As quoted by the Guttmacher Institute in an article containing statistics of teenage sexual activities, “86% of the decline in the teen pregnancy rate between 1995 and 2002 was the result of dramatic improvements in contraceptive use…” while “just 14% of the decline is attributable to decreased sexual activity” (“Facts on American Teens’ Sources of Information About Sex”). From this statistic, pregnancy rates are not dropping due to teenagers having less sex, but from using contraceptives, yet “Fifteen percent of Americans believe that schools should teach only about abstinence from sexual intercourse and should not provide information on how to obtain and use condoms and other contraceptives” (“Sex Education in America”). The majority of parents want their children to stay safe and innocent for as long as possible, which ideally means to keep them away from sex. But sex is an everyday subject in the 21st century, and knowledge is much safer than ignorance. The sexual education system in the United States needs to be reformed to result in lower unsafe teenage sexual activity statistics, as well as given structure to address the levels of uneducated and poorly educated teenagers.
The current lack of definitive laws about sexual education in schools is one of the largest factors in correcting the high numbers of teenage pregnancies and diseases. An article composed by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCLS), “State Policies on Sex Education in Schools,” declares that only “18 states require sex education curricula to be medically accurate and/or age appropriate;” they also state that “State policies vary in their determination of ‘medically accurate’; some require that state health departments review curricula, while others require that the facts taught come from “published authorities” trusted by medical professionals. Only 21 states and the District of Columbia require that their high schools teach sexual education (NCLS). Sexual education should not be an option for schools to turn down. Learning about bodily functions, relationships, diseases, and preventative methods is something that needs to be happening in schools today. The number of teenagers having sex before their 19th birthday keeps rising, but schools are falling behind in their responsibility to prepare the next generation for real life. Sex is a large part of real life, especially because many parents teach their children that the subject is a taboo one, something they don’t need to know about. The fifteen percent of American parents who believe abstinence should be the only mention of sexual education are ignoring the very real problem of uneducated and unprotected teenage sex. As stated by a Planned Parenthood article, abstinence-only programs “… strictly exclude discussion of other important sex ed topics, especially those concerned with birth control, safer sex, and sexual orientation. In fact, abstinence-only programs often provide inaccurate and alarmist misinformation about the effectiveness of condoms, contraception, and safer sex.” (“Implementing Sex Education”). Laura Kann, one of the authors of a study conducted in the US about the progress of sexual education, believes school sex education classes can be a good tool to lower the rates of teen pregnancy and the spread of STIs (Beasley). Brigid McKeon’s article “Effective Sex Education” states, “No abstinence-only-until-marriage program has been shown to help teens delay the initiation of sex or to protect themselves when they do initiate sex” but “…the U.S. government has spent over one billion dollars supporting abstinence-only-until-marriage programs,” which in turn is resulting in more teenage pregnancies. “According to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, which estimates that teen childbearing costs taxpayers nearly $10.9 billion annually” (NCLS).The government needs to focus their efforts towards teaching accurate information about sexual activity, diseases, and contraception, instead of wasting money on an option that is obviously not working, and wasting another extreme amount of money dealing with the aftermath.
The teenage sexual activity stats are quite alarming, especially combining them with the failing sexual education system. “Three in 10 girls will be pregnant at least once before their 20th birthday. Teenage mothers are less likely to finish high school and are more likely than their peers to live in poverty, depend on public assistance, and be in poor health. Their children are more likely to suffer health and cognitive disadvantages, come in contact with the child welfare and correctional systems, live in poverty, drop out of high school and become teen parents themselves” (NCLS). “Among teens aged 18-19, 41% report that they know little or nothing about condoms and 75% say they know little or nothing about the contraceptive pill,” and “More than half (55%) of 7th-12th graders say they have looked up health information online in order to learn more about an issue affecting themselves or someone they know”(“Facts on American Teens’ Sources of Information About Sex”). These statistics are incredibly high and completely unacceptable. Many researchers agree that the numbers could be cut nearly in half with the correct instruction and information, but instead teens are turning to the internet to find information. “The Web sites teens turn to for sexual health information often have inaccurate information. For example, of 177 sexual health Web sites examined in a recent study, 46% of those addressing contraception and 35% of those addressing abortion contained inaccurate information” (“Facts on American Teens’ Sources of Information About Sex”). If the government were to step in and devise an accurate, efficient way of teaching sexual education in schools while keeping up to date with current information, teens would be much safer, teen pregnancy statistics would fall, and the number of new STI cases each year would also decrease.
Education is the safest option to deal with teenagers and their developing sexual drives. Sex is an every day subject in the 21st century, and can be found in small to large amounts nearly everywhere. The sexual education system in the United States is failing and reformation is needed to protect and nurture the next generation. Diseases and unplanned pregnancy numbers could be lowered with accurate, trusted information.
PS- I've left the cited works out of the blog in case there are any losers out there who try to copy my work. Get a brain assholes. Do your own work.
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