Consequences for not having sex ed

Posted by Marilyn Morton. Recently, I stumbled on a sample of the abstinence book we used in my freshman health class in high school. Beside the fact it has not changed a single bit of content since , its content is completely inaccurate. It also provides small glimpse into the heteronormative conditioning that our inconsistent sex-education standards brings out.

When only 13 states in the nation require sex education to be medically accurate, a lot is left up to interpretation in teenage health literacy. Research published by the Public Library of Science shows that when sex education is comprehensive, students feel more informed, make safer choices and have healthier outcomes — resulting in fewer unplanned pregnancies and more protection against sexually transmitted diseases and infection. Of course many young students pick up sexual health information from sources other than school — parents, peers, medical professionals, social media and pop culture. However, public schools are the best opportunity for adolescents to access formal information. Teachers are left to interpret vague legislative guidelines, meaning information might not be accurate or unbiased.

Although parental consent is a large problem when determining what should or should not be taught in a class, schools are an information center where students are expected to receive useful knowledge that will help them throughout their lives, on a wide range of topics, including sexual education. Adding to the problem is the fact that many students do not feel comfortable speaking to their parents about sex or asking any questions regarding this subject, and parents usually feel the same way. Avoiding this taboo subject, however, often leads teenagers to have erroneous information regarding sex. Kurt Tuegel, who has been a teacher at U.

The idea is not to make children more proficient at sex, the way maths education should make them better at doing sums. That is why, when Schools Minister Jim Knight launched a review of the subject last week, he referred carefully to 'relationship education'. The government intends some kind of tuition in 'personal and social health' to become compulsory in English schools, taught from the age of five. It is already a mandatory part of the curriculum in Wales and Northern Ireland. What the precise content of those lessons will be and what right parents will have to exclude their children from them are still open to discussion.