...Comprehensive Sex Education Teenage pregnancy rates are higher in American than they are in most other industrialized countries. This is a direct cause of the prominence of abstinence-only-before-marriage (commonly known as abstinence-only) education in United States schools. Besides teen pregnancy, abstinence-only education does more harm to America’s youth. There is a debate being discussed about how sexual education should be taught in schools. Even though abstinence-only education in schools promotes abstinence, a comprehensive sex education provides teenagers with accurate information, has community support, and empowers youth. Comprehensive and abstinence-only education are two very different approaches to the teachings of sexual education. Comprehensive education provides extensive information about contraceptive use, prevention of STDs, and sexual health while also promoting abstinence. It is an open-minded program that exposes students to some controversial topics like sexual orientation and gender identity while other types of programs often shy away from these discussions. On the other hand, abstinence-only education programs promote abstinence as the only option for teenagers and young adults...
Words: 1061 - Pages: 5
...Sex education in the United States is a controversial subject. There are many forms of sex education but the two basic forms are abstinence-only and comprehensive. Abstinence-only sex education teaches students to abstain from sex until marriage. Comprehensive sex education provides students with knowledge about the human body both male and female, knowledge about pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, how these diseases are transmitted and how to prevent them, when to get tested for diseases and the symptoms of these diseases to know if you are infected by one. Comprehensive sex education does not encourage adolescents to have sex but it does acknowledge the potential for them to participate in the act. Literature Review In “Abstinence-Only...
Words: 320 - Pages: 2
...In "Educating Teenagers about sex in the United States. The magority of sex education takes place in 6th-8th grade where they learn how to say no to sex, methods of birth control, STDs and how to prevent HIV/AIDs. Sex education helps reduce teen pregnancy and STDs but goes againts what some parents want to be taught. “Each year, U.S. teens experience as many as 850,000 pregnancies, and youth under age 25 experience about 9.1 million sexually transmitted infections (STIs)” (McKeon). As these numbers stick out to any ordinary person, schools still have not taken the initiative to teach sex education. Sex education can be explained in two different ways comprehensive or abstinence only. The difference of the two is that comprehensive sex...
Words: 818 - Pages: 4
...Without a doubt sex education has been a controversial topic in the United States. Our elected officials used to continuously debate comprehensive versus abstinence-only sex education for students K-12. Until very recent sex education was lumped in with abortion, and was a supporting argument for most Republican and Democratic to display their values before elections. However, during President Obama’s first term, he and his administration eliminated all federally funded abstinence-only sex education. (Tucker, 2011, as cited in Crooks & Baur, 2013, p. 371) The President had made this informed decision on data collected, but according to Herbnick, the administration was mostly motivated by the 1.5 billion federal taxpayer dollars spent on abstinence-only...
Words: 665 - Pages: 3
...“Don’t have sex. You will get pregnant, and you will die.” This quote from the hit movie Mean Girls earned lots of laughs from audiences everywhere. However, in today’s society we are taught ever since we are little that sexuality is unnatural and against the morals of the society we live in. The things teenagers are being taught are not in a laughing matter. While we are very strict on sex before marriage, not everyone will make that choice. The hormones rushing through the adolescent brain needs to be taught that, yes waiting until marriage is an option, but if you choose to not wait that’s okay. Comprehensive sex education will teach teenagers the tools and facts they need to stay safe if they choose to be sexually active. Although people...
Words: 986 - Pages: 4
...topic Reusable Shopping bags. Condoms in Schools Safe sex Sexually transmitted diseases Abstinence till marriage Condoms Teen pregnancy is high Sexual Behavior Religious communities do not favor condom distribution in high schools. Risk avoidance Comprehensive sexuality education Youth National School Condom Availability Clearinghouse School Faculty – Nurses, Teachers, Counselors Government funds Tax Payers Choices for young ladies Cost-effective True Love Waits Parents' choice 2- Group ideas from refined brainstorm you want to use in outline 3- No Sex Education---------------Abstinence--------------Comprehensive sexuality education Government Funds Religious Groups Safe Sex Tax Payers Sex until marriage Risk Avoidance Inappropriate True Love Waits Choices for young ladies Parents' choice No cost School Faculty Sexually Transmitted Diseases 4- General Purpose: Persuasive Speech of Conviction – 5-9 minutes 5- Specific Purpose Statement: I want my audience to believe the only way to ensure every teen can prevent Sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy through comprehensive sexuality education. WILL USE PICTURES OF STDS, CONDOMS AND PICTURES OF TEEN...
Words: 1570 - Pages: 7
...| * Home * MyNCSL * Help & Member Services * Contact Us | Login | Create Account | | | | | | * About Us * ------------------------------------------------- Mission & Governance * ------------------------------------------------- Member Services * ------------------------------------------------- Executive Committee * ------------------------------------------------- Legislative Staff Coord. Cmte. * ------------------------------------------------- Standing Committees * ------------------------------------------------- NCSL Foundation * Legislatures & Elections * ------------------------------------------------- News/Contacts/Overview * ------------------------------------------------- Organization/Procedure/Facilities * ------------------------------------------------- Legislator/Staff Information * ------------------------------------------------- Elections & Campaigns * ------------------------------------------------- Redistricting * ------------------------------------------------- Ethics * ------------------------------------------------- Legislative Leaders * ------------------------------------------------- Women's Legislative Network * ------------------------------------------------- International Programs * ------------------------------------------------- Trust for Representative Democracy * ------------------------------------------------- Legislators...
Words: 17330 - Pages: 70
...Why Sexual Education Should Be Taught In Public Schools In today’s society where children are exposed to sex through various media outlets, the need for sexual education in public schools is necessary. Instead of abstinence-only education, which teaches refraining from sexual activity until marriage, today’s youth needs to be informed about the various aspects of sexuality including pregnancy, contraception, STDs, and abstinence. According to a survey conducted by National Public Radio, The Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, ninety percent of American parents believe that comprehensive sexual education should be taught in public schools to students in grades 7 through 12. This type of education encourages abstinence, but also teaches proper condom use and other contraceptive methods to protect youth from unwanted pregnancies and STD (“Sex Education in America”). In order to reduce the risk of teenage pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, Douglas Bernard Kirby, Ph.D. from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy states in his 2007 publication of Emerging Answers: To be effective, such programs must be straightforward and specific; for example, they might discuss realistic situations that could lead to unprotected sex and methods for avoiding those situations, for remaining abstinent, and for using condoms and other contraceptives. (Kirby 16) Even though studies have shown mixed results...
Words: 1759 - Pages: 8
...Sex Education in Schools Anquavese Jones ENG/102 06/26/2011 Becky Wilfahrt Abstract Teenage sex education is a topic of much debate in America’s schools because sex and its health related issues are prevalent in the lives of so many adolescents. Teenagers’ engagement in sexual activities has led to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases, emotional and psychological injuries, and out-of-wedlock childbearing (Rector, 2002, para. 1). Therefore, schools across the nation have been charged with implementing programs that will educate the young about the risks of engaging in sexual activities before marriage. America’s schools use one of the two commonly known approaches in hopes to deter premarital sex. These approaches are abstinence education and comprehensive sex education. Abstinence education is a type of sex education that places strict emphasis on abstaining from sex until marriage. Comprehensive sex education examines abstinence along with sexual reproductive health education and contraceptives. This paper will examine both approaches and show that comprehensive sex education is the most effective method. Introduction Sex is a hot topic that reaches many children through the different mediums to include school, internet, radio, and television. An effective way to arm our children with important data concerning sex education is by providing abstinence education in our schools. According to Powezek, in the United States, maturation classes are usually implemented...
Words: 2288 - Pages: 10
...Should the early sex education be taught in schools or not? Discuss In recent years, the number of pregnancies and the sexual transmitted infections which are experienced by the teens has unpredictably increased. The sex education can be identified as the process of acquiring information and forming attitudes and beliefs about sex, sexual identity, relationships and intimacy, and the teens refers to those whose age is between 12 and 20. In whether or not the early sex education should be taught in schools a number of arguments, both for and against, need to be examined. These arguments include that sex education decreases the teenage pregnancy and sexual transmitted diseases. Comprehensive sex education promotes healthy behavior. Sex education materials contain offensive content and induce youth to attempt initiated sex. Firstly, the sex education reduces the incidence of underage pregnancy and the spread of transmitted diseases. With regard to the outcomes of the sexual behaviors, it is clearly discovered that the teenage pregnancy and the sexual transmitted diseases are the most serious effects of teen sex. According to Klein, each year, in United State, teens experience as many as 850,000 pregnancies, and youth under age 25 experience about 9.1 million sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Meanwhile, Klein states that by age 18, 70 percent of American females and 62 percent of American males have initiated sex. Thus, comprehensive sex education advocates believe that...
Words: 1206 - Pages: 5
...Comprehensive Sex Education Programs Language and Communication:Presentation Outline Western Governor’s University Presentation Outline I. Introduction A. Audience hook: According to a study done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), by the time young people graduate from high school, nearly two-thirds have had sex (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). B. Thesis statement: Research suggests that comprehensive sex education programs should be implemented in public schools because they decrease sexual risk behaviors in adolescents as well as the rate of unplanned teen pregnancies. C. Preview of main points: 1. Comprehensive sex education programs decrease sexual risk behaviors in adolescents. 2. Comprehensive sex education programs decrease the rate of unplanned teen pregnancies. II. Comprehensive sex education programs decrease sexual risk behaviors in adolescents. D. Comprehensive sex education programs decrease many sexual risk behaviors in teens including delaying first sexual intercourse, reducing number of sex partners, and increasing condom or contraceptive use (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). 3. Comprehensive sex education programs do not hasten the initiation of sexual intercourse. In fact, in an analysis of 40 different studies of comprehensive sex education programs, 40% of them showed a significant delay in initiation of sexual intercourse among...
Words: 1032 - Pages: 5
...Abstinence- Only Vs. Comprehensive Sex Education Nickenha Ashley SOC 233 Professor Singer October 31, 2013 The debate about “abstinence” vs. “comprehensive” sex education has been occurring for at least three decades. The common ground that drives these competing approaches is concern about the negative consequences of adolescent sexual activity to the health and well-being of individuals and society. The debate about these programs were re-energized recently based on the research of about four different abstinence program, where teens in that study reported that they did not abstain from sexual activity more than non-participants. Based on these results it has come to the conclusion that the abstinence approach to preventing teen sexual risk behaviors does not work. My position on this topic is that I feel that all schools should implement the comprehensive sex education class rather than the abstinence only. The abstinence only approach to sex education does not protect young people from HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, and unplanned pregnancy. This approach will likely have serious unintended consequences by denying young people access to the information they need to protect themselves. Sex education will prepare them only for when they want to make that decision but will clarify that having no sex is the only way to truly prevent any accidents. The idea that sexual activity is the ticket to popularity is burned into teens brains by media, through television...
Words: 746 - Pages: 3
...Should Sex Education Be Taught in Schools Laterra Dykes, Nastasia Davis, David Webb, Joy Dobbins BCOM/275 May 29, 2014 Dewayne Acree Sexually active teens are a matter of severe concern in the United States and many other countries. In the past several years many school-based programs have been created for the sole purpose of delaying the beginning of sexual activity. There seems to be a growing compromise that schools can play an important role in providing youth with a knowledge base which may allow them to make knowledgeable decisions and help them shape a healthy lifestyle (St Leger, 1999). The school is the only institution in regular contact with a sizable percentage of the teenage population (Zabin and Hirsch, 1988), with virtually all youth attending it before they initiate sexual risk-taking behavior (Kirby and Coyle, 1997). The idea of sex education is a very controversial subject. Sex education will teach teens about the importance of safe sex. There are two different styles of learning about sex education, which are abstinence and sex education or comprehensive. Comprehensive education discuss abstinence as a choice. Even though, comprehensive sex education teaching abstinence as a choice it still inform the teens about contraception and how to avoid obtaining sexually transmitted diseases. Abstinence education teaches teens about abstinence from sex until marriage. Abstinence education does not discuss but rejects the use of contraception. The difference between...
Words: 2683 - Pages: 11
...investigate sexual education because it is a policy area that hits close to home. Sexual Education is an issue with many facets, but it falls under the larger umbrella of reproductive freedom. Many people would consider themselves either pro-life or pro-choice, but there is also a middle section that is less defined. This section is present because of cases like rape, health difficulties, or future health of the baby. With education, it is less black and white in the eyes of the general populace. Further, sides are frequently taken due to religious beliefs. Education is typically a more local issue, but it has a large impact on the rate of pregnant teens, which ultimately funnels into the debate over abortion. More specifically, the federal government has to take action on both abortion and sexual education because of their inter-connectedness. With that said, the focus of my policy is primarily the need for comprehensive sexual education. I work for the American Civil Liberties Union, and within this I am a part of TACL. The point of this group is to focus on civil liberties for students. With the passage of the abstinence only bill in Tennessee, I feel as though my liberties have been taken. I believe that you cannot stop students from doing what is natural by not teaching them about it or teaching them about protection. Studies show that in states with abstinence only education laws, the pregnancy rate is much higher. I want to focus my research on education about safety...
Words: 5851 - Pages: 24
...Jason Rusli Esl 26 26 July 2012 Essay 1 Final Draft Sex Education for a Better Future Pregnancy among school-age youth may reduce completed levels of education, employment opportunities and marital stability, and increase welfare dependency (Illinois Department of Public Health). This staggering sentence has pointed out the important needs of sex education in schools to ameliorate the nation’s economics. Two approaches to sex education currently prevail: abstinence-only approach – inculcating teenagers with the notion that premarital intercourse is astray – and comprehensive approach, which focuses on the dissemination of information on safe sex practices, while simultaneously promoting abstinence as the ultimate solution in diminishing the issues of unwanted pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). In spite of seemingly endless debates as to which approach is more effective, it would be reckless to simply laud one approach and criticize another, for the two approaches are not mutually exclusive. Moreover, neither approach is effective on its own. Only by incorporating the merits of both approaches, coupled with family support / parental involvement, can the issue at hand be effectively handled. In an essay titled “Sex Education in Schools,” the author, Amber Dahlke, staunchly believes that sex education should be taught in comprehensive style. However, I remain ambivalent towards the comprehensive approach. Although I recognize the value in imparting...
Words: 1214 - Pages: 5
