"It's kind of hard to teach Sex Ed when half of the class is already pregnant."
Before I get flamed into oblivion, I shall put my disclaimer. If you are religious or spiritual, rock on. I have no problem with people’s individual beliefs. A person can believe in one god, a million gods, spirits, aliens, ghosts or rocks. Diversity livens things up. However, it becomes a problem to me when these beliefs are used as a weapon to diminish the rights of others, deny science, or push an agenda.
Holy lack of political correctness, Batman! Did I really just say that? Yes, I did. Individual beliefs should not translate to imposing it upon an entire group of people, especially when that group is a captive and impressionable audience of children. Every year, the federal government allocates millions upon millions of dollars to abstinence until marriage sexual education. Some states have different attitudes (overall) regarding sexual education. You may have had a very comprehensive sex education. You could have also been separated by gender and been told how to keep yourself pure. Personally, I had a guy from Planned Parenthood who visited our school with a table full of condoms, diaphragms, speculums and more. However, friends in the school nearby had abstinence only education.
One thing that I will always remember is when my friend commented about his Sex-Ed class back in high school, “It’s kind of hard to teach abstinence only Sex Ed when half the class is already pregnant.” While it was meant to cause a chuckle, he did have a point. In fact, the more abstinence only education a state has, the higher the teen pregnancy rates tend to be.
Let’s look at some of the states with the highest teen pregnancy rankings. New Mexico, Mississippi, Texas, Nevada, and Arkansas are currently the top five and have been towards the top for years. These states have more conservative politics and a stronger religious presence, that, overall, tends to permeate through many social and government institutions there. These states also tend to have more restrictions when it comes to giving teenagers access to birth control and accurate information on condoms.
Perhaps parents can’t face the fact that their little darlings are going to have sex, and it’s going to most likely be before marriage. Perhaps it worked in the older days when you got hitched barely out of high school, but that’s not how it is anymore. This antiquated system leaves teens in an environment that is not welcome to their questions and does its best to bar them from actual science and protection. Just recently, a student named Katelyn Campbell protested the inaccurate, abstinence only Sex Ed that was coming to her school. The speaker was Pam Stenzel, a woman who spreads scientific inaccuracies and preaches that the only way you’ll come out of sex unscathed is if you are married beforehand.
The principal of the school in West Virginia (a state that also has very high teen pregnancy rates compared to other states) threatened Ms. Campbell to prevent her from speaking against the misinformation. The principal even threatened to call her soon-to-be college and tell them that Ms. Campbell had “bad character.” This was because a high school senior did not want Ms. Stenzel to tell her peers that condoms never work, having sex in high school will make you unfertile, and using birth control makes your mother probably hate you.
There are a host more of examples, but it all evens out to this: Don’t lie. I’m not saying science is right about everything, but you should at least research yourself. Find good sources and studies showing the effectiveness of birth control. See for yourself. Those who lie to push an agenda have no business being around children and young adults. Advocating for safe practices does not make children more promiscuous. Just look at the data. Information on such health matters are a public concern and should be publicly available to anyone. If some parents want to cling to older ideals, that is their business, but their children should not suffer potentially life-altering situations because of ignorance.
Holy lack of political correctness, Batman! Did I really just say that? Yes, I did. Individual beliefs should not translate to imposing it upon an entire group of people, especially when that group is a captive and impressionable audience of children. Every year, the federal government allocates millions upon millions of dollars to abstinence until marriage sexual education. Some states have different attitudes (overall) regarding sexual education. You may have had a very comprehensive sex education. You could have also been separated by gender and been told how to keep yourself pure. Personally, I had a guy from Planned Parenthood who visited our school with a table full of condoms, diaphragms, speculums and more. However, friends in the school nearby had abstinence only education.
One thing that I will always remember is when my friend commented about his Sex-Ed class back in high school, “It’s kind of hard to teach abstinence only Sex Ed when half the class is already pregnant.” While it was meant to cause a chuckle, he did have a point. In fact, the more abstinence only education a state has, the higher the teen pregnancy rates tend to be.
Let’s look at some of the states with the highest teen pregnancy rankings. New Mexico, Mississippi, Texas, Nevada, and Arkansas are currently the top five and have been towards the top for years. These states have more conservative politics and a stronger religious presence, that, overall, tends to permeate through many social and government institutions there. These states also tend to have more restrictions when it comes to giving teenagers access to birth control and accurate information on condoms.
Perhaps parents can’t face the fact that their little darlings are going to have sex, and it’s going to most likely be before marriage. Perhaps it worked in the older days when you got hitched barely out of high school, but that’s not how it is anymore. This antiquated system leaves teens in an environment that is not welcome to their questions and does its best to bar them from actual science and protection. Just recently, a student named Katelyn Campbell protested the inaccurate, abstinence only Sex Ed that was coming to her school. The speaker was Pam Stenzel, a woman who spreads scientific inaccuracies and preaches that the only way you’ll come out of sex unscathed is if you are married beforehand.
The principal of the school in West Virginia (a state that also has very high teen pregnancy rates compared to other states) threatened Ms. Campbell to prevent her from speaking against the misinformation. The principal even threatened to call her soon-to-be college and tell them that Ms. Campbell had “bad character.” This was because a high school senior did not want Ms. Stenzel to tell her peers that condoms never work, having sex in high school will make you unfertile, and using birth control makes your mother probably hate you.
There are a host more of examples, but it all evens out to this: Don’t lie. I’m not saying science is right about everything, but you should at least research yourself. Find good sources and studies showing the effectiveness of birth control. See for yourself. Those who lie to push an agenda have no business being around children and young adults. Advocating for safe practices does not make children more promiscuous. Just look at the data. Information on such health matters are a public concern and should be publicly available to anyone. If some parents want to cling to older ideals, that is their business, but their children should not suffer potentially life-altering situations because of ignorance.
Good article and I couldn't have said much of it any better. The whole problem rests on the shoulders of those in power and a lot of blame I say can be lead straight to our own churches and religious views. Religion and or religious views shaped the country from what was ate to how we acted, it is no wonder why it would seem we are stuck in the 1800's. It's a shame that too many people are afraid of sexuality and sex.
should we have high schools for boys and high schools for girls to reduce the problems of teen pregnancy what is BS is teenage girls can only read Cosmopolitan to figure out anything about relationships that advocate premarital sex for the single women there aren't any good magazines or books about relationships for teenagers that should learn all about that communication stressed by baby boomer authors that wrote books like women are from venus men are from mars really do teenagers need to have sex to feel they have a relationship with a boy or a girl can a teenage boy or girl learn to actually talk about sex rather than actually have sex No I do not think high schools should have sex education of any kind what high schools should teach in school are biology and anatomy classes that will help kids understand life does begin at conception because it took two to tango to make a baby that you see in that MTV show pregnant and 16 or is that 16 and pregnant
Mariane,
I sense a lot of the anger in this post. And, yes you are correct to a point but may I subject something else to you to think upon. The dynamic of the home has changed so much, that the over all way that we as a society looks at sex needs to be adjusted. Sex needs to be brought out of the closet and shown in the light for all that it can be. Separate high schools for boys and girls may curtain some problems for a while, but in the end l feel that it will only create others. We will end up with a society that is even more awkward with each other. Studies of separate classes do show that overall grades are much higher, social skills and interactions with the opposite sex are less. There really is no one shoe fits all answer, kids are left to fend for themselves all to much now days. Both parents have to work to the point that they "the parents" are at work more than at home. Honestly more and more kids are turning to the internet to find things out about sex, and there are some really good sites that are kid friendly that offer the information that these kids are looking for. In a perfect world if parents weren't so hung up on their own sexual issues, perhaps kids would have a chance to learn about it from the parents.
Lets just say I am under 40 and over 30 you are not telling me anything I do not already know about the domestic social dynamic thats the kind of generation I grew up in and not much has changed since my childhood. Maybe I should've had sex education in high school so I too like Bill Clinton could say I did not have sex with that woman when I was in high school I gave a blow job to my boyfriend who was the same age as me because I did not know that a blow job was actually considered sex to anyone till I graduated high school and learned kids five years my junior actually considered a blow job equivalent to intercourse whatever I had a mother who told me do not have sex and that advice was useful till I was nineteen years old. I do not regret much of the stuff I have done in the past but I could have made better choices had better advice on sex dating and relationships even though I have never gotten an STD or pregnant by any man I ever slept with O do you still think I am angry I do think we can serve teenagers Virgin Mary's rather than Cosmopolitans. I do not know if abstinence is realistic for adults over the age of 25 but certainly we can give teenagers a little credit and help our kids graduate high school rather than give a condom and wink of a nod for a good old time in the back row of a movie theater.
The one thing is that there are plenty of studies showing abstinence only is not working. Like states that enforce it the most have the most unwanted pregnancies. The thing is though, why? I don't think it's the message of "don't have sex" as much as the untruths some of these speakers are saying. It's one thing to say being older might make you a better decision maker (generally true), but it's another to say that STDs can pass through condoms and birth control doesn't work.
I think it's more the religion infused with the abstinence only in addition to unreliable speakers. If a teen is either not very religious or catches their speaker in blatant lies it is kind of hard to listen to other things that are said.
I don't know, just a thought. Thanks everyone, for reading my article.
Interesting
There are so many ways that we could improve something as simple as sex education. If we were not so worried about offending someone and their beliefs. I think it should be taught and if there is a family that disagrees then they can pull their child out.
Great article. Really makes you think why people approach sex so differently than other topics of human behavior.
Great article, couldn't agree more!!
Great article. Sex is as strong a natural drive as eating. We teach our kids to eat healthfully; we don't pretend they don't want cake.
I had an abstinence-only education, and I detested it. I didn't have sex in high school, but I knew even then that flashing images of diseased genitalia was NOT going to prevent pregnancies or STDs. They told me condoms didn't work, and mentioned absolutely nothing about birth control. They basically said that you'll get an STD long before you get pregnant, and the only way to prevent this was being married first (because that magically means there's no chance of STDs, or something?). We NEED comprehensive sexual education--it is a huge part of life, and a teenage girl shouldn't have to use Seventeen magazine to teach her how birth control works and how to use a condom, as I had to.
We like to throw around words like “people” and “human” etc. we are in fact animals, more specifically primates...........We were not meant to be monogamous or celibate ( in my opinion ...............if it works for you? That’s great! But not everyone is able to follow societies’ ideals. Advocating for safe sexual practices and telling the truth about wether or not you will become infertile if you have sex in the school...Christ on my burnt toast do people now a days really believe that stuff? Really? I surely hope that “Miss Campbell” suffered no major hardships due to the ignorance of that principal.