Mr. Heape
AP English III
4 February 2009
Controversial Issue: Sex Education (Final Draft) Sex is major concern for aging youths and parents, as many find themselves wondering what they will do when they encounter with issue itself. Many schools offer an abstinence-only sex education while some offer comprehensive sex education. The problem is people conflict over whether to teach abstinence-only programs between comprehensive sex ed programs due to the belief that the latter encourages sex and the former is not instructive enough. Though the effect of each program is essential to consider, and it also critical to consider how receptive the program is to its audience. Ultimately, sex education is a field that should be comprised over to create an program that everyone can agree on and is effective. Abstinence-only education, as the name suggests, stresses an abstinence way of dealing with sexual activities. The main objective of abstinence-only education is to teach kids to stray from any sexual activity during adolescence until after marriage. The primary reason abstinence is stressed is to avoid any sexual activities beyond the context of marriage to lessen chances of harmful psychological and physical aftereffects. There is no guarantee that the people that you have sex with are a virgin or that they have no STDs, thus increasing the risk of contracting STDs or even unintentional pregnancies. Reoccurrences also increase the risk, since sex is addicting in both a physical and mental manner, so less sex means less chances for STDs and pregnancies. Early sex creates bonds that are difficult to break and can cause a great deal of mental distress. Another primary issue in abstinence is that it not only teaches them how to say “no” to sex but also how to reject other harmful practices such as alcohol and drug use. Overall, abstinence-only education teaches youths how to avoid all problems associated with sex. Comprehensive sex education teaches young