Abstinence or Safe Sex: How to Appropriately Teach Sex Education in Public Schools

While sex education is growing to be a more controversial issue in today’s society, more and more children are engaging in sexual activity early on, leading to high rates of teen pregnancies and the rise of STDs in the youth population. Kaiser’s recent report shows that “about a third (34%) of young women become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20 – about 820,000 a year, and approximately four million teens contract a sexually transmitted disease (STD) each year.” Moreover, African American and Latina American teens are reproducing a substantial amount of babies in comparison to other racial groups. Because of these unfavorable trends, educators are seeking new strategies to deal with the sex education dilemma, especially in urban districts. The controversy stems from the extreme ends of the sex education debate, characterized in the comic strip to the left: while some are firmly for safe sex lectures others are blinded from the reality of today’s disingenuous youth and persistently declare to students that sex is an abomination. Inevitably, procreation is a good thing and children should be told that; however at such amateur stage of life, abstinence reaps more advantages. Students should be taught the pros and cons of sexual activity, and actually discuss them amongst each other in order to embrace a more cogent view about sexual activity. Owing to religion, culture etc., everybody has his/her own views on sex education and are entitled to them. However, the way teachers’ educate students should be more precisely and accurately evaluated. Many studies have proven that neither by “throwing condoms in kids’ faces,” nor dictating that “sex will kill you so remain abstinent” produces favorable results among students today. Rather, they compel students to become defiant and more sexually active. Consequently, teachers should learn to hold their personal beliefs aside and use skepticism when educating the future generation of society. Educators should be mindful of the “sexual freedom” promoted so heavily in the culture of today’s society and use recent scientific research to better provide cogent evidence as to why abstinence is the best and safest route to prevent students from harmful psychological or biological effects of sexual activity.

In a recent article by Mary Mills, board secretary for the Niles Pregnancy Care Center, she argues that students are actually more receptive to abstinence-only programs in Berrien Springs, Michigan. The distinction between her coalition’s abstinence-only programs and other comprehensive programs is that they provide more cogent reasons for why abstinence is the safest route for teenagers. They assist the students in listing the pros and cons of sexual activity and abstinence, and the students agree that the latter is the best choice for them to make. The students embrace abstinence because none of them want the slightest chance of contracting any of the life-scarring diseases. Moreover, they argue that “a condom would not protect against a broken-heart” instead abstinence would make the heart grow fonder, demonstrated to the right on an abstinence tee advertised by littleway.com. Rather than confusing students with misinformation or dictating personal beliefs solely, which Mills argues most comprehensive programs do, her programs way more on abstinence but still devote time to contraceptives. The structure of their programs is forum-based and teachers use scientific evidence from recent studies as a means of supporting their arguments. Their goal is not only to promote abstinence but to make teens feel more assertive about abstaining from sexual activity themselves. NPCC is embracing the “$250 million in block grants” that the government offers for such abstinent-advocating programs.

Contrarily, quite a few urban states, such as New York, are rejecting government funding that has been granted since 1998 for abstinence education. One of the primary factors owes to their argument that Bush’s abstinence only plans are “based on ideology rather than on sound scientific-based evidence that must be the cornerstone of good public healthcare policy.” Furthermore, opponents contend that Bush’s sex education programs often mislead students. Adam Litchenheld, a senior majoring in political science and African studies states that abstinence programs are too biased and leave out oral sex education which is becoming more popular among teens. “An investigation in Cedarburg revealed that seventh-graders were passing along sexually explicit chats via instant messages, unbeknownst to their parents. School administrators in various districts became alarmed when reports showed that their students did not believe oral sex even counted as “sex,” says Litchenheld reiterating that state sex education is misinforming kids. Mary Mills’ programs, on the contrary, offer a more holistic approach to sex education, teaching teens how to build healthy relationships, increase self-worth and set appropriate boundaries in order to achieve future goals. Abstinence education shares the realities of sexually transmitted diseases and the best way to prevent them. Accurate information about contraception is provided, but always within the context of abstinence as the healthiest choice. The realistic limitations of condoms are shared but without the explicit demonstration and advocacy that characterizes "comprehensive" or the government abstinence-only programs. Union County, in addition, is in the process of updating their sources for sex education classes, in other words getting rid of the 1990s copyright videos with were modernized data.

The Niles Pregnancy Care Center is presently located in Michigan only but offers free and confidential services to the public. Subsequently, teachers can call or do research on their website to learn how to implement similar mechanisms to teaching sex education; moreover, teachers can even refer their students to the website which offers a lot of support and contact references.

Students need to be provided with accurate and up-to-date evidence as to why abstinence is the healthiest choice and educators should hold the discourse between students open-minded while professional all the while. If educators learn how to teach on an adolescent’s level, which includes discussing the media portrayals of sex in addition to health experts’ research on the subject, then they will provide more cogent evidence as to why abstinence is the not only safest, but healthiest route of taking. With re-adaption of our sex education programs, by modeling the Niles Pregnancy Care Center programs, educators can more efficiently dissuade students from making immature and unassertive decisions about sexual activity.