by Taylor Nichols
Since 2000, the number of young people with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unplanned pregnancies in America has grown tremendously.
Almost every single person at this college probably knows someone who unintentionally got pregnant or got someone else pregnant, or has an STI, and people hear stories of 13-year-old girls getting pregnant.
Teens are becoming sexually active at younger and younger ages, and the idea that people still argue for abstinence-only sexual education is absurd.
Parents and conservative and religious groups have been pushing for middle and high school students to be taught only about abstinence and no other forms of protection against unwanted pregnancy and STIs for the past three decades.
Until recently, their efforts were largely successful: States have had the option to receive funding explicitly for abstinence-only education for about as long.
However, in recent years public schools across the country have been slowly moving in the opposite direction. While many schools still opt to teach these dated principles and neglect to inform young people of any other options, others teach students about birth control, condoms and other forms of contraceptives to prevent unwanted pregnancy and/or STIs.
This is undeniably a necessary step in the right direction. Abstinence-only education was developed with the intent that students would learn solely that premarital sex was wrong.
Evidently this method is dated and inefficient; schools and the government alike should have absolutely no say in whether young people decide to become sexually active or not.
Admittedly, middle school is exceptionally young to be making these kinds of decisions, but it seems youth are going to make them regardless of what their biology teacher tells them.
Educating students at an appropriate age about both the possible consequences of becoming sexually active and options available if they choose to do so is the safest way to prevent teen pregnancy and widespread contraction of potentially fatal or incurable STIs. This range of infections includes HIV/AIDS and herpes.
While the issue of what young people should be learning in terms of sexual education is far from settled, we are moving slowly but progressively forward.
The development of the National Sexuality Education Standards in 2012 outlined what students in kindergarten through 12th grade should be learning.
The outline includes kindergartners through 2nd graders learning age-appropriate information about body parts and aspects of healthy friendships and relationships, although many groups exaggerated this to be teaching 5-year-olds about sex in general.
It also emphasizes an understanding of contraceptives, abstinence, pregnancy, anatomy and sexual reproduction, and healthy relationships for middle and high school students.
Perhaps some of the most progressive topics covered in the standards were sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as a positive outlook on both heterosexual and homosexual relationships by the end of 8th grade.
Schools in Chicago and Baltimore, among others, are working to adopt sexual education programs that teach about sexual orientation and gender identity.
An emphasis on making positive healthy choices in terms of sexuality is without a doubt the smartest and safest way to educate youth about sex. Providing students with a limited scope of accurate knowledge and teaching a negative outlook on premarital sex, as we have done for years with abstinence-only education, will result in masses of uninformed or misinformed youth.
Young people are going to make crucial decisions in regards to their sexuality that could alter their entire futures, and they should be doing so with as much accurate information as they possibly can.
We should be allowing the future adults of our nation to make educated decisions and providing them with the means to do so. It’s time for extraordinarily outdated and ignorant methods of sexual education to be cast out for new methods that provide youth with the necessary tools to make informed decisions about their lives. This is the most effective way to reduce teen pregnancy rates and sexually transmitted infections.
