I come home earlier and after going through my usual “home-from-work” routine, I settle in to read and maybe watch a little television. After flipping through the guide, I find a 20/20 on “Kids having Kids.” I guess it is time for me to voice my opinion on this issue as this episode has ruffled my feathers.
During this episode, the reporter and his crew visited two schools in two parts of the country to discuss and document their respective sexual education classes.
In Massachusetts, students were taught a “comprehensive sexual education.” This included everything. Students were taught the proper way to put on, and take off, a condom. The casual nature of the setting and conversations between teacher and student allowed for the students to let their guards down, asking questions and participating in a class which usually just returns blushed cheeks and giggles to a teachers question. During the course, the students played a game in which they had to line up in the twelve steps of properly putting on and removing a condom. (Yes. 12. Right!)
In Texas, we take a different, more 1950’s era approach. Our teachers preach abstinence. Yes. Still. They teach waiting to have sex until marriage. With the national rate of 41.5 girls/1,000 girls (girls ages 15-19) becoming pregnant every year*, clearly this approach is not working. Texas has a rate of 60 girls/1,000 girls*. Six percent of girls ages 15-19 in the state of Texas will get pregnant. That is 1.5 million girls, based on the 2010 Census population estimate for Texas. So. 1.5 million girls get pregnant every year yet year in and year out, schools continue to teach abstinence. How is this working for us? Massachusetts on the other hand, only has 20% of their girls becoming pregnant. That is roughly 131,000 girls. It is time we took a different approach to this problem because the approach we have been using is not working. {*Statistics courtesy of the Center for Disease Control.}
With a reported nearly 40% of people studied saying marriage is becoming obsolete*, using marriage as a point of reference for when it is ok or acceptable to have sex is ludicrous. Children are entering the strange, unforgiving world of puberty even earlier in life now, as compared to 20 years ago. I hit puberty when I was 13, along with the majority of girls around me. There are reports of girls now having their first period at the age of 9, 10, 11. {Courtesy of USA Today article.}
With such a complex problem, and such an innocent and life changing result at stake, something must be done. Now. Look at what is on TV, in movies, in lyrics to songs, everywhere. Sex sells. Everyone knows it. It is time to stop acting like the problem will go away if society wills it so. We should be educating children about sex. About everything about sex. Mentally, physically, emotionally. How to deal with it. Birth control methods. We should be assisting in them knowing and understanding their sexuality, not shunning them for having natural feelings. We should be helping them to get birth control when they ask for it. If (read: when) these young adults choose to have sex, they should be able to make a responsible decision.
When I start to look back and get down about decisions I have made in my life, my parents remind me I make the best decisions I can with the information I have at the time (I make the decision). We need to be giving these teens all the information we can, so when they make a decision, it can be an informed, educated, responsible decision.
