Importance of Sex Education - Report Example

Name: Tutor: Course: Date: Introduction Sex education is necessary and needful for young people. Being aware of exposure given to young people in schools, in media and amongst their peers, sex education teaches people on sexual intimacy and also informs them on birth control, sexually transmitted diseases and their reproductive system. Sex education is the procedure of attaining information and developing beliefs and attitudes about sexual identity, sex, and intimacy and relationships. Sex education also involves development of young person’s skills so that they are able to make informed choices on their behavior, and feel competent and confident on acting on these choices. Young people have the right to sex education because it is a means through which they are assisted to safeguard themselves against exploitation, abuse, sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies. Offering sex education assists to meet the rights of young people to information on issues that influence them and also assists them to enjoy their relationships and sexuality. Where sex education should be conducted Sex education can be conducted in a wide range of settings, both in home and at school. In these diverse settings, different individuals have the responsibility and opportunity to offer sex education for the young people. According to Laaser sex education at home entails young people having one to one conversations with guardians or parents which focus upon particular concerns, questions and issues (210). They may have a conversation on their view and attitudes about sex and sexuality. Sex education that is conducted at home tends to happen over a long duration, and entails a lot of short interactions amid children and parents. There might be times when youngsters seem unwilling to talk about sex and sexuality, but parents and guardians should not infer any difference as an implication that there is nothing to discuss. The parent or guardian is free to provide sex education at home but majority of parents fail to do so and several of them are not competent in offering sex education. Educating young people about sex and sexuality sends a significant message of self-esteem, self-appreciation and emphasizes the reality that the changes and feeling they experience is normal. Laaser argues that young people have the likelihood of making more informed and better decisions when they are sufficiently educated and their parents feel highly confident understanding that their kids are conscious of the facts around their sexual and reproductive health (225). Educating young people on the significance of protection as a portion of protected sex routine might serve a greater aim of avoiding sexually transmitted diseases. However, several parents are not willing to educate their kids on sex. Key among the reason for parents scowling at sex education entail but not restrained to conservation of virginity, prevention of abortion and illegitimate pregnancy, premarital sex , culture and religion along with maintenance of family dignity and honor. Nevertheless, divergent to this presumption, girls who are not educated on sexuality entailing changes during puberty are highly likely to engage on sexual imprudence and become pregnant during teenage years that girls who are educated on sex. Knowledge is power, and when this power is bestowed on adolescents and teenagers it can make a difference amid well informed and irrational decisions (Halstead and Reiss 70-72). According to Ridini sex education at school entails interaction between young people and teachers (115). The interaction takes a diverse form and is usually offered in organized lesson blocks. Teaching sex education in schools helps students to attain information they require to make informed decisions on their sexuality. Education is the best scheme to assist learners to do the correct thing. Teachers should teach about sexually transmitted diseases, abstinence and defying peer pressure on sexual activity. Sex education must ideally begin at home setting where parent must engage their kids as active partakers in their process of development. This education should then go on at school in a manner that conserves family values whilst upholding societal realities. Debates on sex education in schools have been focused upon two diverse approaches; safe sex lessons which endorse teenagers to utilize contraceptives, particularly condoms , when engaging in sex and abstinence education, which endorses teenagers to delay sexual intercourse ( Ridini 126). Abstinence programs highly encourage abstinence in adolescent years and if possible until marriage. They teach young people engaging in casual sexual intercourse at a young age poses serious risks of infections and pregnancy and also undermine the capacity of an individual to create intimate, loving relationships at the adult age. Therefore, these programs endorse teenage self-restraint as a pathway and preparation to healthy and strong adult marriage. Comprehensive sex education curricula focus on exclusively teaching on contraception and endorsing teens to utilize it. School programmes on human sexuality have evolved in reaction to concerns on increased rates of teenage pregnancy and high rates of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. In comparison to teenagers in other industrialized nations, American teenagers aged 15 to 19 have the greatest pregnancy rate. Presently in the US, over 800,000 girls under the age of 12 years become pregnant every year, with 80 percent of these being unwanted pregnancies (Kohler et al. 25-27). Importance of sex education Sex education should be conducted because it aims at reducing hazards of potentially negatively consequences from sexual behavior, like unplanned or unwanted pregnancies and contagion with sexually transmitted illnesses entailing HIV. It is also aimed at contributing to the positive experience of young people of their sexuality through improving the eminence of their relations and their capability to make conversant decisions over their lives. Devine notes that effective sex education, contributes to these aims therefore assisting youngsters to safely enjoy their sexuality (217). If sex education is to be effective, it should entail opportunities for the young individuals to develop skills because it can be difficult for then to operate on basis of solely having information. Skills that youngsters develop as a portion of sex education are connected to more universal life skills. Being capable to listen, communicate, negotiate with other people and recognize sources of advice and help are helpful lie skills that are applicable to sexual relationships. According to Halstead and Reiss efficient sex education develops the skills of young people in decision making, negotiation, listening and assertion (97). Effective sex education also assist equip youngsters with skills to be capable to distinguish between inaccurate and accurate information and to converse a variety of social and moral issues and perspectives about sexuality and sex entailing diverse cultural attitudes and delicate matters like contraception, abortion and sexuality. Young people are exposed a variety of beliefs and attitudes in regard to sexuality and sex. These at times seem contradictory and confusing. For instance, health messages highlights the dangers and risks connected with sexual activity whilst several media coverage supports that notion that sexual activity is beneficial. Since sexuality and sex are sensitive issues, sex educators and young people have strong perspectives on which attitudes people must have, and which moral framework must govern the behavior of people (Barnett and Parkhurst 593). How sex education should be conducted Sex education can be conducted through abistence based approach and comprehensive approach to sex education. The abstinence sex education focuses upon educating young people that desisting from sexual activity until marriage is the best way of making sure that they prevent infection with sexually transmitted HIV and unwanted pregnancies. Napier notes that that along with viewing desisting from sexual activity as the excellent alternative for sustaining sexual health, several supporters of the abstinence based models to sex education also deem that it is ethically inappropriate fro people to engage in sexual activities before marriage (27). Event though all abstinence education programs are not similar, they share the essential aim of teaching the health, psychological and social benefits that result from abstaining from sex. Comprehensive sex education clarifies the outcome of sexual decision making, entailing information on the forms of sexually transmitted infections and ways of preventing pregnancy. The major disparity amid comprehensive and abstinence based approaches to sex edification is that the comprehensive approaches don’t focuses only or very closely on educating youngsters that they must refrain from sexual activity until marriage. According to Rector abstinence education programs fro young people have demonstrated to be efficient in lessening early sexual intercourse (5). Abstinence programs might also offer the basis for individual responsibility and long lasting marital commitment. Thus, they are critically signifanct to attempts intended at lessening out of wedlock child births among young people, and promoting the wellbeing of children Even though comprehensive approaches explain to the young persons the potential gains of delay in sexual activity until they are physically and emotionally ready, they also ensure that the young people are educated on the way to safeguard themselves from pregnancy and infections whey they decide to engage in sexual activities through the use of protective devices such as condoms and contraception. Carrera argues that sex education can be effectively conducted through the use of both the abstinence only and comprehensive approaches since young people greatly engage in sexual activities without the knowledge of their parents, teachers or guardians (44-46). Several individuals have asserted that it is there is a high possibility of combining the major elements of the abstinence based and comprehensive approaches to sex education into a single approach. These individuals illustrate that both comprehensive and abstinence based approaches share the perspective that sex edification plays a significant role in prevention of HIV and that both approaches highlight the potential gains of delaying sexual intercourse on basis of assisting youngsters to avoids STIs, HIV and unintended pregnancies. (Bearman and Bruckner 860-862). Therefore comprehensive and abstinence based approaches may be merged into a single inclusive approach that is at times referred to as the abstinence plus approach. Bearman, and Bruckner ( 870) asserts that in the abstinence plus approach to sex education, though the key emphasis is on the abstinence from sex as a preferred option to protection, youngsters are also offered with information on disease protection and contraception in order to safeguard themselves whey they become sexually active. An example of the abstinence plus approach in the United States is the reducing the risk approach which is composed of a school based curriculum which overtly highlight that learners must avoid unprotected sex, either through abstaining from sex or the use of contraception for learns who choose to engage in sexual intercourse. In spite of the similarities in numerous of issues that supporters of comprehensive and abstinence based approaches believe on sex education and what sex education can attain in terms of the sexual health of young people, it is possibly exceedingly optimistic to believe that it is probable to develop a consensus on one approach. This is since these apparent resemblances mask intense disparities in the attitudes and values which enlighten the perspectives of supports of comprehensive and abstinence based sex education. Several supporters of the abstinence sex education possess a connection to or a background in Christian organizations that possess strong views on sexuality and sex. They usually deem that sex should solely occur in the marriage context, but majority of them are also opposed to abortion and same gender relationships. Kohler et al (27) notes that as a consequence of strong conviction basis for their credence on sex, abstinence education supporters view the key aim of sex education as to encourage and equip youngsters to avoid or refuse sex and they might keep out from their programs information that they deem contradicts this view. This might lead to the abstinence only course and fail to involve basic information on which activities transmit diseases and the way these transmissions may be prevented. Although supporters of abstinence education disown a strong spiritual foundation for their beliefs on what youngsters must be taught, they usually emphasize matters on fidelity to a single partner and rebuff provision of the information on steps that youngsters must take in order to safeguard themselves against unintended pregnancy and disease since they assert that through doing so, they will be sending a mixed message to the young people (Napier, 45). On the contrary, majority of supporters of comprehensive sex education consider having sex along with sexuality related matters as issues of personal choice that should not be dictated by political or religious doctrines. Kohler et al, (29-30) notes that from the knowledge of human rights, that implies that persons are warranted to access information on issues that influence them along with the decisions they make, they view sex education as being based upon offering young persons with the way through which they can safeguard themselves against exploitation and abuse, along with sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies. They assert that the lack of access to information on every aspect of sexuality and sex makes it impossible to freely make decisions on sex and sexuality. Whilst they believe that it’s significant that sex education is perceptive to faith matters, they claim that sex education shouldn’t be based upon any set of particular religious values. Conclusion Sex education is an important subject that should be taught both at home and in schools. Parents and teachers must be engaged in offering sex education to young people to ensure that they attain the appropriate information about sex and sexuality. They will also enable young people to develop beliefs and attitudes about sexual identity and intimacy and relationships and also to develop skills that will enable them to make informed decisions on their behavior. Through offering sex education, both parents and teachers will offer young people with a means of protecting themselves against sexual abuse, exploitation, sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies. Sex education can be offered through the abstinence based and comprehensive approaches which teach young people to keep away from sexual activities until marriage and how to protect themselves from infections and pregnancies through use of contraceptives respectively. Works Cited Rector, Robert. The effectiveness of abstinence education programs in reducing sexual activity among youth. Washington, D.C.: Heritage Foundation, 2002. Bearman, Peter., & Bruckner, Hannah. Promising the future: Virginity pledges and the transition to first intercourse. American Journal of Sociology, 106)4): 859-912, 2005. Barnett, Tony & Parkhurst, Justin "HIV/AIDS: Sex, abstinence, and behaviour change". The Lancet Infectious Diseases 5 (2005). (9): 590–598. Kohler Pamela., Manhart Lisa., & Lafferty William. Abstinence-only and comprehensive sex education and the initiation of sexual activity and teen pregnancy. Journal Adolescent Health 42(4), 20-30, 2008. Ridini, Steven. Health and sexuality education in schools: The process of social change. New York: SUNY Press, 2002. 212 pgs Halstead, Mark & Reiss, Michael. Values in sex education: From principles to practice. New York: Routledge, 2003. Laaser, Mark. Talking to yours kids about sex: How to have a lifetime of age-appropriate conversations with your children about healthy sexuality. Colorado: Waterbrook Press, 2002. Carrera, Michael et al. Knowledge about Reproduction, Contraception, and Sexually Transmitted Infection Among Young Adolescents in American Cities. Social Policy, 30(3): 41-50, 2000. Devine, Tony. Cultivating heart and character: Educating for life’s most essential goals. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2000. .Napier, Kristine. The power of abstinence. New York: The Continuum Publishing Company. Read More