Skufca 2

Tonja Skufca

April 15, 2009

English Comp. II

Bixby

Sex Education

In 2007 alone, Erik Eckholm of the New York Times stated, there were about 4.3 million births which "just edged out the figure for 1957, at the height of the baby boom." The overall teen birth rate in the United States was about forty three percent in 2007 (the CDC total for 2006 was about forty-two percent, and increasing roughly one percent a year from then). For those 4.3 million births, 1.9 million were from individuals under nineteen. With so many teen births occurring, more in recent years, scientists and politicians are beginning to severely question the practice of sex education. But, the key to preventing more unwanted pregnancies in teens is mandatory sex education in public schools beginning in the fourth grade.

Sex education should be taught in public schools for several very important reasons. These reasons include the increase in sexually transmitted infections (STI's) and pregnancy rates, the fact that kids are maturing faster in recent years, and the cost of teen childbearing on taxpayers. But we must first address the largest debate about sex education, where it should be taught.

Where should sex education be taught, at home or in schools? When sex education is taught in schools, students can learn in a healthy, safe environment with friends, making this touchy topic more comfortable. Schools teach the subject in specific blocked periods that provide enormous amounts of information with little to no impartial viewpoints. Simon Forrest and Annabel Kanabus of Avert, an organization that focuses on 'averting' the transmission of HIV/AIDS, inform the reader that some countries are now encouraging the students involvement in sex education courses because "the involvement of young people in delivering programs may reinforce messages as they model attitudes and behavior in their peers." Sex education in schools provides the situation where students can learn from their peers. The negative of teaching in schools is that parental beliefs are not expressed, and the lessons are not well suited to advising the individual. Regardless of the downfalls, students can gain the information that they most need when considering sexual abstinence or sexual intercourse. Dr. Joseph McIlhaney of the Medical Institute of Sexual Health stated that parents aren't entirely appropriate to teach comprehensive sex education because "parents today have not quite gotten the fact that if their kids are involved sexually they're in a world of disease that's much more dangerous [than the one their parents grew up in]." Parents didn't grow up with such high rates of teen pregnancies and STI's so they are unknowledgeable on the effects of sexual intercourse in today's world. Sex education in schools can provide this information, supported by a ton of statistical and scientific evidence.

On the other side, most scientists agree that sex education should primarily be taught in the home so that parents can include their beliefs into the 'talk', and so that the parent knows what information their child is learning. The parent is able to format the education around what they believe are correct practices for their teen. Dr. Douglas Kirby, former Director of Research for the National Campaign to Prevent Teenage Pregnancy, stated that, "Parents tend to want their children to behave responsibly, sexually. So if young people are attached to their parents, they're less likely to have unprotected sex." Dr. McIlhaney also recognized that parents need to take some initiative with their child's sexual education, "kids who are most likely to avoid risky behaviors were those who had a good connectiveness with their parents." Avert provides more information to this side, "it has been shown that in countries like the Netherlands, where many families regard it as an important responsibility to talk openly with children about sex and sexuality, this contributes to greater cultural openness about sex and sexuality and improved sexual health among young people." But sex education solely in the home isn't always the most effective choice. In today's struggling economy, more people than ever are spending more hours at work to gain the same amount of money they would have obtained even three years ago. Because of this situation, parents spend less time at home with their children; therefore, they have less time to inform their child about sexual health. They are also overexerting themselves to provide for their kids so they no longer have the effort and energy to talk about sex. Basically, parents don't have the time, effort, energy or complete knowledge to teach their child about sexual health.

Whether in the home or in schools, generally all scientists agree that sex educations needs to be taught. Sex education is about "finding out what young people already know and adding to their existing knowledge and correcting any misinformation they may have (Forrest)." It works best when both parents and schools work together to provide the necessary information. But schools can provide more information about sex and in a better environment; therefore, it's more beneficial for students to obtain sex education in schools.

The first reason for teaching sex education in schools is the increase in pregnancy and STI rates among teenagers. The pregnancy rates across the U.S. are staggering, as stated previously, the average rate for all states is roughly forty-three percent. Mississippi has a pregnancy rate of sixty-eight percent, the highest in the country. Information on the CDC website shows that America's highest rates of teen pregnancy are in southern states. The Guttmacher Institute, Erik Eckholm of the NY Times, Advocates for Youth, Avert, and the CDC all recognize and state that the U.S. has one of the highest, if not the highest, teen pregnancy rates in the developed world. This rate is twice as high as those in the UK and Canada, and eight times as high as those in the Netherlands and Japan.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) informes that roughly forty percent of teens in Ohio are pregnant by the time they turn eighteen. So for every one thousand teens in any given high school across this state, forty have a child before graduation. The Guttmacher Institute, which focuses on teen health, stated that "of the 750,000 teen pregnancies that occur each year [across the U.S.], 82% are unintended. More than one quarter end in abortion." That means that for every forty teen pregnancies in Ohio, thirty-three are unintended and ten end in an abortion. Forty percent may not seem like a large number, or a very effective number, to some, but I know what this statistic can do. Before my senior year in high school, thirty percent of the girls had at least one child; this doesn't include any children from our senior year, abortions, multiple children or the children of male students. In total, we had about forty children that our class alone could claim (that we knew of) out of the ninety students that graduated.

STI rates among teens are just as shocking. Every year, roughly nine million new STI's occur among teens and young adult in the U.S. (Guttmacher Institute). This number doesn't include preexisting diseases from other years. In the 2006 Disease Profile, published by the CDC, seven percent of females between fifteen and twenty-four have Chlamydia, the 2006 rates of gonorrhea were highest in those between twenty and twenty-four (females between fifteen and nineteen had a rate of eighty-six percent), congenital syphilis had higher rates among teen African Americans and Hispanics, 371,000 new cases of genital herpes were reported in 2006, and thirty-five percent of females between fourteen and nineteen have the Human Papillomavirus (HPV). But that isn't just shocking, the rates of HIV for people younger than twenty-two is twenty-five percent, as informed by Molly Masland of MSNBC.

The second reason sex education should be taught is that kids are maturing faster in recent years than ever before. Young children are being introduced to sex everyday in this country through the media. It is because of this increase in maturity levels early in childhood that sex education should start in the fourth grade. Forrest states that "sex education that works starts early, before young people reach puberty and before they have developed patterns of behavior." Girls hit puberty as young as ten and eleven, and boys hit puberty around their twelfth or thirteenth birthday. Starting sex education in the fourth grade means that most students haven't reached puberty yet, and most haven't started sexual habits. Kids are growing up faster and faster as the years roll by because of our society. By the fourth grade, most of the students already know about sex, most of the information coming from older siblings and their friends, or crude jokes made by adults. Regardless of the source, most of the information is incorrect and needs to be corrected before sexual intercourse begins. Not providing this information, or fixing misinformation, means that these students are missing important health information that could result in their pregnancy, them gaining an STI, or them potentially dying due to HIV/AIDS. Children in the fourth grade are old enough where the information won't scare them, but young enough to put the education into effect. When they have developed patterns of behavior, they are less likely to use their sexual health information. "It's not easy to change adolescent behavior, and we've certainly made a lot of mistakes over the years (Kirby)." We have to educate children before their first time having sex.

Beginning sexual education in the fourth grade may seem like too young an age to some, but it's not as young as some have proposed for. A bill that ran through the Illinois senate in 2005 wanted sex education to be taught from kindergarten to the twelfth grade. If the bill had gone through, it would have provided comprehensive sex education based on age. President Obama took heat for signing this bill during his second run as Illinois senator and during his early days running for president. Television ads ran stating that he wanted complete sex education to be taught to the kindergarteners. To defend himself, in an article from the New York Times by Larry Rohter, he stated that "I understand the main objective of the legislation, as it pertained to kindergarteners, to be to teach them how to defend themselves against sexual predators."

The final reason sex education should be implemented in schools is something that effects everyone across the nation, the cost. "By the Numbers: The Public Costs of Teen Childbearing in Ohio" by says, "Between 1991 and 2004 there have been more that 271,900 teen births in Ohio, costing taxpayers a total of $6.9 billion over that period." Seven billion dollars over thirteen years averages out to be a little over five hundred million dollars a year. During this time though, teen birth rates in Ohio decreased by thirty-five percent. So at a low, taxpayers were still paying five hundred million dollars, but since 2004 the rates have been increasing causing more tax dollars going to these young mothers. National teen childbearing costs taxpayers nine billion dollars a year ("By the Numbers"). So in our struggling economy, we pay kids having kids nine billion dollars a year so they can get through life with the child they choose to have.

No one wants their daughter or granddaughter to be pregnant at fifteen; teen pregnancies are one hundred percent preventable with education. But there's a problem, there is no federal program dedicated to sex education. Currently, only thirty-five states mandate either sex education or education about HIV/AIDS and other STI's, with eighty-five percent of the public school districts teaching abstinence only (Guttmacher Institute). In 2002, about one third of teens nationally never received any type of sex education (Guttmacher Institute).These teens are missing so much important health information, and cannot make an informed decision to have sex because they don't know about teen pregnancy rates and STI transmission rates. We can no longer turn away and pretend like teens aren't having sex because "by their 18th birthday, six in ten teen women and more than five in ten teen men have had sexual intercourse (Guttmacher Institute)." This is why we need mandatory sexual education courses in public schools between the fourth and twelfth grades. We need to stop and look around, realize that ignoring this epidemic isn't going to make it disappear. We have to stop this now before the time has run out, before there is nothing that we can do.

Works Cited

"By the Numbers: The Public Costs of Teen Childbearing in Ohio." . Nov. 2006. 10 Mar. 2009 .

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. 2006 Disease Profile, 2008: 29-38. Through: http:// ..

Eckholm, Erik. "'07 U.S. Births Break Baby Boom Record." New York Times. 18 Mar. 2009. 19 Mar. 2009 .?_r=1&scp=1&sq ='07%20U.S.%20Births%20Break%20Baby%20Boom%20Record&st=cse.

Forrest, Simon and Annabel Kanabus. "Sex Education that Works." . 20 Feb. 2009. 10 Mar. 2009 ..

Guttmacher Institute. "Facts on Sex Education in the United States." . Dec. 2006. 11 Mar. 2009 .org/pubs/fb_.

Kirby, Dr. Douglas. "Sex and the American Teen: Abstinence Plus." . 21 June 2005. 9 Mar. 2009 .org/pov/pov2005/shelbyknox/special_interviews_.

Masland, Molly. "The Sex Ed Dilemma: Beyond the Birds and the Bees." . 2009. 10 Mar. 2009 ..

McIlhaney, Dr. Joseph. "Sex and the American Teen: Abstinence Only." . 21 June 2005. 9 Mar. 2009 .org/pov/pov2005/shelbyknox/special_interviews_.

McKeon, Brigid. "Effective Sex Education." . 2006. 11 Mar. 2009 ..

Rohter, Larry. "Ad on Sex Education Distorts Obama Policy." New York Times. 10 Sep. 2008. 11 Mar. 2009 .? _r=1&scp=1&sq=obama%20and%20sex-ed&st=cse.