Sex Education Vs. Abstinence in California

Introduction

In the 1950's society as a whole was more conservative than it is today, there were many social stigmas attached to activities which were not approved, persons who engaged in these activities were often looked down upon. Teen pregnancy was one of those activities which carried a social stigma. A modern example of this can be seen on the television show Desperate Housewives in which Bree Van De Kamp's daughter Danielle becomes pregnant and her parents send her away to a facility for pregnant girls before anyone else finds out. In the meanwhile Bree & her husband travel to Europe and upon their return they begin to pretend as if Bree is pregnant, timing this fake pregnancy with their daughter's real pregnancy in hopes of fooling everyone that their daughter's baby is really theirs and avoiding any negative social stigma attached with having a pregnant teenager. In this day and time teen pregnancy is becoming common place, society is accepting that teenagers are having sex younger, with who they want and as much as they want, resulting in teen pregnancy becoming more prevalent. Teenagers seem to be oblivious to the risks and dangers of having unprotected sex with multiple partners, often there are outbreaks of sexually transmitted infections in schools and also the rates of teen pregnancy have been on a rise. In 1996 teen pregnancy rates for Merced County & San Joaquin were 84.4, 41.8 per 1000 girls ages 12-18. Tuolumne County reported 63 girls who gave birth within the same age category; these are just a few statistics for the San Joaquin Valley in California. Reasons for these rates have been proposed, one has been that there is only government funding provided to schools which teach abstinence only programs and this is a problem because these programs only highlight the failures of using condoms and other forms of protection instead to teaching students how to use them and so for kids who aren't abstaining they are not protecting themselves.

Although the rates of teen pregnancy have been plummeting all over the United States of America this hasn't been attributed to the fact that more teens are abstaining it had in fact been proposed that this is due to the fact that in the information age most teenagers are either using protection when having sex and also that girls are now focusing on having careers and are thus starting families much later in life. Even though the teen pregnancy rates are dropping the current rates are still too high. Abstinence only programs may be federally funded but they aren't achieving good results, an all rounded sexual education class would be a good solution. One that will teach students to abstain since it is the only 100% secure method to avoid getting pregnant but the program will also teach teenagers about the sexually transmitted infections which exist, what they look like and how to get treatment for them as well as how to use condoms and a variety of pregnancy prevention methods.

In this paper we will attempt to create an all rounded sexual education class which will be mandatory to all students and will make them aware of the risks and dangers of having sex as well as how to protect themselves and identify sexually transmitted infections.

Reasons for Choosing Topic

1. It is a widespread problem.

2. It affects society negatively by reducing the number of High School graduates

3. It affects the families involved.

4. It affects the future of the parents of the child and the child itself.

5. It affects the workforce as most teenagers are not able to support themselves and will eventually have to drop out of school to have the child resulting in them not having at least a High School diploma.

6. It affects people sexually transmitted infections are being spread and they usually cause sickness or in severe cases death.

Goal

The goal was to educate students about the risks of having unprotected sex in order to lower the numbers for STD's and teen pregnancies in California.

Alternative Solutions

Abstinence only programs have been looked at by many as an easy solution to a problem we have been facing in schools today. People believe that if you avoid a subject long enough that you won't have to deal with it in the future. Times have changed and it is time for the elders of our country to realize that sex is going to happen, and it is their job to inform the youth how to prepare for it. "In 1999, only half of high school seniors said they had been sexually active within the last three months" (Collins, 2002). Teaching abstinence only in schools leaves the students unprepared for the dangers ahead.

The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the western world. Some wonder why this is and the answer is that we do not educate the teenagers about safe sex. We do not discuss it at home and we don't give teen's access to condoms or birth control. Other countries do, and they are rewarded with low rates of teen pregnancy and teen abortions. Many believe that making condoms available in school-based clinics would give kids the wrong idea, but the truth is that educating them makes them more likely to use contraception when they begin having sex. It is true however that doing this does not have an effect on them waiting to have sex (Strasburger, 2007).

It can be seen in earlier paragraphs that teaching abstinence only in schools is obviously a poor decision. It is a proven fact that teaching abstinence only not only increases pregnancy rates, but also sexually transmitted diseases. A solution has been found, but it is not the only thing that can be done to reduce these numbers. There are various alternatives which can actually help make improvements, but they just would not be as effective as our solution.

One alternative solution mentioned consisted of the government paying a fee to schools in order to have them teach sexual education. This idea seemed to make a lot of sense because some schools are not willing to break away from teaching abstinence only. If the government paid a certain amount of money the schools may decide to at least give abstinence plus a shot. However, an issue with this plan is that some may look at the money as more of a bribe, and it may push more schools away.

Another alternative solution to this issue would be to make condoms available