Michael David Cherasaro Jr
Professor Kroll
English 102
October 6, 2018
Sex education
Many think it is inappropriate for schools to teach sex education, however I believe that sex education in the public-school system is important and beneficial to the students and society. Sex education teaches teens about sexuality, contraceptive methods, preventing sexually transmitted diseases, the importance of protection and the mature attitudes and principles about sex. Sex education taught in public schools can help to reduce teen pregnancies, inform students about the dangers of STDs and the importance of protection, and help to sway teens from having sex at a young age. The only flaw with sex education is that only thirteen states in America require the information to be medically accurate, which presents the possibility that teens won’t be taught properly and won’t know as much as they should. So, while I believe that sex education is important in schools I also believe that there is some work that needs to be done to significantly improve the current state of sex education in America.
Sex education was implemented into public schools in the 20s and has since helped educate teens about sexuality, protection, and STDs, sway teens from becoming involved with sexual activity, and most importantly helped to bring the number of teen pregnancies down to an all-time low. Helping to prevent teen pregnancies is important because many women that give birth in their teens cannot provide for their child or properly take care of their child. Sex education helps to prevent this by informing teens of how hard it is to raise a child at such a young age and the risk of STDs, which has been found to sway teens away from having sex at a young age, or to at least use protection when engaging in sexual activity. From the 20s to the 50s teen pregnancies increased to an all time high of 96 births per 1,000 woman aged 15-19 in 1957. Since then, sex education has improved significantly, and these results can be clearly seen in the decrease of teen pregnancies that set an all time low of 22.3 per 1,000 women aged 15-19 in 2015. I believe that the implication and evolution of sex education in public schools has played a major role in the decrease and all time low of teen pregnancies, which have proven to be problematic for the pregnant teens and their family.
Another issue that sex education has helped with, is the lack of knowledge that teens posses about their sexuality, anatomy, puberty, pregnancy, STDs, protection, and overall sexual health. I believe that it’s important that teens know about their sexuality and anatomy, understand the changes their body makes during puberty, understand what happens during a pregnancy, understand the dangers of STDs, and learn about protection so that if they do decide to have sex they can engage in a safe manner that helps to prevent pregnancy and significantly reduce the risk of STDs. It’s important for a class that explains these topics...
