Sex education in schools

Sex Education in Schools has been an area of concern in American education for many years and is the subject of intense debate. Through these years it has been discussed in nearly all aspects of American society, starting from classrooms through to boardrooms and finally up to the Supreme Court. Irrespective of all this commotion, the support for school-based sex education is now higher than it has ever been. Recent polls suggest that 93% of all Americans support sex education in high schools, with 84% accepting its usefulness in middle/junior colleges. Again, it was found that, 89% of the Americans support the moves to provide information and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and also that, it would be useful to concentrate on how to avoid unplanned pregnancies and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV infection and AIDS. Further studies have shown that more than 90% extended support to ten out of the fifteen topics selected and the support for the rest was between 76% and 88%. This earlier unseen support for sex education in schools should act as a motivation for American schools to act upon it. (School-Based Sex Education: A New Millennium Update)

This does not imply that all Americans agree on the type of sex education that is best suited for their children. The major area of conflict is generally focused on abstinence-only education and these are heavily supported by federal government funds. Though only 15% of Americans prefer abstinence-only sex education, it is taught as sex education in almost 30% of public middle and high schools. This despite the fact that most Americans would like to have a broad-based sex education curriculum, which includes topics like how babies get made, how to use condoms and how to get screened for sexually transmitted diseases. Another area of controversy is whether family planning clinics and doctors should provide birth control pills to teenagers and has had far larger support than abstinence only sex education among the American people. (Health and Care in Schools: The State of Sex Education in American Schools)

Teenagers require the right information to aid in protecting themselves as these statistics given below show. The teenage pregnancy rate in the U.S. is more than double that of any western industrialized country. The number of teenagers becoming pregnant each year is greater than a million. The rate of sexually transmitted diseases is the highest when compared to any age group. One out of every four youngsters contract some form of sexually transmitted diseases before the age of twenty-one. Sexually transmitted diseases have the potential to damage a teenager's health and the ability to reproduce. AIDS has still no cure. There is a speedy increase in HIV infection in youngsters. One out every four new infection cases of HIV was found to occur in people younger than twenty-two. In 1994, among the age group 13-19 years 417 new HIV cases were seen and 2684 among the age group 20-24. There is the possibility of skin infection occurring even ten years before an AIDS; a majority of these young people should have been infected with HIV either as adolescents or pre-adolescents. (Does Sex Education Work?)

In the U.S. forty percent teenage girls fall pregnant on at least one occasion before the age of twenty as per the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. This may be the lowest rate seen in twenty years, but still remains the highest in the developed world. (You Say: No Easy Answers to Sex Education). We are also looking at the grim reality that many of the present American teenagers engage in sexual risk before high school graduation. There is data to show that all high school students have had sexual intercourse at some time or the other, the percentage showing an upward trend as we move up the grades. Twenty percent of the students have had sexual intercourse with four or more partners. Oral and anal intercourse is getting to be popular with American teenagers. The occurrence of 25 to 80% of oral sex among the American teenagers indicates this. Anal intercourse is the latest trend among American female adolescents as it gives them the option of retaining their virginity and preventing pregnancy, while indulging in sex. Alarming is the fact that a growing number of these youngsters believe that oral and anal sex are really not sex in its true sense. (School-Based Sex Education: A New Millennium Update)

These statistics are distressing to anyone and there is agreement that everything should be done to prevent teenage pregnancy and STDs in teenagers. The question is how? Those in favor of abstinence only education advocate that these distressing statistics prove that providing a curriculum of sex education of safe sex is not working out. The solution to this is to teach students to abstain from sex till they get married. Their arguments run in this manner. As far as the dangers of smoking go there is no safe smoking. All the dangers of smoking are provided to the teenagers with the advice to abstain from smoking. So must it be with sex education too. They also affirm that teenage pregnancy and STDs are because of a lack of moral values and not the lack of scientific knowledge. (You Say: No Easy Answers to Sex Education)

Education on abstinence is the moral solution to this social problem. Teenagers will take responsible decisions only when they are educated on moral choices and not the way they choose to prevent pregnancy. They also feel that educating teenagers on safe sex is like granting them the unspoken permission to indulge in sex. A review of the literature on safe sex suggests that it has been misnamed. There is no safe sex. There is no way that a thirteen-year-old teenager would make a sound decision on safe sex. These immature decisions will have detrimental consequences on the rest of their lives. (You Say: No Easy Answers to Sex Education)

For a long time, the right wing of politics has been having a bash at sexuality education programs. They have tried to argue the myth, that sex education does not teach the benefits of abstinence, but only gives information on how to have sex. Having failed in all their attempts to stifle sex education, they have now attempted with some degree of success a new strategy. With adept lobbying and influence they have managed to radically alter the funding for sex education in schools. They have diverted congressional and state subsidies away to programs that do not provide health information. (Back to School with the Religious Right- Sexuality Education)