Sex-Ed in Schools

Sex education is simple, yet complex. Knowing what sex is and how it can effect you is the simple part. The "birds and the bees" conversation covered just about everything I needed to know at the age of ten. The hard part seems to be the unsaid; the fact that not enough teenagers realize the emotional and psychological effects that come with having sex. So when should we begin to teach sex-ed? When we teach it, what exactly should be taught? I was taught the basic anatomy of males and females in the seventh grade. Then, I was taught basic health in ninth grade. After that, it was left up to the television, radio, and my peers to teach me the rest. I still find myself a bit naive and uneducated sometimes because I was not taught earlier on in my life. According to NPR, the Kasier Family Foundation, only seven percent of Americans think that sex education should be taught in schools. Fifteen percent think that only abstinence should be taught and that information on safe sex should be prohibited. Parents are discouraged by sex education because most believe that it provokes the thoughts of sexual intercourse. Forty-six percent say that abstinence should be taught, but safe sex should be taught as well. Though some teenagers do not abstain, they should know their safest options. The same poll asked the parents of seventh through twelfth graders what concerned them the most about their children partaking in sex. Thirty-six percent of the parents said that they fear that their children are having sex before they are psychologically and emotionally ready. It seems as if most parents want their children to know what they need to know before they step out into the great unknown. In all actuality, with what is on the television and by what their peers already know, children and teens are going to find out whether their parents approve or not. In other words, the best way to teach sex-ed would be to teach all aspects of sex including abstinence, safe sex, STDs, pregnancy, and the emotional and psychological attachment.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1622610