Like abstinence-only education, comprehensive sex education is backed up by various institutions amongst them being Advocates for The Youth, the Society for Adolescent Medicine, the American Public Health Association, SIECUS, the National School Boards Association, American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Education Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist.
The advocates for comprehensive sex education reason that in addition to abstaining, the young people should be enlightened on contraceptives and on how to prevent HIV and STIs. SIECUS states that sexuality education that is complete takes into consideration the age of the student and the stage of development as well as the setting of the culture; supplementing and ensuring that there is balance between the parental education and that from learning institutions (Collins et al. , 2002).
Disallowing the young people information deprives them the knowledge about human sexuality which will enable them to take care of their interests as well as health. Studies indicate that young people who have gone through sex education have adequate knowledge and are well-off in managing aspects related to sexuality compared to those ones who are not educated. Assessments show that the community supports giving young people information on contraceptives besides the abstinence message.
In addition, they also support that sex education be offered in junior, middle and high school. According to the comprehensive education proponents, information on contraceptives is not an accelerating factor towards early sexual activity; however, it has been shown that there is an increased utilization of contraceptives in young people who are sexually active. In the abstinence-only report it is indicated that abstinence led to a reduced rate of pregnancy among the teens during the 960s.
Nonetheless, comprehensive sex education has attributed the above stated to the low rate of pregnancy in young people who had knowledge on sex and to a lesser extent those who did not have any understanding about sex (Collins et al. , 2002). 5. 0 Conclusion Surveys indicate that a good number of students in high school have had sex, hence the necessity of sexual education to young people. Moreover, young people during their teenage engage in sexual associations, they therefore need sexual education to be in a position of taking care.
It should not be forgotten that many young people in the community are sexually abused because they lack information on how they can take care of that. In addition, most parents feel ashamed to talk about sexual issues; this also creates fear in their children to discuss about such matters, hence when molested sexually, they shy from telling anyone; finally they end up getting tormented in their future lives; therefore sexual education is inevitable in this case.
Currently, as the statistics indicate, there is a higher rate of pregnancy, abortions and STDs in teenagers in the UK and US: in as much as the abstinence perspective is a sure way of preventing this issue, it has failed to prove its efficiency in these countries where a lot of funds are invested in it. The abstinence approach should be combined with the comprehensive approach to help the young understand hence take precaution.
References:
Bruess, C. E & Greenberg, J. S.(2008): Sexuality Education: Theory and Practice, 5th Edition ISBN 0763754951, 9780763754952, Jones & Bartlett Publishers Bruess, C. E & Greenberg, J. S (2004): Sexuality education: Theory and practice, 4th Edition, ISBN 0763747599, 9780763747596, Jones & Bartlett Publishers Collins, C. , Alagiri, P & Summers, T. (2002): Abstinence only vs. comprehensive sex education; what are the arguments?
What is the evidence? AIDS Research Institute, University of California San Francisco Hearn, E. , Harris, B. , Harris, J. , Hilsman, J & Mattu, H. (n.d): Sexual Education; a Contemporary Social Problem, Retrieved on 9th April, 2009 from: http://www. coe. uga. edu Irvine, J. M (2004): Talk about sex; the battles over sex education in the United States ISBN 0520243293, 9780520243293, Published by University of California Press Wass, C. P. (1998): Sex education helps keep children safe from abuse, Retrieved on 9th April, 2009 from: http://www. smith-lawfirm. com/sex_ed. html Willenz, P. (2005): Comprehensive sex education is more effective at stopping the spread of HIV infection, American Psy