Comprehensive Vs. Abstinence-Only
Sexual Education: Comprehensive Vs. Abstinence-Only
High school is either the best days of your life or four years of struggling and mild torture for teens, and the pressure to be sexually active can push adolescents towards the latter. The idea that sexual activity is the ticket to popularity is burned into teens brains by the media, through television, major label music, and movies, their peers, and celebrity role models. They are bombarded with images and sounds dripping with sexual innuendos and sometimes-blatant encouragement of adolescent sex. It is almost impossible to believe that any teen has not become sexually active after their constant exposure to the sex-craved American entertainment system. These are some of the reasons …show more content…
that recently, within the past decade, high schools have employed abstinence only sexual education programs, partly due to the outcry from parents. These programs encourage students to be sexually abstinent by teaching them what horrors teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases bring to endless amounts of their peers. However, sex education programs like these only support abstinence, and do not educate students on the non-terrifying aspects of sexual activity, like its intimacy and methods of contraception. They try to force the decision to not have sex upon students, hoping that they will abide by their wishes, but leaving the students who still choose to become sexually active completely unprepared for the possible consequences. Teens are making their decision to have sex without knowledge of proper contraceptive techniques and ways to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases because their school sexual education classes failed to mention them. Public school sexual education classes should cover all the aspects of a good sexual education, and not just abstinence.
Vanessa Grigoriadis, a freelance writer who has appeared in the New York Times, writes, "Organizations advocating sexual abstinence among teenagers have been gaining strength in the past decade, with the result that more teens are planning to retain their virginity longer." (Grigoriadis) These organizations appeal to teens by "making abstinence seem cool, popular, and normal." They spotlight celebrities like Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears, and her Mickey Mouse Club co-star Justin Timberlake and their pride in maintaining their virginity. Clubs, alliances, and organizations have been popping up all over the country, whether adults looking to prevent teen pregnancy, church groups looking to protect their youth ministries, or teenagers themselves who want to take a stand against popular norms, form them. High school student have been quick to join abstinent supporting groups, showing that many of them have a determination to remain sexually inactive. (Grigoriadis) This self-determination, combined with the proper education administered by their schools including all aspects of sexual information, could bring the world the most sexually informed and responsible generation ever. In 1996, President Bill Clinton proclaimed May "National Pregnancy Prevention Month." It marked the beginning of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, an initiative supported entirely by private donations, mostly by Christian action groups and groups like the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America.
Kristine Napier, the author of The Power of Abstinence, reports "the Campaign aims to create a national consensus that unwed teen pregnancy is not acceptable how the Campaign hopes to accomplish its goal, however, remains unclear." She's is not sure whether it will "focus on contraceptive education and availability, or acknowledge the legitimacy and success of the abstinence approach." (Napier) Teen pregnancy rates are at a historic high, and an alarming one-third of the twenty million annual reported cases of sexually transmitted diseases are junior-high and high- school students. These children have always been taught that abstinence is the best course, but they still choose to go out and participate in sexual activities. Their participation cannot be prevented, that has been proven. Teens, no matter how much abstinence is preached to them, will sometimes choose to have sex, and if they are uneducated on sexual safety and precautionary measures, the numbers mentioned above about teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases will continue to …show more content…
climb. High school students are notorious for being rebellious and making life altering decisions based on what the believe goes against the wishes of their parents and adult influences. The high school norms have always been to disobey. Smoking is a problem in every high school in America, and teens are drinking alcohol at a record rate, so what makes schools think they can prevent their student from having sex just by teaching them that it is dangerous? Student are told that sexually transmitted diseases like HIV can kill them, and schools that that is enough of a deterrent to prevent their sexual activity, however, adolescents are taught that smoking will eventually kill them, yet cigarettes are becoming increasingly popular among teenagers. Alcohol is illegal for anyone under the age of twenty-one, yet it is present at almost any high school party. If the law can't prevent teens from making such destructive decisions, what makes schools think that a required class would? It would have about as much of an effect on their social lives as their calculus class does. Schools, while the students are in attendance, legally have guardian rights over the students, and the purpose of a guardian is to, obviously, guard and protect. Schools need to protect their students from threats that they might come across, whether in school or outside of it. However, because there is no way for a school to protect a student when school is not in session, it is up to the student to protect his or herself, and the schools job is to teach them how. High schools have implemented abstinence only programs in hopes that it will protect their students from STDs and unwanted pregnancies, and those programs have resulted in a smaller percentage of graduating females being pregnant, and a smaller percentage having contracted an STD before they graduate. (Koch) These statistics can originally sway one to believe that they prove an abstinence-only sexual education program in beneficial, which it is. However, they do not support the claim that abstinence-only education is better than a comprehensive sexual education program. The schools, in which the abstinence-only programs were initiated, previously had no sexual education program at all. Although sexual education programs in schools have been in use for many years, most have not been nearly as effective as hoped. High schools across the country need to take a rigorous look at their programs and what is being taught in them, and begin to implement more innovative programs that have been proven effective. Educators, parents, national authorities, and policy-makers must avoid emotional misconceptions about sexual education, because based on the rates of unplanned pregnancies and STDs, including HIV among teenagers, we can no longer ignore the need for both education on how to postpone sexual involvement, and how to protect oneself when sexually active. A comprehensive risk prevention strategy uses multiple elements to protect as many of those at risk of pregnancy and STD/HIV infection as possible. Our children deserve the best education they can get.
Works Cited/Consulted
Koch, K.
(1998, July 10). Encouraging teen abstinence. The CQ Researcher Online, 8. Retrieved March 18, 2004, from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher
Chammas, Danielle. (2004, April 29). Abstinence-only programs: Has sexual education failed our nations young women? The Stanford Daily, Retrieved May 2, 2004, http://daily.stanford.edu/daily/servlet/tempo?page=content&id=13982&repository=0001_article
Napier, Kristine. (1997). Abstinence-Only Programs Reduce Teen Pregnancy. Gale Group Opposing Viewpoints Research Center. Retrieved April 1, 2004. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/OVRC?vrsn=212&slb=SU&locID=pl2552&srchtp=basic
Grigoriadis, Vanessa. (2000). Abstinence is Increasing Among Young Teens. The Gale Group Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Retrieved April 1, 2004.
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/OVRC?vrsn=2112&slb=SU&locID=pl2552&srchtp=basic
High school is either the best days of your life or four years of struggling and mild torture for teens, and the pressure to be sexually active can push adolescents towards the latter. The idea that sexual activity is the ticket to popularity is burned into teens brains by the media, through television, major label music, and movies, their peers, and celebrity role models. They are bombarded with images and sounds dripping with sexual innuendos and sometimes-blatant encouragement of adolescent sex. It is almost impossible to believe that any teen has not become sexually active after their constant exposure to the sex-craved American entertainment system. These are some of the reasons …show more content…
that recently, within the past decade, high schools have employed abstinence only sexual education programs, partly due to the outcry from parents. These programs encourage students to be sexually abstinent by teaching them what horrors teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases bring to endless amounts of their peers. However, sex education programs like these only support abstinence, and do not educate students on the non-terrifying aspects of sexual activity, like its intimacy and methods of contraception. They try to force the decision to not have sex upon students, hoping that they will abide by their wishes, but leaving the students who still choose to become sexually active completely unprepared for the possible consequences. Teens are making their decision to have sex without knowledge of proper contraceptive techniques and ways to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases because their school sexual education classes failed to mention them. Public school sexual education classes should cover all the aspects of a good sexual education, and not just abstinence.
Vanessa Grigoriadis, a freelance writer who has appeared in the New York Times, writes, "Organizations advocating sexual abstinence among teenagers have been gaining strength in the past decade, with the result that more teens are planning to retain their virginity longer." (Grigoriadis) These organizations appeal to teens by "making abstinence seem cool, popular, and normal." They spotlight celebrities like Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears, and her Mickey Mouse Club co-star Justin Timberlake and their pride in maintaining their virginity. Clubs, alliances, and organizations have been popping up all over the country, whether adults looking to prevent teen pregnancy, church groups looking to protect their youth ministries, or teenagers themselves who want to take a stand against popular norms, form them. High school student have been quick to join abstinent supporting groups, showing that many of them have a determination to remain sexually inactive. (Grigoriadis) This self-determination, combined with the proper education administered by their schools including all aspects of sexual information, could bring the world the most sexually informed and responsible generation ever. In 1996, President Bill Clinton proclaimed May "National Pregnancy Prevention Month." It marked the beginning of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, an initiative supported entirely by private donations, mostly by Christian action groups and groups like the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America.
Kristine Napier, the author of The Power of Abstinence, reports "the Campaign aims to create a national consensus that unwed teen pregnancy is not acceptable how the Campaign hopes to accomplish its goal, however, remains unclear." She's is not sure whether it will "focus on contraceptive education and availability, or acknowledge the legitimacy and success of the abstinence approach." (Napier) Teen pregnancy rates are at a historic high, and an alarming one-third of the twenty million annual reported cases of sexually transmitted diseases are junior-high and high- school students. These children have always been taught that abstinence is the best course, but they still choose to go out and participate in sexual activities. Their participation cannot be prevented, that has been proven. Teens, no matter how much abstinence is preached to them, will sometimes choose to have sex, and if they are uneducated on sexual safety and precautionary measures, the numbers mentioned above about teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases will continue to …show more content…
climb. High school students are notorious for being rebellious and making life altering decisions based on what the believe goes against the wishes of their parents and adult influences. The high school norms have always been to disobey. Smoking is a problem in every high school in America, and teens are drinking alcohol at a record rate, so what makes schools think they can prevent their student from having sex just by teaching them that it is dangerous? Student are told that sexually transmitted diseases like HIV can kill them, and schools that that is enough of a deterrent to prevent their sexual activity, however, adolescents are taught that smoking will eventually kill them, yet cigarettes are becoming increasingly popular among teenagers. Alcohol is illegal for anyone under the age of twenty-one, yet it is present at almost any high school party. If the law can't prevent teens from making such destructive decisions, what makes schools think that a required class would? It would have about as much of an effect on their social lives as their calculus class does. Schools, while the students are in attendance, legally have guardian rights over the students, and the purpose of a guardian is to, obviously, guard and protect. Schools need to protect their students from threats that they might come across, whether in school or outside of it. However, because there is no way for a school to protect a student when school is not in session, it is up to the student to protect his or herself, and the schools job is to teach them how. High schools have implemented abstinence only programs in hopes that it will protect their students from STDs and unwanted pregnancies, and those programs have resulted in a smaller percentage of graduating females being pregnant, and a smaller percentage having contracted an STD before they graduate. (Koch) These statistics can originally sway one to believe that they prove an abstinence-only sexual education program in beneficial, which it is. However, they do not support the claim that abstinence-only education is better than a comprehensive sexual education program. The schools, in which the abstinence-only programs were initiated, previously had no sexual education program at all. Although sexual education programs in schools have been in use for many years, most have not been nearly as effective as hoped. High schools across the country need to take a rigorous look at their programs and what is being taught in them, and begin to implement more innovative programs that have been proven effective. Educators, parents, national authorities, and policy-makers must avoid emotional misconceptions about sexual education, because based on the rates of unplanned pregnancies and STDs, including HIV among teenagers, we can no longer ignore the need for both education on how to postpone sexual involvement, and how to protect oneself when sexually active. A comprehensive risk prevention strategy uses multiple elements to protect as many of those at risk of pregnancy and STD/HIV infection as possible. Our children deserve the best education they can get.
Works Cited/Consulted
Koch, K.
(1998, July 10). Encouraging teen abstinence. The CQ Researcher Online, 8. Retrieved March 18, 2004, from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher
Chammas, Danielle. (2004, April 29). Abstinence-only programs: Has sexual education failed our nations young women? The Stanford Daily, Retrieved May 2, 2004, http://daily.stanford.edu/daily/servlet/tempo?page=content&id=13982&repository=0001_article
Napier, Kristine. (1997). Abstinence-Only Programs Reduce Teen Pregnancy. Gale Group Opposing Viewpoints Research Center. Retrieved April 1, 2004. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/OVRC?vrsn=212&slb=SU&locID=pl2552&srchtp=basic
Grigoriadis, Vanessa. (2000). Abstinence is Increasing Among Young Teens. The Gale Group Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Retrieved April 1, 2004.
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/OVRC?vrsn=2112&slb=SU&locID=pl2552&srchtp=basic