Assignment #1
Running head: ASSIGNMENT #1
Assignment #1
Submitted by:
Kimberly Nelson (S0241236)
A paper submitted in partial fulfilment of the
course requirements of SOC 276
Cyndi Starzyk-Frey
Lethbridge College
February 11, 2009
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Assignment #1
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Young people are exposed to sex all through high school and throughout their lives, but
may be unaware of the potential harmful means by which they could be exposed to. By
encouraging sex education in schools it could help to reduce the risks of potentially negative
outcomes for sexual behavior such as, unplanned pregnancies or sexually transmitted infections,
and can help adolescents make informed decisions about sex and help in terms of prevention.
Article Summary
This article by Vincent (2007) is a quality research article because it is peer reviewed and
found under nursing academic journals. Vincent has a lot of excellent points and backs them up
with studies done by other researchers; in total he uses sixty-two references in this seven page
article.
Vincent (2007) looks at the importance of educating adolescents in school about sex in
order to avoid unwanted pregnancies and STI’s. The importance of sex education is mainly to
help in terms of prevention. According to Vincent (2007), sex education will help young people
to “deal with pressures to have sex too young and encourage them to use contraception if they do
have sex” (pg. 17). Statements about teenagers ignoring sexual matter such as, sex and
contraceptive use is believed to be linked to the high teenage pregnancy numbers and somewhat
to the lack of understanding and not appropriately educating them on the subject.
According to the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, sex education is available to every school
in England and Wales and should be available all over the world. They emphasise that sex
education can help reduce teenage pregnancy rates and STI’s by providing accurate information
to young people about the topic of sexuality. In the article is states that, “comprehensive sex
education is regarded as essential to complement the provision of sexual health regarding
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services for young people” (Vincent, 2007, pg 17). They believe that providing knowledge to
teenagers will lead to responsible and informed decision making and behaviours. However, even
with increasing the awareness of sex education and availability of contraceptives, it may not be
enough to reduce the number of teenage pregnancy. There are other influences that are not taken
into consideration that have an effect of sexuality such as, social, economic and political factors.
All of these shape and impact an individual different. However, it is believed that good sex
education is an essential part of a well balanced education, and many parents and adolescence
want and value it even if it may be associated with controversy or discomfort related to openly
talking about sexuality.
Personal Opinion
There are always challenges faced with schools wanting to have a good sex education
program. Some people believe that if you educate young people on the topic of sexuality and
allow them access to contraceptives then you are almost encouraging young people to become
sexually active. I think that educating teenagers about sex is very beneficial because they are
going to have sex if they are educated about the topic or not. There are so many sources available
at their finger tips, and who knows how much of it is accurate. If they want to have sex they are
going to do it, so why not educate and teach them ways to have safe sex. Would you want
teenagers to have unsafe sex or safe sex? I believe that if you educate them, then when the time
comes they will at least know how to take preventive measures.
I believe having sex education in school should be almost mandatory to teach teenagers
about ways to avoid pregnancy and STI’s. Some teenagers may be too shy to bring up any
questions they may have about sex to their parents etc, but by having a class and teaching the
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youth about sex they can learn the information and not feel embarrassed about asking questions
and can see that it is alright to talk about sex. I know in my high school we always had
presentations on abstinence, but it never seemed like there was a class on sex education and what
you should do if you are ready to have sex. We were always told to wait till marriage and not
have sex, but they told us no preventive measures to take if the option of sex came up. It’s great
to have a presentation on abstinence, but have one on sex too because not everyone in the class is
going to follow through on chastity all their lives. I believe educating adolescents and young
adults about sexuality is far greater a positive than a negative.
Conclusion
Sex education should be an important part of a youth’s schooling. Because of the high
exposure of sexual content in adolescence life, sex education should be a part of their high
school years. Getting safe sex into the minds of the youth can prevent sexual transmitted
infections and teenage pregnancies. By promoting sex education in school can help to reduce the
risks of negative sexual behaviour, sexual education should be part of every youth’s life to help
with prevention and give the youth of today a more educated and safer sex life.
Assignment #1
References
Vincent, K. (2007). Teenage Pregnancy and Sex and Relationship Education: Myths and
(Mis)conceptions. Pastoral Care in Education: An International Journal for Pastoral
Care & Personal-Social Education, 25(3), 16-23. Retrieved from EPSCO database.
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