Sex Education
Posted: Sunday, November 15, 2009
by Renee Kimberly Root
Ring of Fire Evangelistic Ministry
"Sex education is the stuff of situation comedies. Almost every television sit-com about young people at some time features some version of the following scene: The boys sit behind desks in a classroom or in ill-fitting shorts in a school gymnasium. An uncomfortable middle-aged man--the coach--usually stands at the front of the room, whistle around his neck, before a chalkboard on which someone has drawn a representation of female reproductive organs. The boys stare aghast at the complexity and size of the organs--this is what women look like? They whisper, giggle, and shift in their seats as the coach tries, with euphemisms and mutterings, to explain the birds and the bees. Or in another version of this scene, girls sit in a classroom watching an antiquated filmstrip. A lilting melody accompanies the filmstrip in which the narrator waxes lyrically about the wonders of growing up--menstrual cycles, growing body hair and breasts, and new and confusing feelings for boys. The girls squirm as the laugh track roars with manufactured pleasure at the reminder of yet another moment in a painful but ultimately amusing process of growing up. In the depictions, sex education is uncomfortable and irrelevant, and the best anyone can do is to shake their head at the silliness of it all" (Fields, 2008, p. 164). This example of how sex education was taught is a perfect example of the sex education that was taught in the school system I attended in the 1960s. The sex education consisted of the girls watching a film about sexual changes in girls and boys. The boys were taught by a fifth-grade male teacher and the girls were shown the film by a fifth-grade woman teacher--in separate rooms of course. I don't believe the boys had a film, just verbal instruction and diagrams. There was no discussion about having sex outside of marriage because in that time only married people had sex and then the goal was to have children. There was no information about birth control or sexually transmitted diseases. So I think the program was not effective at all because it gave such limited information that I think most girls walked away confused and scared about their body changing in the future. I would assume the boys felt the same way, but that is just my opinion because none of them ever shared their thoughts with me. This period of time was when the boys played on one side of the playground and the girls on the other side. There was really no chance to exchange information.
The health and social consequences of adolescent sexual behavior are sexually transmitted diseases, teenage pregnancies, and teenage parents who drop out of school. "Adolescents appear to be more susceptible than adults to STD's, an estimated 3 million are infected each year by one of these diseases-a number that has spread considerable alarm among members of the medical profession. In the 1980's approximately 20% of unmarried American women of European heritage 18 years or younger and 40% of African heritage became pregnant during their adolescent years" (Bukatko, 2008, p. 504). Teen pregnancies have declined throughout the 1990s and early 2000s but is still higher in the United States than in other countries that are technologically advanced. "Moreover, approximately 300,000 of the nearly half million teenage women delivering their first child and 75% of all adolescents giving birth to a child each year will remain unmarried, a substantial increase from 40 years ago, when only 15% who gave birth were unmarried. Only about one half of these women will finish high school. Moreover, their children will often have difficulty when they begin school" (Bukatko, 2008, p. 504). This was interesting because in the 1960s if someone got pregnant, they were married immediately or the girl was sent away and the baby placed for adoption. The one case I knew of in a local high school in the 1970s, the girl was forced to marry immediately and was forced to finish high school. She was treated as a social outcast, and I am sure this served as an example to other teens not to make the same mistake.
Sex education programs are needed in schools today because of the risks associated with sexual activity--such as pregnancy, aids, and other sexually transmitted diseases. Sex education should begin in the early years at home by parents and then be continued in the schools. "Most adults in the United States believe that sex education is appropriate, and when given the opportunity, only a small portion of parents ask to have their children excused from sex education classes" (Bukatko, 2008, p. 504). Today, sex education is required or recommended in all states and in other countries where formal education is offered. There are many ideas of what sex education curriculum should contain. For example, some believe the only safe sex for teenagers is to abstain from sex. They should be warned of the consequences of having sex as a teenager. "Moreover, to promote anything other than abstinence in sex education classes sends a mixed message that communicates a double standard: avoid sexual relationships, but in case you can't here is what you should know" (Bukatko, 2008, p. 505). The other view of what sex education should contain is information on how to deal with peer pressure to have sex, on how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, and how to prevent pregnancy. This plan takes into consideration that many teenagers are engaging in sex. "In fact, somewhere between 800,000 and 900,000 adolescent girls less than 19 years of age will become pregnant each year in the US alone and about half of them can be expected to deliver babies. The number who are sexually active is substantially higher" (Bukatko, 2008, p. 505). "Working under the restrictions of abstinence-only policies and sensibilities, teachers present their students with formal lessons about sexual abstinence, prevention, and risk. Lessons about power, safety, homophobia, sexism, and the complexity of consent and agency remain evaded. Sex education remains a not-so-funny sit-com joke and fails to achieve its potential as a fully articulated sexual education instruction that insists on the value of young people gathering with their peers to ask questions, to share information, and to learn about and claim their capacities as agentic sexual beings" (Fields, 2008, p. 169). I think sex education in the classroom should offer the choices of information about abstinence, information about sexually transmitted diseases, how to prevent disease and pregnancy, and also provide accurate information about sex and the changes that come with puberty. I think it should also require parental consent and be reflective of the cultural views of the society that it is serving. This should also be an atmosphere where questions can be answered honestly and without shame. "Adopting an expansive definition of sexual activity compels educators, researchers and students to acknowledge young people as sexual subjects, right now. The lessons that teachers offer on, for example, sexual communication do not simply prepare students for some later conversation they will have once they become sexually active with a sexual partner. Instead, those lessons are opportunities for students to claim their subjectivity as they practice sexual communication, in the classroom, with adults and their peers. Once we approach young people as already engaged sexual subjects, regardless of whether they meet conventional definitions of sexually active, we can begin to support them as they navigate the risk, vulnerability, and pleasure in their sexual lives. We can offer sexuality education that recognizes and supports young people's experiences of sexuality" (Bukatko, 2008, p. 170).
"They found no evidence of sex education leading to earlier or increased sexual activity. In fact, sex education led to either a delay in the onset of sexual activity or to a decrease in overall sexual activity. In addition, access to counseling and contraceptive services did not encourage earlier or increased sexual activity. Sex education increased adoption of safer sex practices by sexually active youth. These researchers concluded that school programs which promoted both postponement and protected sex to sexually active students were more effective than those promoting abstinence alone" (Ridini & Willie, 1998, p. 16). I believe this is a completely different society than the one I grew up in the 60s and 70s, so I believe the sex education in the time I grew up could have been improved upon by allowing the participants to freely ask questions without fear of being punished or ridiculed. I don't think information about birth control or sexually transmitted diseases was necessary because it was a taboo to have sex outside of marriage and at that time parents kept a tighter reign on where the teens went and the activities they participated in, so there was little chance for sex to occur. Also, the media did not show sexually explicit scenes. There may have been a bedroom scene, but there was not usually sexual activity shown. Today, teens are bombarded with true and untrue information from television ads and other sources like magazines. So, because information and encouragement to have sex is everywhere, having sex education in the schools where the truth is told is very important.
References Bukato, D. (2008) Child and Adolescent Development. Masonott: Cengage Learning.
Fields, J. (2008) Risky Lessons: Sex Education and Social Inequality. New Brunswick , NJ : Rutgers University Press.
Ridini, S. P., & Willie, C. V. (1998). Health and Sexuality Education in Schools: The Process of Social Change. Westport , CN: Bergin & Garvey.
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