Sex Education, Essay Example

Sex Education: Saving the Health of American Adolescents

American educators, policy-makers and parents have been struggling with the outcomes of youth risky sexual behaviors for decades. Despite of all the efforts, this problem affects the representatives of all communities, races and social groups, as the majority of young Americans engage in a sexual relationship prior to getting their high-school diploma. Adolescent risky sexual behaviors lead to disastrous outcomes, such as teen pregnancies, and, subsequently, abortions, abandoned newborns, or acquiring sexually transmitted diseases. School-based sex education is one of the most effective methods of developing a sound approach towards sex among adolescents. Yet, the approach that supposes offering abstinence-only programs as the only option for adolescents, which is extremely popular now, is extremely dangerous and threatening to fundamental human rights, as it deprives teenagers of the opportunity to obtain information about protecting themselves from risks associated with engaging in a sexual relationship. School sex education curriculum should provide detailed information about methods of contraception and protection from STDs, as it would be foolish to believe that all the American adolescents would wait with their first sexual experience until their first wedding night.

According to the data provided by the Guttmacher Institute, about 750,000 of American girls aged 15 – 19 get pregnant every year, and 27% of them choose to terminate their pregnancies. This is the exact number of adolescent females who do not understand the nature of inextricable connection between having unprotected sex and getting pregnant. Nevertheless, the youngsters are not the ones to be blamed in this situation. These are the results of inadequate sex education programs in grades 7-12 common in American public schools. Such devastating statistics results from the notorious abstinence-only curricula that prohibit teaching about using contraceptives for preventing undesired pregnancy and STD. According to the Advocates for Youth report about the results of abstinence-only programs, they did not manage to decrease the percentage of sexually active teens, but succeeded in increasing the number of adolescents having unprotected sex and failing to seek STD testing. It is difficult to get more convincing arguments for introducing educational programs that provide comprehensive theoretical and practical information about contraception, safe sex and STD prevention.

Another substantial reason for introducing effective sex education programs in schools is the necessity to resist the negative impact of media. Trough recent decades, love and sex have become favorite subjects for fiction writers, film directors, and TV producers. Tons of information about physical aspects of love splash on TV screens, creating a wicked controversial image: on one side, sex is something prohibited, even dirty, and highly attractive; on another side, it is something everyone does. In other words, sexual relationships are depicted as a “forbidden fruit” that everyone has to try. It is well-known that adolescents love to break the rules and ignore the prohibitions. Adding the herd instinct, inherent in teenagers, their response to media images is natural: adolescents take their chances and try. Considering this aspect, removing the veil of secret and shame from intimate relationships should become one of the crucial objectives of school-based sex education. Teenagers should know about the biological and physical aspects of sexual desires, types of sexual behaviors and diversity in human sexuality, and they should have an opportunity to get this information from an unbiased and well-trained teacher. One of the aspects that make intimate contacts so attractive to teenagers is the atmosphere of mystery and prohibition that surrounds them. Remove it, and physical love will become much less alluring for those, who have not tried it yet.

One of the basic human rights policymakers advocate worldwide is right for informed choice. Unfortunately, teenage sex education is rarely viewed from this point. Meanwhile, it is particularly relevant to the right for information that is declared by the U.S constitution. From this viewpoint, it is essential to provide adolescents all the relevant information about sexual relationships, their possible outcomes, and methods of preventing negative consequences, before they start their sex lives.

The complicated aspect of school-based sex education is teaching about the psychological and ethical aspects of intimate relationships. The problematic aspect here is that the educator has to appeal to the personal qualities, which usually are not promoted within the school environment. In other words, it might be difficult to explain about the freedom of choice, the right to say “no”, and the ability to make independent decisions to a youngster who has been raised within the framework of formal restrictions imposed by the curriculum and environment. Other significant aspects are moral and religious norms, promoted within the teenagers’ families, their national customs regarding sex-related issues, personal beliefs and experiences in this field. Despite of all the potential obstacles of teaching about ethical aspects of sexual relationships, this part should not be banned from the school-based sex education curricula, as without this aspect it will be no less inadequate and harmful than the abstinence-only curricula is.

One of the common arguments in support of abstinence-only education is that adolescents, who are taught about sex at school setting, view this information as a call to action. Some legislators and educators are rather afraid that knowledge about the protective function of condoms will certainly encourage students to try them, even if they did not plan to engage into a sexual relationship before getting this information.

Yet, contemporary research proves that these fears are unfounded. The truth is that HIV and contraception education programs do not increase the probability of engaging in a sexual relationship; moreover, some of them reduce teenage sexual activity and increase the number of condom-users among sexually active adolescents. Even school-condom availability programs were not found to increase the number of sexually active teenagers (Kirby, 2002, p. 27).

The educators that develop and introduce abstinence-only curricula, “morally problematic… withholding information and promoting questionable and inaccurate opinions…threatening fundamental human rights to health, information, and life” (Santelli et al., 2006, p.75) should be blamed for broken lives of teenage parents, who are unable to take care of their kids, and for the lives of unborn children, whose adolescent mothers chose to terminate their pregnancies. The reality is that adolescents will not stop having sex despite all the efforts of educators and policymakers. The only rational measure that can be taken in order to protect reproductive health and lives of contemporary American teens is a comprehensive school-based sex education, providing reliable information about contraception, protection from STDs, unwanted pregnancy, and ethical aspects of intimate relationships.

Works Cited

Guttmacher Institute. (2010). Facts on American Teens’ Sexual and Reproductive Health. Retrieved from: http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/FB-ATSRH.html#1

Kirby, Douglas. (2002). The impact of schools and school programs upon adolescent sexual behavior. Journal of Sex Research, 39(1), 27 – 33.

McKeon, B. (2006). Sex Education: Programs and Curricula. Advocates for Youth. Retrieved from: http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=450&Itemid=336#references

Santelli, John et al. (2006). Abstinence and abstinence-only education: A review of U.S. policies and programs. Journal of Adolescent Health, 38(1), 72-81.