I'm about to age myself. Yikes! But, here goes...
I went to high school in the early/mid 1990's. So, back in MY day, our high school curriculum included one semester of Health Education in our 10th grade year. I'm not sure if this is how it stands today. But, my Health Ed. class was laughable at best. There was a short section on sex education. It made all the boys and girls giggle when we had talked about reproductive organs. Worst part of it was that the COACH, who most likely was required to teach the class, could not have been more uncomfortable talking about it. However, I at least feel fortunate that sex education was included at the time. Though vague as it was, we all left the class slightly more informed about our own bodies. This is definitely not how it stands today. S-C-A-R-Y!!
Now, kids do not get an all-inclusive sex education. Texas lawmakers encourage an abstinence-only based curriculum. In fact, by 2009, 94% of Texas public schools were using this form of sex ed. They are being taught nothing more than if they don't have sex, they won't get pregnant. I don't disagree that abstinence is the only sure-fire way to prevent teen pregnancy. But, let's face the truth here. Teenagers are going to have sex. Since this form of sex education has been in place, the statistics aren't improving. The unfortunate teenagers are so uninformed now, we wonder why the teen pregnancy rate in Texas is amongst the highest in the nation. We are currently number 5.
Since teens are going to have sex, why not educate them in the process instead of sweeping it under the rug? In addition, why not teach kids the truth as well? Everyone needs to know the basics of human anatomy. Everyone needs to know how to protect themselves. Kids are not being taught accurate information and are being scared into abstaining or not protecting themselves. Some are being taught that condoms do not prevent HIV and HPV transmission. In turn, these teens that are having sex end up not using condoms.
Abstinence-only sex education means money. For school districts, it means more funding for including this into the curriculum. In the bigger picture, however, this means more money being spent. That's more money being spent on, for example, health care for the new babies as well as for teens who may be spreading sexually transmitted diseases. A little bit of knowledge could have gone a long way in saving money for many families.
This shouldn't not be an issue about politics, but for some reason it is. So, to those on the right, all-inclusive sex education isn't about Planned Parenthood's pro-abortion propaganda. It's about the health and education of the future of this state. They need the right information. Lawmakers and politicians should not be the ones to make the decision as to what is right and proper to teach. Education should be fact based with no political agenda.
Sex in schools is a big issue these days. With teen pregnancy so high we need somebody to teach these young adults about sex and how to use contraceptives. There are a lot of parents that say they want to be the ones that teach their child about sex and contraceptives but what these parents don’t realize is that their children might not want to have that conversation with them. Most parents try to teach their child absence only until they are married but realistically that’s not going to happen. By the time your child have the sex conversation with you it’s to tell you that they are pregnant.
ReplyDeleteKids these days are afraid of having the sex conversation with us parents because they feel that we will be mad at them, which in most cases, they are right. Another reason why they don’t come to us about sex can be because of religious reasons. Their family might be strongly against sex before marriage, and in some cases their family/church will disown them.
During my high school days we didn’t have Sex Education, we had Health Education. In Health Ed we talked about STDs and their symptoms, and what they can do to our body. We did not discuss contraceptives; they didn’t show us how to put on condoms or any of that useful stuff you see in movies.
If Sex Ed continues to be absence only, our children will only have us or their friends to talk to about sex. Their friends are in the same age group as them so they don’t know more, if any, than your child. We as parents need to step up, learn more information about sex, and be prepared to teach our children when the time comes.