as the financial burden resulted to the families and the subject.  These statistics found that student teens involved in sex activities who received comprehensive sex education are 50% less likely to get unwanted pregnancy as compared to those given abstinence-only sex education (Hoff et al., 7). Therefore, comprehensive sex education is vital; it will enhance reduced teen pregnancy cases effectively.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Sexually transmitted diseases are contacted when one has multiple sex partners as well as their partners have multiple partners. STDs are broad and they vary in acuteness, some are easy to cure while others are severe, cause permanent damage, and can lead to death (Vivancos et al., 53).  STDs are serious and real, it is important that children are properly educated about the details of each disease, the risk of transmission as well as the preventive measures. With proper education, the chances of teenagers being careful and making right choices such as involving in safe sex are higher.

Age

Sex education is important especially for the young generation since without advice on how to approach the future life of teenage life will be difficult. In America, at least over 95 percent of the population usually engages in sexual activities before marriage (Banks and Cherry 77). The young people start having sex at a very tender age and if no education is provided, then a lot of children will engage in sex before they mature physically. It is important to teach about sex education in order to allow the children grow with good and reputable morals. Teaching the importance of abstaining can help reduce the effects of early school dropouts and other addictive activities brought about by engaging in sexual activities (Szirom p67). Sex education in schools should be mandatory since it is a technology-based world where everything that was private is now being displayed in the internet, which is cheaper to access.

Funding

Funding can also be a great contributor to sex education. The federal government has in the past funded sex education in the schools to assist in educating the youth on the need for abstinence. It is expensive to fund sex education for the youth and also for the society since there is no actual benefit gained from the teaching. Funding on this topic can be beneficial in a way that it will help avoid the challenges such as psychological damages caused by sexual education (Trudell 58). These kind of teaching helps in preparing the young people for the future and have positive oriented goals in life. Such programs can be funded through the community based sex education programs or through private funds. With this, the youth are taught how having children out of wedlock can cause problems for the child, the parents and the general society (Szirom 23). Sexually related problems can be addressed once there is a source of funding for the awareness.

Disadvantages of Sex Education

There are challenges that arise with teaching sex education in schools. Such issues may include the subject being a source of ridicule at school meaning it will not be taken as serious as it should. Sex education will increase the likelihood of its experimentation among learners. Additionally, Sex education in most cases can be termed as a bad idea according to some religious ideologies, which consider sex a private matter for the grownups only (Szirom 46). Mixing the religious ideologies with the school curricular can be a very confusing subject for the students. This can cause the subject not to be as serious as it should be especially considering the fact that the students have influence from peer pressure groups. Treating the subject as an extracurricular matter can also make the subject not a primary one in the minds of the students.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it is clear that offering sex education is significant and the only way to cub damages resulted by sexuality, which range from teen pregnancy,  spread of STDs among other factors. While others support sex education to be taught by parents and abstinence-only education, they have been proven to fail in most cases (Magoon p40).  Teenagers are very hormonal and extremely curious. Scaring them from sexuality matters and refusing to offer them information on safe measures is a way to disaster, since teenagers are going to engage in sexual activities despite the warnings and that is just a reality of life.  Therefore, the best precaution is to provide comprehensive sex education for learners.  Comprehensive sex education will enhance precise, contemporary, age-appropriate information as well as appropriate skills, which will equip learners to protect themselves from sexual abuses and aid them in avoiding sexual experiments and activities (Magoon p76). The more educated learners are, the better they become in making smart and knowledgeable decision.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work Cited

Banks, James A., and Cherry A. McGee Banks. Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives. John Wiley & Sons, 2009.

Hoff, T., et al. "Sex education in America: a series of national surveys of students, parents, teachers, and principals. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation; 2000." (2013).

Magoon, Kekla. Sex Education in Schools. Edina, Minn: ABDO Pub. Co, 2010. Print.

Szirom, Tricia. Teaching Gender?: Sex Education and Sexual Stereotypes. Taylor & Francis, 2017.   Grossman, Jennifer M., et al. "Protective effects of middle school comprehensive sex education with family involvement." Journal of School Health 84.11 (2014): 739-747.

Trudell, Bonnie. Doing sex education: Gender politics and schooling. Taylor & Francis, 2017.

Vivancos, Roberto, et al. "School-based sex education is associated with reduced risky sexual behaviour and sexually transmitted infections in young adults." Public Health 127.1 (2013): 53-57.