Teaching Teen Sex in School
Your heart beats faster just begun? Even the term “sex” or “family life education” brings Panic, anxiety, and increases heart rate and sweat glands in most adults. However, once the panic disappears, the debate over whether sex education in American schools or not – has made a new survey shows that over 90% of Americans say sex education should be taught in schools ..
According to the survey, the parents surveyed supported the primary education 7 and 8 with basic information about how babies are made, and 56 percent supported teaching all aspects of sex education, including contraception and safe sex in grade 7 and 8, with a much higher rate further should be taught in high schools.
On the other hand, is exactly who will be taught about sex? Unfortunately, the national trend is that fewer young people learn the risk of disease and prevent the reduction of pregnancy. “Most school systems now focus on delaying sex education as long as possible,” said Barbara Huberman, director of training for young lawyers, a pro-education group in Washington, DC “As you may have an overview of birth to enter the seventh or eighth grade, there are many, many schools are afraid to talk about it at all. ”
I am a school nurse in a school in a district of a big city. They learn about the ‘withdrawal’ in a short session. Then, on a daily basis, I get to make choices and mistakes of the student. I heard stories that I want to cry. I often hear parents say, “my daughter / son would never do that” or “I do not think that (insert child’s name here) would never have sex.” And they all seem shocked at the thought. But, what I see and hear constantly (and remember, this is high school) tells a different story. But do not think that my school is unusual, I’ve read articles and stories of nurses across the country who say the same thing.
I fear my girls to pregnancy (and some really pregnant). Some of these same girls have had multiple partners (yes, they are only 12-14 years old and yes, some are mandatory CPS / Law Enforcement call). Surprisingly, these same girls say things like, “I know you can get pregnant through oral sex, but I try to be careful.” They’re too young to have sex, but it does happen – and often. We have grown up in another time, and believe that it can not happen in our homes, but let me show you some hard numbers:
The average girl today starts to develop some characteristics of puberty between 10 and 11, with many showing some changes, at the age of eight or nine.
One in 12 students experience their first sexual intercourse before age 13, and a quarter of all children (24 percent of girls and 27 percent of boys) have had sex by the age of 15 years, and many believe that these estimates too low. Remember, these figures do not include “everything but the community” in them. Each year, one in four sexually active teens contracts a sexually transmitted disease. Genital herpes (which can not be cured) has increased by nearly 30% of young people in the past nine years. There are over 900,000 teen pregnancies a year. When it comes to HIV, the largest increase in cases seen in adolescents. These statistics are frightening.
Ideally, parents have a solid education to their children about honesty, integrity, self-esteem, and abstinence for the first 10 to 12 years of life. If they do a really good job of it, and taught their children to make the right decisions, we would not have this epidemic and are forced to so many conversations over the years 14, 15 and 16 old on what to do on an unplanned pregnancy or an STD .
That leads to why this should be taught in school – the parents would be the ideal choice for children to learn this. That the assumption that you have parents who are willing to do so. However, the majority of parents do not know how to talk to their children about sex and sexually transmitted diseases. The other part of this equation is that many families today are very dysfunctional – some parents abuse alcohol, drugs, work too many hours, have high stress or anxiety, or have other reasons for not having the opportunity to talk with their children . That leaves the “job” to teach children about sex and sexually transmitted diseases in the education system.
Although this is an uncomfortable topic, it is important. I am a strong supporter of abstinence. If I had my way, everyone would have to abstain until marriage. However, I am also a realist. We can not bury our heads in the sand and hope stabbed teen sex goes away. Teenagers are “doing,” getting pregnant and catching diseases. They need education and support, and we need to guide them. Our job as educators and adults to be safe. Please start early to talk with your children and have a good relationship with them all. They are the most important “assets” you have. Also, talk to your school administrators on how to support family life education and involvement. We try to make a dent in this terrible epidemic.
