Reasons Why Sex Education Should Be Taught in Schools. Or Should Not?

What Is the Right Way to Implement Sex Ed in Schools?

by Julia Abreu

I find it rather ironic how I am sitting here at my desk thinking about how to write about “the right way to implement sex ed in schools” when I, as a high school senior, cannot remember the last time that I had a sex ed class. I think it was in eighth grade, and honestly, that’s where the problem starts, but it’s definitely not where it ends.

One of my strongest memories when it comes to past sex ed classes was from seventh grade where we had a pregnant lady, maybe in her early thirties, who was wearing a plaid dress, walk into our biology class telling us she was there to talk to us about sexual education. The lesson ran about the entire length of that class period and half of it was spent with her telling us that “the best contraceptive is to wear pants”. She talked to us about some diseases and the different types of sex, but the underlying message of it was that the answer to how not to get pregnant or get an STD was to wear pants and not engage in sexual activity until you’re married.

Kids need to have an actual shot at learning about all the different types of contraceptives, they need to know they have options. Birth control pills, IUD, condoms (both male and female) these are all options and though none of them are perfect being able to give people different options and going in depth about it is really helpful and without a doubt better than being told to wear pants. A sex ed course might not prevent someone from having sex, but it could at least educate them and help them know that there are multiple ways to have safe sex and that’s what is most important. Another thing that needs to be considered when teaching sex ed is that anywhere from 11% to 40% of children are in the LGBT community and our sex ed classes now only address sex between heterosexual, cisgender people. Sex ed needs to incorporate and address LGBT youth and sex in order to normalize queer sexuality and assist in the acceptance or transitioning of one’s sexuality. Something else that I look back on and am shocked to notice that was not mentioned was consent. Sex ed as I was taught, told me that wearing a dress or skirt or short shorts could lead to sex on a date, that as long as I was wearing pants, I’d be okay. Not only is that irrational but it also unconsciously teaches us that it can be the girl's fault whether or not they have sex because of what she’s wearing. They need to teach about consent and how you need consent from both sides, that if one of them is wearing something scandalous, it doesn’t mean that they are inviting others to have sex with them and most importantly that no means no.

My last change would be the time span that they teach sex ed, I believe that it needs to begin around fourth grade with the basics like what happens as you get older, how your body may change and how it’s completely normal. Up till the sixth grade, we are practically oblivious to anything regarding sexual education unless our parents teach us it, which is rather unlikely and that isn’t right. There are people that reach puberty early or hear about sex but don’t really know what it is and are too afraid to ask and that is something that needs to be addressed. We also need to teach it throughout high school and maybe even in the first semester of college.