Sexual Education Vs Comprehensive Sex Education

Needs to be Said-Ed Like Claire’s high school, most schools only teach a short sex education unit with a focus on abstinence in their health class, so students are only being taught very briefly about sex and diseases. However, they need to be in a comprehensive sex education class. This way they can learn about their body’s health and about being sexually active so when they do decide to be sexually active, whether they wait till marriage or not, they will be prepared. Comprehensive sex education is more effective than abstinence-only because it teaches a broader and more in depth view about health and sex, it does not infringe upon human rights, and it teaches students about the consequences and struggles of being sexually active. Abstinence-only
In an article by Planned Parenthood titled “Reducing Teenage Pregnancy,” it states “The best and most effective sex education program would combine medically accurate information on a variety of sexually-related issues, including abstinence, contraception, safer sex, risks of unprotected intercourse and how to avoid them, developmental communications, negotiation, and refusal skills” (Reducing Teenage Pregnancy 1.6). Therefore, this is why the comprehensive method is better. The abstinence-only method focuses on making sure students know that abstinence is the only way to avoid pregnancy and diseases whereas the comprehensive method discusses that abstinence is important but also teaches students about being sexually active. “Researchers of comprehensive sex education program have found that 43% of the programs resulted in increased condom use and 40% increased contraceptive use” (Kirby 155; 6.9). Making sure students know the correct way to use contraceptives and how it is important to always use them is something that should be taught in every sex education class. Increased use of contraception accounts for 86% of the recent decline in teenage pregnancy (Reducing Teenage Pregnancy 1.7). Therefore, it is beneficial to teach students about different types of contraceptives as
In U.S. News & World Report in an article titled “A Debate About Teaching Abstinence” author Deborah Kotz explains that “Federal Law mandates that to receive funding, programs must teach that abstinence is the “only certain way” to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy” (2.3). This is causing educators to focus only on limitations of birth control, for example; condoms fail 15% of the time. Because of these funding requirements, most teens receive formal sex education on how to say no rather than on contraception methods (Reducing Teenage Pregnancy 1.3). This is sad because in a poll of teens, only 36 percent say they know “a lot” or “everything” about birth control pills and how to use them and 36 percent say they know only a “a little” or “nothing” about condoms (Albert qtd. in “Reducing Teenage Pregnancy” 1.5). No wonder the United States is experiencing so many teen pregnancies. We expect teens to not have sex and to do as they are told, so we decide not to teach them about contraceptives. However, we know that teens like to rebel and not do as they are told; therefore, they have unprotected sex, which can lead to