I don't believe that sex ed encourages sexual behaviour. Knowledge does not necessarily cause bad things to happen..but lack of knowledge DOES cause bad choices!! This is simple and anyone that can follow logic can understand this. Two highschoolers feel they are ready for sex, and then they do..without any birth control or methods of safe sex to prevent STDs. If they knew about condoms and the proper way to use them then at least the only thing lost is someone's virginity. Much more could be lost..like one's life. HIV is an epidemic and it's lack of knowledge that is to blame, and not too much of it.
Your values don't change because of sex ed. In fact, I wished I paid more attention in highschool during sex ed. My friends and I never took it seriously enough because we weren't sexually active and didn't plan to be for a long long time. The thing is, almost all of us WILL be sometime in our lives. I'm so glad when people come to me for advice on issues about pregnancy, stds, etc, and I KNOW what I'm talking about because I chose to inform myself. People don't have to run off and have sex just because they know about birth control options, and sexual health. People don't see condoms and go "hey! let's have sex!", unless they already planned to have sex. In fact, if the condoms weren't there, they would do it without the condom! I know enough people who have unprotected sex to know that birth control and condoms should be available to those who want it.
When people ask me about questions pertaining to safe sex and birth control I refer them to Planned Parenthood's Teenwire.com. It's a great resource made just for teenagers. They don't tell people what to think; they just let people know about what options they have. Informed decision are better than uninformed decisions. Kids feel that they are more mature these days--that they can tackle everything adults can. Who can blame them? Today's society expects so much of kids.
The truth is that kids are facing tougher decisions these days. Some people would say "people just don't have values and morals these days", but then if they allow sexually explicit scenes in movies and on tv, then we should not ignore this reality. Kids aren't stupid so let's talk about sex; someone has to. I recommend that everyone visit Teenwire. They have the right attitude and they realize that the topic of sex really is one of the biggest challenges that teenagers must face these days.
from Mayling's Themestream.com archive