OPPapers.com

Sex Education: Does It Really Work?

Sex Education: Does it Really Work?


Roy Peters

"Forty percent of today's fourteen year old girls will become pregnant
by the time they are nineteen" (qtd. in "The Effects" 632). This statistic may
indicate that the sex education programs in the United States are not
controlling the effects of sex by teens. "The United States has the highest
teen pregnancy rate of developed countries" ("The Effects" 632). I believe
that the people of this nation need to look at the current sex education
programs and see if they are properly addressing the problems that sex education
was intended to stop. The three major reasons why sex education is taught in
our schools are: 1) to discourage teens from having sex at younger and younger
ages; 2) to stop the spread of AIDS and other STDs; and 3) to prevent teenage
pregnancy. I believe that the sex education programs being used today are not
effective at controlling these three problems. Today's sex education programs
are abstinence based. "Washington has spent some $31.7 million developing
abstinence only curricula" (Shapiro 56). By looking at the problems sex
education tries to solve, we can improve the sex education programs by putting
the problems in order of importance. This will prove that teens having sex at a
younger age is the reason for the failure of sex education in this country. To
counteract this problem abstinence should be taught to children under the age of
16. Then when the children reach the age of 16 they need to be taught AIDS and
condom education.
AIDS and other STDs are an important reason we have sex education. AIDS
education is supported in all fifty states: "Sex education is only formally
required or recommended in 47 states" (Gibbs 61). This shows that AIDS
education is considered more important than sex education. AIDS can be spread
by the transfer of bodily fluids such as blood or semen from an infected person
to one who is not. This includes sexual activity, intravenous drug use,...