Sex Education.

So I'm pretty concerned about the rising generations sex education. So many schools are preaching abstinence and depriving students of crucial knowledge about their bodies and sex in general. Instead of explaining how to prevent things like STIs and pregnancy, school systems are scaring teens with shock photos and horror stories to try to prevent them from ever having sex. This causes plenty of things that really scare me.

My number one problem with school systems that teach abstinence instead of giving the students real and helpful information about diseases and contraception, is that they equate sex with guilt. Suddenly the students think sex is some terrible sin and something to feel guilty about. Having such a negative emotion associated with sex can ruin sex for the students forever. They will be unable to share the experience with anyone because of how guilty and bad it makes them feel. They also feel unable to talk to their parents about sex because they feel like they'll get in trouble, like they'll be reprimanded and punished. Sex is not a bad, horrible thing. It is natural, and turning it into something guilt ridden and shaming is wrong on so many levels.

Second, ignorance is NOT bliss. Do you think that just because you don't teach students about something as natural as sex that they just won't do it? Oh no, everyone has sex. Lets think realistically. When I was in Sex Ed. class in high school, my classmates and I were shown disgusting photos of genetelia infected with STIs. These pictures were gruesome and unnecessarily graphic. Instead of showing us pictures of the first stages of STIs so we would be able to recognize them in the unfortunate event that we got one, they showed us full blown STI ridden tickly bits in order to scare us out of doing the jiggly dance. This was so detrimental. Because of this terrible teaching method, I bet dozens of teens waited until their nasty parts looked like ground beef before they actually went to the doctors, and at that point it would have been too late.

On an infinitely more serious note, preaching abstinence actually does the opposite and as a result increases the probability of STI and pregnancy. Teens are going to have sex. They're overwhelmed with hormones and they're impossibly curious. Just because you tell them not to haves sex doesn't mean they aren't going to, it just makes them feel badly about it and behave irresponsibly about it. They don't know to use condoms and using condoms may even be discourages in favor of abstinence. They could have no access to contraception and as a result contract an STI or become pregnant.

So I'm obviously at a loss as to why some people think its a good idea to teach students to not have sex instead of teaching them how to take care of themselves and be responsible. You're diluting yourselves if you think that the students aren't going to have sex just because you told them not to. What better thing to do that arm them with the knowledge and ability to protect themselves? By preaching abstinence in this modern and dangerous world, you are doing your students, your children, and your future generation a disservice. It is holding back progress. The need for change is obvious,