Men's Awareness

Knowledge is power. A Lack of knowledge leads to ignorance. Those responsible for teaching and spreading information are combating ignorance. This is why comprehensive sex education is the best way to teach teenage boys and girls about the risks they take when engaging in sexual behavior.

Texas has a reputation for abstinence-only sex education but still has the highest pregnancy rate in America. America has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the developed world. The pregnancy rate is twice as high as England, Wales and Canada and is eight times higher than the Netherlands and Japan. Teens in America are also more likely than their English counterparts to have brief sporadic relationships and are less likely to use contraceptives. Guttmacher Institute estimates that 750,000 teen pregnancies occur each year and 82% of them are unintended, with one quarter ending in abortion. By 2002 one third had not received education contraception. With numbers like these, teenagers in the U.S. should be educated about the use of contraceptives to avoid unwanted pregnancy and prevent STDs/STIs instead of being taught with the approach that sex itself is negative.

Despite these statistics, the teen pregnancy rate is dropping slowly. According to a paper in the American Journal of Public Health titled “Explaining recent declines in adolescent pregnancy in the United States: the contribution of abstinence and improved contraceptive use,” 14% of the slow-down in young pregnancy between 1995 and 2002 was related to abstinence. The same report says 86% of the drop was a result of an increase in contraceptive use amongst sexually experienced teens.

In one year, according to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, more than 3 million American teens acquire an STD. That's one in four sexually active people between ages 15 and 19. The rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia among U.S. teens are extremely high compared to the rates in Canada and Western Europe. According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 40% of all chlamydia cases are reported in the 15-year-old to 19-year old age range. This age group also has the highest rate of gonorrhea than any other.

“Youth and HIV/AIDS 2000: A New American Agenda” is a report issued by the Office of National AIDS Policy: The White House with some stark statistics. Americans in the 13-year-old to 24-year old range are contracting HIV at a rate of 2 per hour. One half of new infections are diagnosed in people under 25. One in four sexually experienced teens will contract a sexually transmitted disease. The report also mentions that teachers do not spend adequate time discussing HIV/AIDS, spending only one or two class periods on the topic. The proof current curriculum is inadequate comes from the survey which showed 87% of young Americans said they do not believe they will contract HIV.

The Christian Science Monitor has an article titled “In Texas, a stance to teach ‘abstinence only’ in sex ed” where it is explained that abstinence is already the basis of sex education in Texas. According to the article, those on a religious agenda seek to increase restrictions on the teaching of contraceptive use as well as a ban on the word “condom”. Further suggestions are that the textbooks would use gender-neutral terms for relationships and make it clear that marriage is an institution between a man and a woman. Texas is the second largest source of textbooks for U.S. schools, which means that agenda would be pushed across state boarders. Given the statistics on how education affects pregnancy rates it would seem this is a step in the wrong direction.

The benefits of teaching truthful information would be long-term. Teens would have the tools to prevent the real-world health problems associated with unsafe sexual practices. Detailed and thorough education on the diseases, their effects, their treatments and especially disease prevention is imperative knowledge to give to the upcoming generation. Information should be taught with accuracy and with a frank attitude. Words like condom, or even penis and vagina should not be off limits. Limiting speech would mean limiting the free flow of valuable information. The abstinence approach implies that sex is sinful and immoral, which leads to cultural repression. America has a lingering notion of putting a cultural focus on making sex a taboo and treating it like it is “wrong”, “shameful” or “dirty”. Instead of using this angle, it may benefit young people if educators teach that sex is natural, yet there are risks involved. This is not to say that any form of promiscuity should be taught since that is too far to the other side of the spectrum and altogether unhealthy because it only increases the risks inherent with sexual behavior.

Curriculum containing topics like pregnancy, contraceptives and known STDs/STIs would raise awareness of things that occur in real life. The statistics show it is better to take the honest route than to teach abstinence just for teenagers to become repressed. This leads to the possibility of more people in the 15-year-old to 19-year-old age group to have unsafe sex, clueless of the consequences. Additionally, there is nothing wrong with teaching about marriage and values as an add-on to open and practical sexual health advice. Relationships are also part of the human experience. Discussing the wide spectrum of topics would only benefit the youth of the nation by preparing them.