Jordan Thompson
Joan Brandt
Eng101-08
5 May 2013
Let Sex Hit the Books The rise of unplanned sex leading to unplanned pregnancies has been a rise in America for the past decade and needs a halt. Not only pregnancies coming from lack of education on sex, but lack of understanding of sexually transmitted diseases have held their misconceptions. These misunderstandings are leading adolescents down a very unhealthy and risky road, with no help from old views government asking that abstinence only be taught throughout schools. In order for adolescents to understand the full consequences of sex, schools across the nation need to put more depth into the teachings of sex education.
In today’s society, it’s almost known as a trend to become pregnant and have a child at a young age, before in the 90’s it was looked at as a disappointment. The 90’s viewed sex as more of reproduction purpose and not pleasure, giving a baby that was born from an unwanted pregnancy a nickname almost. It was known as having a child out of wedlock. Girls 20 years ago wouldn’t dream of losing their virginity until marriage but now “6 in 10 teens have sex before they leave high school and 730,000 teenage girls will get pregnant this year” (Haerens). But what is causing this to happen you may ask? It’s not just the unbelievable drive of hormones in young men and women’s bodies but how they are being taught to handle these hormones.

When taking a look at any school’s curriculum over math or science or even fine arts you would believe they have everything in order, but nobody even seems to pay any attention to the health courses now. Nobody even seems to be shocked that there isn’t even a sex education offered, when sex seems to be the soul contributor taking over these adolescent lives. “When it comes to sex education in America, abstinence only education has played a prominent role for the past thirty years” (Haerens). So when the topic of sex came up it was always the motto “If nothing happens than nothing will happen” that left students with unanswered questions to life changing decisions. The pledges don’t always work, and when they don’t, it seems as though nobody has raised their hand behind the adolescent and admitted fault too, not because they were promoting the cause but because they contributed little to nothing to prevent it. The preaching’s of “if you don’t practice sex you won’t get pregnant or receive an STD” need to stop. Abstinence only education is only an ideal way of teaching sex education but as history has shown, it’s not effective. Teachers need to get into the details of sex and what could come from its practice. Starting from STD’s, unplanned pregnancies, and even bacterial infections and or other harmful factors that can come from practicing sex, all things that schools are failing to teach. Most schools don’t show much into sex education because they strongly believe that abstinence is the only way to go, and for schools or any individuals to preach and pledge that, I ask to recall Bristol Palin’s story. After becoming pregnant as an adolescent, Bristol then pledged to become an abstinent teen and commented “Teenagers need to prevent pregnancy to begin with-this isn’t ideal” (Palin). The key phrase there “this isn’t ideal” says it all, trying to say no to hormones and someone from the outside pushing for a yes isn’t ideal. Students aren’t prepared and it’s time we start preparing them, the right way.

There needs to be a change in sex education, a revolution that will impact the millions. Starting with schools, there can’t just be health anymore. I want to see health and then right underneath it I want to see “SEX EDUCATION 101”. Not only should this class be offered but it should be a requirement for graduation, students who take this class will not only have a better understanding of sex but a better understanding of the consequences when practicing. This class would also ban all sex myths, as for example that