COMPREHENSIVE SEXUAL EDUCATION

COMPREHENSIVE SEXUAL EDUCATION

Comprehensive Sexual Education
What has happened to today’s society that we are opposed to condoms because they might entice sex? When has allowing our youth to practice unsafe sex over safe sex been okay? We often think because we supply kids with condoms, birth control, and talks, that we are giving them permission to have sex, when in fact we are merely trying to protect them from STDs and pregnancy. We do not need to scare kids, but we do need to provide them with information about safe sex practices and what can happen if they do plan to explore their sexual urge. Facts are the most important thing we can offer those select few of youth who wish to engage in sex. Since when has providing information been a bad thing? Shouldn’t the youth know what they are doing and what can happen before they do it?
Most schools and education environments that do encourage any sort of sexual education, teach kids to “just say no”. The one main problem with this “abstinence only” education is that it denies those who do say “yes” information, instead of providing other acceptable options other than abstinence. Throughout time, ratings have shown that teaching the abstinence only education doesn’t affect the rates at which teenagers decide to have sex. Though comprehensive sex education doesn’t stop kids from having sex, it does however teach them how to participate in safe sex.
“A recent study in the American Journal of Public Health shows that teens who start using condoms from the first time they have intercourse score higher on several sexual health measures than teens who don't. The scientists followed more than 4,000 teens for an average of almost 7 years. They found that those adolescents who used condoms at their first intercourse had the same number of sexual partners as those who didn't, but were 30 percent more likely to have used condoms during their most recent sexual experience and only half as likely to have been infected with Chlamydia...