Abstinence Only? No Way!
While walking down the steps at my high school, I began to wonder what exactly we were going to see at the assembly. After the entire school was seated in the gym, only then did we all realize that we were there for sex education. The presentation began, equipped with skits, facts, questions from the audience, and finally, we were taught how to put a condom on. That was when all hell broke loose. Administrators were furious. My private, Catholic, college prep high school did not believe in teaching safe sex, only in teaching no sex until marriage. At the end of the presentation, the group began to pass out condoms, only to be told that their condoms were not good here, and if Marin Catholic High School students needed condoms, they could buy them on their own time. Going to a Catholic high school had its bright sides, but it also had dark sides. Obviously the school was aware that statistically, about half of its students were sexually active, or had engaged in some type of sex, and yet, because Catholicism did not believe in sex before marriage, they refused to teach students about safe sex. Now, not only are Catholic schools staying firm on teaching abstinence only, but public schools around the nation are now adopting
Safe sex should be promoted in schools, not just abstinence only before marriage. In the 1960's the John Birch Society accused sex education programs to be "smut," "immoral," and a "filthy communist plot"(Donovan). Focus on the Family, an abstinence only program, preaches that teaching abstinence only is a better alternative to the raunchy, suit yourself sex education programs currently used in most public schools (Woodward). It is wrong for us to keep any information we may disagree with from them. Given these facts, it is fairly obvious and clear that teens are indeed engaging in sex. (Donovan) That is obviously not enough time to teach all areas of sex education, and not enough time to answer questions that teenagers may have about sex. In it a student declares, "Safe sex just is not just working anymore. The controversy today is not whether or not sex education should be taught in school, but what should be taught in the classroom. They just need to set a higher standard" (Abowd). They just want to learn to say no" (Woodward). So what about those who have had sex? Most students do not receive enough sex education until 9th or 10th grade, by which time they have already engaged in sex (Donovan). What exactly does sexual education entitle? It depends on where a student lives and attends school and whether or not his school is public or a private religious institution. Maybe someday our nations sex education programs will be something the US is proud of and parents and adults will know that our teenagers are being fully educated to make reasonable and healthy decisions when dealing with sex.
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