Sexual Education (Should it be taught in public schools)

 

 

 

Sexual Education in Public Schools

 

American children are more vulnerable to sexual transmitted diseases and early parenthood than generations before them. According to The Center of Disease Control and Kaiser Family Foundation  approximately 65% of STDS contracted in America will occur in people under 25 years of age and 1 out of 4 new cases of H.I.V infections occur in those under the age of 22 (Masland,2014). These statistics stress the importance of educating our youth about tools that effect their daily lives such as what is the meaning of consensual sex, what is sexual abuse, how to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexual transmitted diseases. However, there is an on-going debate about this particular biology lesson and how it should be taught. Some questioned the importance of sexual education being taught in schools, liberals have their views that lessons taught should be in full details, and conservatives believe that such an intimate topic should be taught by parents in a moral manner.  Each party have valid reasons for their belief but which one seem to be more effective.

Sexual education is a crucial lesson that should be taught to our adolescents. Children today are more inquisitive about sex than their predecessors. Elementary students are realizing the difference between male and female anatomy and how it affect them sexually. Richard McCarthy have experienced this when a teacher reported catching a girl preforming oral sex on his five year old son in an unlocked bathroom at First Lutheran Church/Carson School in Los Angeles, California (CBS-Los Angeles,2013).  Middle school students are experimenting sexually for various reasons feeling pleasure, to improve their relationship, and for popularity or their reputation (Child Trends Data Bank, 2013). By the time most American teenagers reach high school over 50% of them are having sexual relationships. Our children, preteens, and teenagers are being influenced by their peers and the highly sexualized media such as erotic novels, music videos, sitcoms, reality television shows, X-rated movies and gossip magazines. According to Psychologist David Walsh, the brain is wired to develop intense physical and emotional attraction during teenage years more than during the maturing process. He also stated his disruption on how casual sex is portrayed in the media and he claims that this distort the views of true intimacy (Jayson, 2015). This maybe the reason why many parents stress the importance of having a responsible adult who can educate their children with everything they need to learn about sex. Although, sexually transmitted diseases and early pregnancies are the two most popular reason why sexual education is important. Consensual sex and learning how to approach a situation where sexual abuse or assault is taking place is also essential. Child molestation has been on the rise for the past few decades and so are the growing population of child molesters within the database. Learning about consensual sex can help lower the rates of sex crimes against children. They’re many reasons why sexual education is considered beneficial, but we still have opposing views which have spilt this debate into two parties the liberals and conservatives.

Liberals believe generally that sexual education is the only way to effectively improve how American youth approach sex responsibly. Like physical education sexual education should be mandatory in all public schools. We trust our educators to teach and prepare our children for a brighter future academically, professionally and socially, but how is this possible when we shy away from educating them on the pros and con of sexual topics. Liberals stress the importance of these lessons being taught with detailed information within their syllabus. They also believe that sexual education would prevent the negative outcome of engaging in sexual activities and effective teaching can develops negotiation skills, decision-making skills, assertion and listening skills (Walkins, 2014). Although they are not opposing abstinence, they do stress the importance of sex education being taught effectivelly and that learning abstinence isn’t enough to keep our curious youth from engaging in sexual acts and they need to know how to make decisions regarding their sexual tendencies wisely.

  Conservatives don’t agree with these views. They believe that lessons on such an intimate topic should be taught in a domestic environment by parents. That parents are the best educators of sex and they are responsible for teaching moral values to their children. These beliefs stem from religious views on purity and on the many claims of teachers who caters to their own personal belief by handing out inappropriate materials to their students. Materials that contain explicit contents geared around homosexuality, bestiality, BDSM, and sex crimes.  Like in two recent cases one in Pembroke, North Carolina where a substitute teacher allowed a class of ninth graders watch the sexually explicit film “Fifty Shades of Grey” based on the trilogy by E.L James (Willets,2015). Another happened in Gilford, New Hampshire were William Baer a father of a ninth grader at Gilford High School was arrested during a school board meeting for protesting the required reading of  “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult, which contain events geared around student violence, bullying, and sexual aggression ( Bamforth,2014). These cases have made clear the concerns of many parents.  It provides evidence why many want to take such lessons into their own hands, but it is not enough to prove that teaching such lessons are the sole responsibility of parents. With some children living in an unstable household with one parent and others with two parents who aren’t stabled enough to teach their children such lessons. We cheat these children on how to make healthy choices regarding sex after sexual education is discontinued in schools. Children minds are like sponges and tend to soak up everything around them and like teachers, parents tend to teach based on their own personal views. Some avoid teaching their children because they are uncomfortable or in denial of the possibility that their child could be interested in such a topic. Others engage in negative sexual relationships in the presence of their children that may contradicts the positive lessons they try to instill in them. However, many parents and faith-based households stress only the importance of waiting until marriage and by doing so that child would have a beneficial, meaningful, and loving relationship with their significant other that isn’t based on carnal pleasures.

Abstinence is an important lesson and have been proven to be the safest form of safe sex practices but when abstinence becomes the only route in educating our youth it could become detrimental to their health. These teaching don’t prevent the wide-spread sexually transmitted diseases or teenage pregnancies and children who do succumb to their sexual urges often feel shameful and condemned.  Nicholas Ducote, a former homeschooled Christian have spoken out about his experience growing up in and abstinence taught household and stated that there were extreme views on purity and lust and to have sexual thoughts about someone is shameful lusting after that person. When taught about STDS he was told that you can’t get a disease from your wife as long as you’re in a Godly monogamous relationship and nobody cheats. If you are promiscuous, you will ruin this immunity and get cancer. (Kutner, 2015). Some children growing up with such views often stray away from sexual actions because of the fear of being punished because they have lusted or fornicated, but this fear don’t stop the urges in the majority. Nicholas talks of his struggles with masturbation and the guilt behind it believing that the devil was trying to tempt him. He also speaks of his friend, a fellow homeschooled student who had urges to prey on under aged girls and how there’s was no conception of levels when it came to sin (Kutner,2015). This proves that teaching a child about abstinence isn’t enough to ensure positive sexual decision making and growing up with such views could result to an unstable relationship with sex in the future.

Regardless of what side, this debate seems to be more effective.  We can all agree that sexual education is important and should be taught rather it’s inside or outside the home. Parents may want to protect the innocent minds of their children by controlling the levels of sexual content  being taught within sexual education curriculums, but in this advance generation our youth is becoming more knowledgeable a lot sooner and making their own decisions a lot sooner than expected. Rather you agree or disagree with the liberals/conservatives, or you are still stuck somewhere in between. As a nation it’s our responsibility to provide knowledgeable information to ensure that our youth make decisions safely and wisely and the way to give each and every child the opportunity to equally do so is to make sure sexual education classes are mandatory within all schools in America.

 

Citation Page

·        Masland, Molly “Carnal Knowledge, The Sex Debate” www.Msnbc.com, 1 July 2004

·        "Sex Education Should Be Taught at Home as Well as in Schools." Do Abstinence Programs Work? Ed. Christine Watkins. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2014. At Issue. Rpt. from "Sex Education that Works." Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 3 June 2015.

·        Jayson, Sharon. "USATODAY.com - Teens Define Sex in New Ways." USATODAY.com - Teens Define Sex in New Ways. N.p., 19 Oct. 2005. Web. 12 June 2015.

·        Kutner, Jenny. "Former Homeschooler on the Duggar Family’s Horrifying Fundamentalist “education”: “It's Literal Rape Culture”." Saloncom RSS. N.p., 8 June 2015. Web. 12 June 2015

·        Willets, Sarah. "Students View Sexually-explicit Film Parents Angered; Sub Teacher Taken off Call List - Robesonian." Robesonian. N.p., 08 May 2015. Web. 13 June 2015.

·        Bamforth, Annebelle. "Exclusive: Father Arrested For Speaking Out Against Sexually Explicit Book As Required Reading (Graphic Content)." Ben Swanns Truth In Media. N.p., 6 May 2014. Web. 13 June 2015.

·        "Children Allegedly Engaged In Sex Acts With Each Other At Carson Preschool." CBS Los Angeles. N.p., 05 Feb. 2013. Web. 24 June 2015.

·        "Oral Sex Behaviors among Teens." Child Trends. N.p., 23 Dec. 2013. Web. 25 June 2015.