Top 5 Reasons to Support Sex Education in Schools

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Andy
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Teaching children about sex is not an easy task. Children and adolescents need much more than a one-time conversation about the birds and the bees in this age of precocious preteens, teenage pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases (STIs). Really, age-appropriate discussions on safer sex and preventing pregnancy ought to be ongoing.

Here are 5 arguments in favour of comprehensive sex education in the classroom.

Failure of Abstinence-Only Education - The study has repeatedly demonstrated: Education focused solely on abstinence has no impact on the proportion of youths who choose to have sex. It is obvious that abstinence-only teaching is ineffective given that that is its main goal.

Teens must be aware of safer alternatives - Teenagers are denied the opportunity to learn about socially acceptable alternatives to abstinence, which is one of the main issues with abstinence-only teaching. This is a serious issue because it hasn't been demonstrated that any kind of sex education can successfully persuade youngsters to abstain from having sex. Parents and teachers presumably want teenagers to be as healthy and content as they may be. Even if those teenagers are struggling to behave in a manner that adults would consider ideal, one would expect that would still be the case.

Sex Education Doesn't Boost Sex - Numerous studies conducted over the past 20 years have repeatedly shown that there are no negative effects to providing comprehensive sex education in schools, contrary to what most people believe. In other words, offering external condoms in schools does not entice young people to engage in sex earlier or more frequently.

Teenage Sexual Activity Is 1 in 2 - Many teenagers engage in sexual activity. In 2015, 41% of high school students reported having sex at least once, according to the Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance Survey, Other discoveries

  • 11.5% had four or more partners for sex.
  • When they last had sex, 57% of sexually active students used condoms.
  • Only 18% of women had ever used birth control.
Additionally, one-fifth of high school students who were sexually active had used drugs or alcohol before their most recent sex.

Start and continue safe - According to 2007 research in the American Journal of Public Health, adolescents who use external condoms from the very first time they engage in sexual activity do better on a number of sexual health metrics than adolescents who do not. Over 4,000 teenagers were monitored by the researchers for an average of nearly seven years. They discovered that teenagers who used external condoms during their first sexual encounter had an equal number of partners as those who did not. Additionally, individuals had a 30% higher likelihood of using an external condom during their most recent sexual encounter.
 
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