The longstanding debate regarding sex education is misguided and
cyclical; in fact, the biggest problem with sex education is that we haven’t
figured out the problem with sex education. A recent study found that
millennials are highly in favor of sex education in schools, yet nearly four of
ten, ironically enough, found their own sex education experiences had little to
no applicability in their real lives. While this may seem self-contradictory, these
millennials are, in fact, right on both accounts.
Many adolescents are or will be sexually active and, without
access to medically accurate, complete, and unbiased information, they will
never become informed enough to navigate real world sexual encounters and
relationships. Sex education should be taught in schools, though fewer than
half of U.S. states require it to be taught at all, but the curriculum needs a
makeover.
What we need is an intelligent sex education that addresses the
real life situations of young people, who come into the classroom with
background knowledge and assumptions, often from the Internet or their peers. As
a mentor for Women and Youth Supporting Each Other, I have first-hand
experience augmenting misconceptions that our mentees, 7th and 8th
grade girls, carried with them. Several students shared the false belief that
using a tampon would “take your virginity”, something we had never considered
addressing in our curriculum. Others believed that you could not get sexually
transmitted infections from oral sex, which we were able to correct after a
student asked about this anonymously using our Question Box. It is likely that
the millennials surveyed found that the information they received, though most
found it to be medically accurate, was not applicable to real life because
their school-based sex educators failed to recognize and address the diversity of
beliefs and values in the surrounding community of the school.
Sex education
is about more than preventing pregnancy in young people, thought that is often
a way of measuring its success. In my experiences as a mentor/sex educator, we devote
several sessions to the topics of pregnancy and childbirth, always with the
awareness that in the area where we teach, teen pregnancy is very common and
often acceptable, but knowledge of contraception is minimal. An abstinence-only
sex education program in a community like this one or an outside educator
warning against teen pregnancy, when many of their mothers or siblings had
children young, would likely do more harm than good.
Our method, and a
good one for all sexual education programs, is SOY: Some do, Others don’t, You
decide. But the SOY acronym is not effective unless the students have complete
information to make an informed decision. Many critics of sex education
programs in general insist that it is the parents’ responsibility to teach
their children this information according to their beliefs and values. However,
family members, religious, and community groups might not have the knowledge,
skill, or comfort, to present all of the facts in an unbiased way allowing
adolescents to form make their own choices, as they will in adulthood and
throughout the rest of their lives.
Furthermore, if
young people’s only sexual education comes from their parents, who may in fact
be in a dysfunctional relationship themselves, how will they ever learn what a
healthy relationship entails- something only 45% of millennials were taught in
their sex ed classes? Furthermore, in less accepting communities, how will
queer adolescents learn safe sexual practices? In the same study, only 12%
surveyed discussed same-sex relationships in their class. A third, and
increasingly important issue missing from most sex education courses is
consent, which is problematic with sexual assault instances arising as early as middle school.
We need to build off the successful programs already in place and
implement them in schools across the nation, but not fall into the trap of
maintaining a rigid structure or formulaic approach as cultural considerations
and awareness of students’ existing beliefs are essential to adapting for the
needs of each classroom. Interested
parents should have the option of being trained on how to teach the material to
their children, but they should not be the only source of sex education; a
thorough and unbiased curriculum, with open discussions and a safe environment
for questions, is the only way to prepare young people for real world
experiences.
Yes, abstinence should be
taught as an option, as it is the only guaranteed way of avoiding unplanned
pregnancy or STIS, but not the only
option. And yes, the biological processes should be taught so students have a
greater understanding of their bodies, but that is not the only understanding
of sex they should have. If students know the scientific process of how to make
a baby, but don’t know the resources available at the Planned Parenthood down
the street, or what does or does not constitute consent, or if the relationship
they are in is a healthy one, or how having a baby at their age would affect
them in the long-term, or what other sexual identities there are when all they know
is what their heteronormative community has taught them is "normal", then sex education
will have failed once again.
