Educating High School Students About The Importance Of Contraceptives - Research Paper Example

Lecturer: Educating High School About The Importance Of Contraceptives, In Order To Prevent Unwanted Pregnancies As Well As Sexually Transmitted Diseases Many female students in high school face challenges of unplanned pregnancies. Those who are sexually active do not use protections to prevent unwanted pregnancies and STDs (sexually transmitted diseases). Therefore, providing effective access to sexual health education in schools is a significant factor for promoting a health education to young generations. School based programs should provide reproductive health education to all students in high schools levels. They should also emphasize on the importance of contraceptives in preventing unwanted pregnancy and other sexually transmitted diseases. They should emphasize on the significant contraceptives such use of condoms because it can prevent both unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Although certain risks are linked with sexual activities, providing sexual education in high schools about the significant of using contraceptives is crucial for the better health of the students and achievement of their academic goals successfully. Providing sexual education to high school students on the significant of using contraceptives is crucial because it is one way of maintaining their health. The health of students is essential because it will enable students to study well in schools without any health complications. Earlier pregnancy to students may lead to health risks especially to young mothers. The research study indicates that a woman is supposed to start giving birth at least when she is more than 18 years old, but about 15 million teenagers bear children when they have not yet reached the required child bearing age (Bruess and Jerrold 27). This poses a health risks to them, and the risk to younger mothers is higher than the risk to the mother above 25 to 25 years. For example, the maternal mortality rate for teenagers between 13 to 16 years of age is three times higher than females in their earlier or late twenties. Distributing and educating high school students on the significant of contraceptives will reduce the sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/ AIDS and other diseases. STDs pose dangerous threats notably to sexually active students. Most of the high school students are sexually active because of physical changes and peer group influences from their friends. Many of them do not understand the significant and the way of protecting themselves from unwanted pregnancies and STDs. Many societies are frown on issues of premarital sex; thus most high school students may feel ashamed or embarrassed in case they make efforts of seeking help about the use of contraceptives. Therefore, increasing awareness through educating students on the significant of health reproductive and HIV/ AIDS prevention is crucial (Hartman, Monasterio, and Hwang (233). For instance, the school my introduce this programs as school curriculum or provide mass education activities at least once in a month to all students. This is vital because it will raise awareness and enable students to engage in safe sexual intercourse. Sex education on the use of contraceptives is one way through which students become aware of the problems associated with unwanted pregnancies and STDs. Distributing contraceptives such as condoms and educating students on having safe sex is vital. This is because it will enable students to make healthy sexual decisions. Many parents ignore to offer guidance and counseling or teach their teenagers on the importance of using contraceptives because of fear and believe that they will encourage sexual behaviors to their children (Bruess and Jerrold 314). However, educating teenagers on the importance of having safe sex is essential because high schools students already know about sex. For instance, the increased technological advancement especially media and Internet have exposed many teenagers to various sexual behaviors. Therefore, they know everything about sex; thus educating students about preventing them from unsafe sex will help them to avoid the consequences of becoming young parents and dropping away from schools. This is vital because it will enable them to maintain their health and achieve their academic goals successfully. Students know everything about sex, but the only problem is that they do not understand the risks associated with it, and many of them do not know how to protect themselves safely. Therefore, providing reproduction education programs will encourage teenagers to make wise decisions on having protected sex. McKay (7) argues that making contraceptives available or accessible to students does not increase sexual behaviors, but it increases condom use among the sexually active students. It also reduces the health risks associated with having unsafe sex to active sexually students. Use of condoms as one of the contraceptive method provide safe protection to unwanted pregnancies and reduces risks of contracting STIs or Aids. Ignoring students and telling them to abstain from sex may not work effectively. Therefore, the only way of helping teenagers is to make contraceptives accessible and inform them to make vital decisions of having protected sex. Although some religions such as catholic may discourage the use of contraceptives to abstain until marriage, but that is not the only option. Parents and teachers should play their role of letting the students know the risks associated with earlier sex. They should play their role of allowing the teenagers have knowledge about sex and leave them to make their own decisions. Hence, sex education is crucial because it raises awareness and it is one way of eliminating ignorance about sex education. However, distributing and educating high school students about contraceptives may increase sex behaviors in schools. This is because the students may now feel that they have an opportunity to engage in sexual intercourse, and this will increase sexual behaviors in schools. It will encourage earlier love affairs; hence abstinence should be emphasized in high schools. Hartman, Monasterio, and Hwang (231) reveal that abstinence programs is an effective form of sexual health education is high schools. This is because it will discourage high school students to avoid engaging in earlier sexual behaviors than encouraging use of contraceptives. MacKay (8) argues that sexual exercise outside wedlock context is likely to generate detrimental psychological and emotional effects to students. Therefore, abstinence does not teach the importance of using consistent contraceptives for preventing unwanted pregnancies or STDs, but it encourages behavioral skills that are consistent with personal values and right choices of students. Education on sex is taken as one of the parents' primary role towards molding the behavior of the child. It is the duty of the parent to shape the moral behaviors of the child; thus the school has no right of educating teenagers about the use of contraceptives in preventing unplanned pregnancies and STDs. The sex education in schools does little in preventing high school students, but rather a tool for encouraging student to become sexually active. Lebese, Davhana-Maselesele and Obi (33) argues that education programs that enable students to make voluntary informed decisions about sexual health issues is unethical; hence students should not be taught this is high schools. In conclusion, providing sexual education in high schools about the significant of using contraceptives is crucial to a larger extent. This is because it will enable students to make better health decisions. It will also enable them to maintain their health and avoid unwanted pregnancies; thus achieving their academic goals successfully. Distributing and educating high school students on the significant of contraceptives will reduce the sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV and STIs. It is one way through which students become aware of the problems associated with unwanted pregnancies and STDs. This is because sex health will raise awareness in high schools. This will enable students to make better informed decisions about their health than abstinence. Work Cited Bruess, Clint E, and Jerrold S. Greenberg. Sexuality Education: Theory and Practice. Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2011. Print. Bruess, Clint, and Jerrold Greenberg. "Resolving Ethical Issues When Conducting Sexuality Education." American Journal of Sexuality Education. 3.4 (2008): 313-322. Print. Hartman, LB, E Monasterio, and LY Hwang. "Adolescent Contraception: Review and Guidance for Pediatric Clinicians." Current Problems in Pediatric and Adolescent Health Care. 42.9 (2012): 221-263. Print. Lebese, RT, M Davhana-Maselesele, and CL Obi. "Sexual Health Dialogue between Parents and Teenagers: an Imperative in the HIV/Aids Era." Curationis. 33.3 (2010): 33-42. Print. McKay, Alexander. Sexual Health Education in Schools: Questions & Answers, 3rd ed. Toronto, ON: SIECCAN, Sex Information and Education Council of Canada, 2005. Print. Read More