Persuasive Essay Sample: Sexual Education in School Should Be Revised
Everyone cares about their safety and health. With age comes more responsibilities as teenagers develop into adults. Adolescents are expected to make choices regarding their bodies, yet they are not receiving the resources and education needed to make those decisions. Traditional sexual education needs to be revised to help teenagers flourish into adulthood with confidence. Sexual education should be updated to the modern world and taught to all secondary schools to uphold safety; additionally, working for LGBTQ communities to be included and educated beyond abstinence.
Teenagers who have a complete sexual education are at an advantage with their health and safety. Sex education was introduced in the early 1900s to reduce sexually transmitted diseases (“Education”). This suggests the importance of having sex education to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and keep the body healthy. According to “Sex Education and Abstinence,” “Thirty-nine states, plus Washington, D.C., require sex education and/or HIV education in schools. But only 18 states mandate that sex and HIV education be medically accurate”. This would propose the schools recognize the need for HIV and sex education to be taught to adolescents, yet, not all of the states require sex ed, so countless students are left in the dark and, unfortunately, defeats the purpose of having sex education. According to “Sex Ed Programs in America Need Revising,” “Twenty-eight U.S. states do not even require sex ed to be taught.” The significance of this is that the education that the youth are being taught is not factual, which sets them up for failure later in their future. Providing kids with a complete sex education will allow them to grow more comfortable with their bodies, have healthy perspectives on their sexuality, and make more responsible decisions corresponding to their bodies. Sexual education allows teenagers to have knowledge on the prevention of sexual diseases and to obtain utmost safety. Undoubtedly, technology is used for sexual activity, and teenagers do not know the harm that could cause them. Not to mention, the information the kids do not get in the classroom about sex ed comes from online instead (“Ed”). Interpreted another way, this means that without proper education, teenagers are left curious and look to other resources to answer their questions; therefore, many teens still have unrealistic expectations about their sexual relationships. Another reason sex education needs to be updated, fifty-four percent of teens have admitted to sexting (“Ed”). One can conclude that technology has become a piece of modern equipment for many individuals, so teenagers need to be taught safety about the internet when it involves themselves and a partner. In comparison to keeping adolescents safe from sexual technology, it is equally critical to keep adolescents safe from the risks of fatal complications due to the age of giving birth (“Education”). The significance of this is that female adolescents are in danger because of accidental pregnancies, yet pregnancies can decrease if teens know more about contraceptives and the importance of condoms or safe sex. In addition to decisions, the health risks of teen birth are immense and teenage pregnancy intensely impacts the teens’ future career goals and education. Since the United States has some of the highest accidental pregnancy rates, more futures are at stake (Straub). The importance of this is the increasing future's put at risk means the nation's future is at risk. After all, children are the only chance society has to fix the world's future. The usage of technology is a modern-day routine, so adolescents need to be taught how to safely be on the internet when involving sexual relationships.
Although new sexualities are being discovered and accepted in society, LGBTQ sexual education is not implemented into most sexual education. A current study shows around nine million Americans identify as a part of the LGBTQ community, with being either gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender (“Ed”). Statistics like these reveal the need for sexual education to be updated to make the LGBTQ community present in schools, so all students have the sex ed they need. The current sex education does not recognize the needs of LGBTQ students, which in return, the LGBTQ students are overlooked in the classroom and are at higher rates of risk for various health outcomes (Greenburg). Interpreted another way, this means that LGBTQ students are not receiving the education that suits their lifestyle and, in return, are left in the unknown about their bodies and healthy sexual relationships. With the absence of LGBTQ sexual education in schools, many young LGBTQ members are left uninformed about their health, and the understanding of their bodies (Oliver). This is important because young adults are not receiving the proper education about their bodies but are expected to make acceptable choices regarding their bodies and relationships. This demonstrates how LGBTQ students are trapped to fail when it comes to making decisions about their futures. According to Nation School Climate Survey, only 8.2% of students received LGBTQ sex education; however, this information does not startle many individuals for LGBTQ sex ed is mandated in a minority of U.S. states. Rather than progress to educate the youth in LGBTQ sex education, other states are passing laws against it and causing the educators to do the opposite (Oliver). It is salient to notice how certain states are blocking information that should be instructed to teenagers for a safer and healthier lifestyle. Therefore, these states are holding back proper sexual education and show how biased sex ed is to LGBTQ. Five states allow negative information on homosexuality to be taught, while some schools favor heterosexuality and put it in a positive light (Oliver). This suggests that teens are taught to acknowledge heterosexuality as the only correct way to live. In return, the teens who are a part of the LGBTQ community are left out and have low self-esteem and self-identity. Hence, the request to put LGBTQ sex ed into regular sex education is as prime as teaching heterosexual students about their sex ed.
Some people believe that teaching the youth abstinence-only education is the only sex ed needed. The parents or adults in the adolescent's life should be the ones to include comprehensive sex ed as they see fit, and religion plays an equally important role as well. However, teaching adolescents comprehensive sex ed will allow teenagers to grow psychologically independent and grow as a person. Knowing about the body will empower the youth to make decisions for themselves and allow independence. If adolescents understand how the body works, the need to turn to dangerous sources to satisfy curiosity will decrease. Educating the youth about sexual relations will help to satisfy any curiosity and reduce sexual risk behaviors. Research shows abstinence-only education does not delay the initiation of sexual activity, so teaching teenagers about sexual relationships would cause no harm or make the teenagers sexually active. Even though people believe abstinence-only education is the best education, teenagers need a complete sexual education to allow psychological and physical growth as an adult.
Additionally, abstinence-only education does not achieve the goal of preparing the youth for adulthood. Research shows that safe sex information withheld from students by teaching abstinence-only education can cause harm by promoting dangerous stereotypes, condemning teens, and preserving systems of injustice (Greenberg). States with the usage of abstinence-only programs have elevated rates of teen pregnancies and correspond with inflated rates of sexually transmitted diseases and infections (“Teenage”). Research suggests teenagers' who have full coverage of sex ed are fifty percent less likely to have unwanted pregnancies than students who have an abstinence-only education or no sex ed at all (Rawley). Statistics like these reveal the importance of real sex education and why abstinence-plus education needs to be the revised sex-ed all students are taught. According to “Sex Education and Abstinence," “The Board of Education in Texas expands its sex education standards, for the first time in more than two decades, to allow the teaching of birth control methods to middle school students.” This indicates that schools have acknowledged the need for change in sex education and are willing to do more than just abstinence education. Studies indicate that sex education that includes emergency contraceptives has reduced teen pregnancies and avoided 51,000 abortions in 2000; however, students who received poor sex ed are at higher risks to contract an STI (Rawley). One can conclude that having a complete sex education compared to poorer sex-ed is better when making decisions about the body and health. Abstinence plus education is the foremost choice to teach the youth about their body and healthy sexual relationships that will be encountered in their life.
Ensuring safety and health combined with incorporating LGBTQ communities and educating further on abstinence is more than enough reasons to update and teach sex ed globally. Those who had sex ed are responsible for their health in the future, and healthy citizens create a healthy nation. Therefore, sex ed needs to be updated and taught to all secondary schools globally. The new generation of cultivated adults is accountable for their children's health and their future health. Society is enhanced by merely giving its youth quality sex ed.
