King|1 Natalie King Mr. Taylor English 3-2803 25 February 2022 Should sex education be taught in public schools? It is not a secret that teens are having sex or at least thinking about sex. Most of the time it comes from straight curiosity about what is happening with their bodies. Some people believe that it would be best for young adults that they should not be taught about sex and that sex education should only be about anatomy. Their reasoning is because they think if people instruct young adults about sex, then that would only increase the activity. It is possible to understand their reason, but there is no proof of that being true. If sex education is properly taught in public schools, it would decrease teen pregnancies, STD rates, and it would overall let people understand their bodies more. Sex education should be taught in public schools because it can decrease teen pregnancy rates. Teen pregnancy rates are extremely high in the United States and even though they have decreased over the years, the United States still has the highest numbers in the world. In an article titled “TexEd; Sex education in Texas Schools” states that over 80% of schools teach abstinence-only or nothing on sex at all and that is only in Texas. Yet in the same article it also says that this method of teaching does not work because Texas has the highest teen-pregnancies in America. As the article has shown that teaching teens to not have sex does not work and makes the problem worse. It has been proven that “Texas teens are the least likely in America to have used contraception during sex.” Even the founder of the Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy said that “we’re creating generation after generation after generation of sexually illiterate adults.” His statement could not be truer. The more people try to withhold information about sex, the more adults who do not know the essential information about sex. During the teen years of a person is where they start to learn information about the real world and sex is a part of the real world. Trying to stop teens from learning about sex is like not teaching teen about taxes. It is vital information to know and trying to put a freshly new adult in this world without that information is critical. Some people think that if people teach teens about safe sex, then it would lead to more conversations about sex which would lead teens to do the act. This statement is neither true nor false. Teenage years is when hormones start to “activate” which would lead to curiosity about their body. Somehow the topic of sex will come up and it needs to be talked about. If not, then we are putting people at risk. That is just one of the reasons why proper sex education should be taught in public school. Another reason why sex education should be taught in public schools is that STD rates are high, especially in adolescents. It is no secret that STDs and STIs are dangerous but when adolescents get these sexually transmitted diseases you must start thinking, “where did we go wrong.” 1 out of 5 people has an STI and that includes teenagers. This is caused by the lack of knowledge when it comes to STDs. Most people think if you just put a condom on then you would not contract anything but that is just not the case. Many STDs and STIs can be transmitted with a condom on and if the school taught this information to teens, then they will be more aware of this. According to an article called "The birds and the 'be quiet'; Uganda.", schools do not go into depth when it comes to STDs. They only talk about how they exist and how the only way to not get them is to not have sex. But trying to stop hormonal teenagers from not having sex is unrealistic. But telling teens who are sexually active to get tested for STDs/STI regularly is more realistic, especially for women. An article called “Program Level: Women at Risk” says that women are biologically more at risk for sexually transmitted diseases than men due to the vaginal surface being larger and more vulnerable to infection than the penis. This information is important because usually sexually transmitted diseases are not treated when it comes to women. After all, it is usually asymptomatic. And if they are not treated then it could lead to vaginal damage and can harm the reproductive system. People do ignore this information and still try to push the “do not talk about sex” topic on teens but it has been proven multiple times that method does not work. Therefore, people need to teach kids and adolescents proper sex education to teens. The reason proper sex education should be taught in all public schools is because a lot of people do not know a lot about their bodies. When or if a teacher teaches sex education it is mostly about how babies are made and what are the scientific names of our reproductive systems. According to the Gale Database most schools in Texas only teach abstinence-only or nothing at all. Sex education is not just about the sex, it is about what is happening with our bodies. The human body is easy to understand but when you are not taught this essential information it is easy to get lost, especially if you are a woman. There are people out there who do not know why women have periods or what ovulating is and that information is important if you do not want to get pregnant right now. When it comes to the male body the schools usually go over everything in that category. Most women know more about the male body then their own when schools first start to teach sex education. And it is not that the female body is harder to understand it the fact that women usually do not get the proper education in general. Either when it comes to sex education or regular education and history proves this easily. Unbelievably the United States has not really changed when it comes to education. White cis men are still in the center of it all and that need to stop. Women and LGBTQ+ do not know that much about themselves simple because we are focusing on one group of people. For example, a lot of women do not know what discharge is until it starts to happen to them. It has gotten to the point where women and LGBTQ+ must teach themselves about their bodies and sex and that is extremely dangerous and could lead t0 life changing event like STDs/STIs. Therefore, all public schools should teach proper sex education so that people other than men can understand their bodies. Sex education should be properly taught in public schools is because it would lower the rates of teen pregnancies, STD/STI rates in young adolescents, and it would let people understand and have more knowledge about their bodies. Not letting teens learn about sex education in schools is dangerous and could lead them down the wrong path just because they simply did not know the proper information. That is why people must not leave them in the dark and start educating them on the topic. Even though teen pregnancy rates are declining the United States still has the highest number in the world. And Texas, which has 80% of their schools only teaches “abstinence” or “nothing at all” and yet Texas has the highest numbers in America in teen pregnancy; so, clearing the abstinence talking is not working. Also, the number of young adolescents who have STDs in America is outrageous. If sex ed is taught in school and the topic of sexually transmitted diseases comes up, then they will just tell you to put a condom on which is extremely dangerous to tell sexually active teens. Most STD/STIs are still transmitted with a condom on and most people, especially women, do not experience symptoms. And if sexually transmitted diseases or infections do not get treated right away that could lead to serious medical problems that cannot be fixed. The thing that should not be a problem in the first place, but it is, is that people, especially women and lgbtq+, do not know that much about their bodies. When it comes to the teaching of sex education it is mostly about how babies are made and the birthing process and the genitals, but there is still plenty of things that need to be taught and it is too much to say all of them here. Many people believe that not talking about sex would make teens not think about it which is not true. It has gotten to the point where laws are being made to not make it mandatory to teach teens proper sex education and those laws are set in Texas. Just because people believe that teaching sex would learn to teens have sex does not mean it is true; it just means that they are having safer sex. It is impossible to try to control teenagers so stop trying. Teenagers are going to have sex so let's stop acting surprised and promote safer sex and give them more essential information on the topic. WORK CITED Hune-Brown, Nicholas. "The sex ed." Toronto Life, vol. 49, no. 9, Sept. 2015, pp. 60+. Gale OneFile: High School link.gale.com/apps/doc/A428093500/STOM?u=j014906008&sid=bookmark-STOM&xid=48b11907. Accessed 23 Feb. 2022. Whitehead, Barbara Dafoe. "The failure of sex education." The Atlantic, vol. 274, no. 4, Oct. 1994, pp. 55+. Gale Edition, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A15740001/STOM?u=j014906008&sid=bookmark- Edition, OneFile: High School STOM&xid=92a2f2d2. Accessed 23 Feb. 2022. N.A. "The birds and the 'be quiet'; Uganda." The Economist, 8 Jan. 2022, p. 40(US). Gale OneFile: High School link.gale.com/apps/doc/A688817988/STOM?u=j014906008&sid=bookmark-STOM&xid=ad36b1e5. Edition, Accessed 23 Feb. 2022. N.A. “TexEd; Sex education in Texas schools." The Economist, vol. 434, no. 9175, 4 Jan. 2020, p. 18(US). Gale OneFile: High School Edition, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A610282163/STOM?u=j014906008&sid=bookmark- STOM&xid=061d3b36. Accessed 23 Feb. 2022.
