Sex Education---Should be Taught in Middle School

Two years ago my best friend daughter, who was sixteen at the time, told him that she was three months pregnant. He was so disappointed when she informed him of the bad news, that he walked away from her in order not to physically abuse her. The thought of sex education being taught in school had never crossed his mind until this incident was tossed into his lap. Kimberly just like most American teenagers had been having sex since she was fourteen years old. Her parents never fathomed that she would start having sex at such a young age. They had talked about sex many times before as a family, but she always had this look on her face as if having sexual intercourse was the worst thing that she could ever imagine. Now they see that Kim, like many other children her age, don’t feel comfortable talking about sexual intercourse with their parents.
It is time for these School Boards to wake up and smell the coffee. Sex Education need to be implemented in our Middle School curriculum immediately. We can introduce sex education into the classroom as a co-ed option, but it would probably benefit the teenagers better if the classes were gender exclusive. Middle School is the ideal time to implement sex education classes, because this is when puberty starts; it's when the hormones level start to rise; and when the bad behavior begin. If sex education becomes mandatory we could most importantly-- educate these teenagers about the importance of safe sex. There are so many benefits of teaching children about abstinence, pregnancy prevention, the use of contraceptives, and how to protect themselves from contracting sexually transmitted diseases. Sex education in the classroom can stress the fact that condoms have an unbelievably high failure rate and what the consequences are, if that were to happen while participating in sexual intercourse. Instead of the child hearing from their buddy that yeah dude condoms do break from time to time. Many of these children don’t believe it only takes one time to have intercourse to become pregnant. In the classroom we can let pregnant girls tell their story since they are the subject matter expert. This practice in itself should open a few teens’ eyes to not want to be in that same predicament. That would then allow the teacher to bring abstinence to the table, being that this will be the most difficult option for teenagers to consider. Education and dialogue in the classroom could drastically minimize the spread of sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea and HIV.

With so much of the population on the affirmative side there must be some pros to this curriculum. Such advantages might be:

• Classes are gender exclusive. This saves embarrassment amongst students and teaches them only what is necessary to know based on their gender.

• Taught properly, sexual education could become a regular course such as Human Anatomy or Biological Science complete with tests and grading that goes towards their graduating credits.

• Student’s can be taught the correct terms of the reproductive system, sexually transmitted diseases and birth contraceptives rather than the “street lingo.”

• Myths surrounding intercourse can be dispelled (such as not being able to get pregnant the first time).

• Studies show that many teenagers become sexually active before the inclusion of the educational classes. Early inclusion of classes has proven to help students remain either abstinent or to at least be responsible if they are active.

• Appropriate sexual education can have an impact on preventing sexual problems in adulthood.("Essortment.Pros and Cons" par 3)

There are many individuals in society that are totally against placing sexual education into middle school curriculum. They feel it is the parent’s responsibility to teach their child about sex, but as I stated earlier most teenagers don’t feel comfortable talking about this subject with their parents. They would rather discuss that kind of information with their peers, so it seems right to have a teacher facilitate that information during school hours. Others might say teaching teenagers about sex promotes intercourse and therefore the teachings would encourage teenagers to engage in sexual activity. That is one of the most ignorant statement I’ve ever heard. We have now entered the twenty first century. Whether you believe or not our kids are engaging in sexual activity at a staggering rate. It is the parent’s job along with the education system to educate these teenagers on the consequences of having sex at such a young age. If it were perfect world abstinence would be great some might abstain but the majoritiyof teens are not. For this to work, sexual education has to be added to the curriculum; we need to identify the right teachers to properly teach the subject; and the teenagers must receive a GRADE from the course.


Essortment.Pros and Cons of Sex Education in School. 2002. 10 November 2009.
http://www.essortment.com/family/sexeducationch_saqs.htm