Comprehensive Sex-Ed Curricula, Article Review Example

Comprehensive Sex-Ed Curricula: The Role of Abstinence Messages

Introduction

With the growing availability of information about sex and under the pressure of the increased sexual activity among teenagers, thousands of schools all over the world have come to realize the value of comprehensive sex education programs. That sexual education should be an essential component of any school’s curriculum is difficult to deny, but it is even more important to understand what form sexual education should take and what messages it should send to adolescents. On the one hand, teaching adolescents the basics of sexuality and abstinence is important, to make sure that they can take a grounded decision in terms of being or not being sexually active. On the other hand, sexual education often goes against one’s religious and cultural beliefs, causes embarrassment, and is not taken seriously by students. Contrary to general beliefs, sex education programs rarely contain an explicit abstinence message and position sexual activity simply as less desirable than abstinence. Nevertheless, in the current state of information and sexual openness in society, abstinence messages in sex education are gradually becoming obsolete; and comprehensive sex education should become an essential component of school curricula, to help adolescents to protect themselves from unnecessary health risks and to give them a freedom of choice between safe sexual activity and abstinence.

Sex education has already become an essential component of school curricula. Schools and education professionals are confident that sex education is both necessary and critical for the development of adolescents in their transition to adulthood. As an important element of school curricula, comprehensive sex education is beneficial in the sense that it provides adolescents with the information, which they often cannot obtain from their parents or peers. Comprehensive sex education teaches adolescents the basics of contraception. Sex education provides teenagers with the information necessary for them to avoid unnecessary health risks and sexual violence. Sex education creates atmosphere, in which adolescents find it easy to discuss their hidden fears and concerns – the fears and concerns that are rarely discussed with parents. To a large extent, sex education in schools serves an effective element of supporting adolescents in the process of their sexual maturation. Unfortunately, those who claim sex education to be effective and unilaterally positive are not very objective in their judgments: despite its relative effectiveness, sex education is surrounded by much controversy and is associated with a variety of issues.

To begin with, and contrary to general beliefs, comprehensive sex education does not contain and does not send any explicit message about abstinence. In other words, by teaching adolescents the basics of sexual activity and safe sex, sex education curricula do not position abstinence as the primary goal for adolescents but propose abstinence as a mere alternative to sexual activity among teenagers. The lack of an explicit abstinence message, on the one hand, should give teenagers an opportunity to make a relevant and justified choice in favor or against abstinence/ sexual activity. On the other hand, can teachers guarantee that adolescents can always take a reasonable and well-grounded decision? And what criteria should they use to make sure that their decision is correct? This question is yet to be answered.

Sex education is not always effective and relevant due to the conflicts, which it generates in religious families, religious parents, and religious children. More often than not, comprehensive sex education goes against the basic principles of religiosity because it does not teach abstinence but promotes the value of safe sex activity. Comprehensive sex education programs actually teach children and adolescents that the failure of abstinence is not a tragedy, as long as adolescents can keep to the principles of safe sex and avoid unprotected sexual activity. Not having sex for teenagers is only an option and is in no way an obligation for them. Comprehensive sex education refers to abstinence as secondary to safe sexual activity. Such attitudes toward sex pose a challenge to children from religious families, for whom abstinence is not a matter of choice but is the central goal of life and the basic standard of religious humility.

Sex education cannot be effective, as long as it is associated with the sense of embarrassment and awkwardness, which students may experience in the process of discussing the most sensitive sexuality topics. Even in the same-classes, teachers often find it difficult to breach the atmosphere of silence and to accompany students in their journey toward openness. More importantly, students often do not take sex education classes seriously and view them as a form of leisure. Thus, teachers cannot guarantee that adolescents can hear the message they send to the class about the importance of safe sexual activity and/ or abstinence.

All these problems, however, cannot diminish the overall significance of sex education in schools. The growing availability of information about sex and, as a result, the growing sexual activity among teenagers turns sex education into the single relevant source of reliable information about safe sex. In the current state of media, sexuality has already become the basic source of media profits, and adolescents are being torn between their sexual desires and the fears of failing abstinence. Sex education is important because it does not condemn sexual activity but teaches adolescents to control and manage their body desires. Under the pressure of sexuality messages in media and the growing sexual openness in society, it is no longer possible to make adolescents restrain from sexual activity. Thus, sex education is the only way to help teenagers avoid numerous sex-related risks like STD or violence. Sex education does not explicitly vote for abstinence, but gives adolescents some freedom of choice between having and not having sex. Even if they choose the latter, sex education gives them a chance to avoid serious health and related sex risks. It would be fair to say that sex education is actually a reflection of the postmodern reality, in which sexual activity is the necessary component of everyday life. Because adults can no longer guarantee that their children keep from engaging in sexual activity, sex education is an excellent solution to the issues that always emerge in the process of adolescent maturation – it is through sex education that teenagers can learn about safe sexual behaviors and reasonably choose between sex and abstinence.

Conclusion

Under the pressure of the growing sexual activity and the growing availability of information about sex, sex education is gradually turning into an essential component of any school curriculum. Schools and education professionals view sex education as an effective source of reliable information about safe sex and abstinence. To a large extent, sex education is the only means for adolescents to learn the basics of safe sexual activity, the benefits of abstinence, and the ways of reducing the risks of sexual violence and STD. Unfortunately, those who believe sex education to be unilaterally effective are not objective in their judgments: sex education does not send an explicit abstinence message, causes conflicts in religious families, and is associated with embarrassment and awkwardness in classroom. Nevertheless, because the growing societal openness toward sex and media messages about sexuality no longer guarantee, that adolescents will restrain themselves from engaging in sexual activity, sex education is a significant chance for schools to help and support adolescents in their safe transition to adulthood.