Sunday, February 15, 2009
Blog 4
Sex education is very important to be taught to our adolescents. I think the abstinence plus education program needs to be initiated in all schools. It doesn't make sense not to teach our children all about sex, protection and STD's, they need to know it all. We need to give them the educational tools to make wise decisions and be responsible for those decisions. We are not going to be able to hold our children's hands their whole life. They need to be educated on the facts. Not only do I feel its the schools responsibility to educate, but I also feel it is the parents. Parents need to be able to feel comfortable about discussing sex with their children and if they aren't there are plenty of useful resources out there that parents can reach out too. Unfortunately for me growing up, the only thing that was ever taught to me in the public schools what not to have sex. That's it, nothing else was said about it. I turned to my parents to teach me all about sex. I was thankful that I had parents that felt comfortable discussing this with me. Not only where they there to educate me, they had were there to help me through the most difficult time of my life-getting pregnant at an early age. Not everyone is fortunate to have this in their life, that is why I feel the need for schools to play an important role in teens lives. Teen pregnancy is on the rise. Teens are having sex at younger ages, and STD's are continuing to occur more and more among this population. It is important for our public school systems to help sustain these numbers and teach sex education. I don't know for sure if implementing this education in schools will significantly decrease the numbers, but what I do know is that it will education our teens on the importance of safe sex and could possibly slow down the rates of teen pregnancy. This is what I hope for.
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ReplyDeleteEven though the rate of teenage pregnancy and birth have declined since 1991, the United States still continues to have the highest birth rate and one of the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases in the industrialized world (Hauser, 2004).
ReplyDeleteIn 1996, Congress signed into law Title V of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act. Title V appropriated $250 million dollars over five years for states that solely provided sexual abstinence outside of marriage programs. When the first five year funding cycle of Title V ended there were only 11 state funded evaluations that were made public. These evaluations showed very little short term benefits and no lasting impact. Although a few programs showed a little success concerning attitudes and intentions to abstain from sexual activity, no programs were able to show long term impact on sexual behavior (Hauser, 2004).
In a perfect world we would be able to show young people that it is in their best interest to practice sexual abstinence. However, this is not practical. A young person should not suffer for the rest of their life because they don’t agree with sexual abstinence. They deserve the facts, and it is our responsibility to give them accurate information that is free from moral judgment and ridicule.
Hauser, D. (2004). Five years of abstinence-only-until-marriage education: assessing the
impact. In Advocates for youth. Retrieved February 15, 2009, from http ://www.
advocatesforyouth.org/publications/stateevaluations/index.htm
I strongly agree with you! I think that children need to be educated and the parents obviously are not doing it, based on the teen pregnancy rates! We need to keep the chilren healthy and educating them is the first step!
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you mentioned that the parents need to be involved as well. It seems like some parents are not really involved in the major decsions for their children's education. It is up to all of us to help teens make educated choices in their lives. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHello
ReplyDeleteI understand where you are coming from it is very scary for me at the moment my son is 16. Although everytime we talk I always bring up the sex issue. I tell him we are a minority group we don't have to put ourselves there, I don't want to be a grandmother we are both to young to be parents and a grandma.