HE SAID: Sex education a serious matter
By Rob Leggett
As parents, we may not be willing to believe that our babies are having sex, but they are.
Whether we accept this fact or not, the hard reality is this: Teenagers are going to have sex! And for many of them it will be sooner than later, this is why sex education in the schools AND at home is so critical.
Despite, or maybe because, they have a wealth of information at their fingertips, many teens are unclear about the use of birth control, how to prevent sexually transmitted infections (STI) or even that masturbation is normal.
If kids get the proper information they need before they become sexually active then they have a much better chance of having a healthy and safe sex life when they finally decide they are ready.
Unfortunately, many parents leave sex education to the school system, but there are failings in the regularity and quality of the curriculum in B.C. Each school district and even each teacher has different ideas of how to present the material, which creates problems because there is no basic knowledge among students.
This is often aggravated by the lack of safe environments for students to ask questions and teachers who are uncomfortable teaching the subject.
This is why parents’ having the “talk” with their kids is not only important, but vital, and the more in-depth and the more information… the better.
Even with sex education in schools some of our teens still believe that Mountain Dew can be used as a spermicide and that there exists a vaccine for HIV, and it may be in the middle of a crisis that they learn the truth about these “facts”.
Evidence to the naivety of our children is seen in the fact that twelve teenage girls get pregnant everyday in B.C. and we have the fastest growing HIV rate among 15 to 29 -year-old women in Canada.
Teens are always going to have sex and to teach them otherwise is not going to be very successful. There is nothing wrong with teaching our teens to abstain from sex, but we know for a fact that teaching abstinence alone is not a good way to curb teen pregnancy or the spread of STIs. In fact, teens taught abstinence alone are less likely to use contraceptives when they do have sex, as many of them most certainly will.
One study found that teens taught abstinence only abstained from sex on an average of eighteen months; however these abstaining teens were more liable than their classmates to have oral and anal sex. They were also five times more likely to become pregnant or have an abortion than their peers.
School based sex education is only half of the equation, and as awkward as it is to discuss sex with our children it is something we all need to do, otherwise the information they get might not be enough to prepare and protect them.
Or even worse… believe dangerous lies or exaggerations from their friends.
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