By Courtney Duncan
“I Heart Female Orgasm” was a common phrase around campus this week in light of the program that filled the Malcolm Field Theatre Tuesday night. Surprisingly, there was not too much controversy over the name or the program itself; this would not have been the case in a typical American high school.
The couple, Dorian Solot and Marshall Miller, who travel around the nation presenting programs similar to the one at SVSU, spoke on the topic of sexual education. They questioned what driver’s training would be like if it was taught like sexual education; that is, if student drivers were told that driving could harm them, so they should stay away from it because it was bad. Theoretically in this situation, students would never receive hands-on training to drive; they would never learn how to operate the car or what to do if there was an accident. Thankfully, driver’s education is not taught in this format, but sexual education is. Sexual education has a tendency to be taught as if students do not actually need to know anything about the subject. If students are told that sex is bad, why do they need to know how to put on a condom or how to access birth control? I’m not going to go as far as Solot and Miller did by saying that students should be taught about the pleasures of sex, because I think that mentality is excessive, but I will say that sex needs further discussion in most schools.
By age 18, 6 in 10 women and 5 in 10 men admit that they have had sexual intercourse. Nine million new sexually transmitted infections are found in teens. Each year, there are 750,000 teenage pregnancies; one-fourth of these end in abortion. Luckily, there has been a decline in teen pregnancy, and 86% of the reason for the decline is attributed to the expanded knowledge about contraceptives, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Although teenage pregnancy has declined, students are still too far behind when it comes to knowledge about sex itself and topics related to sex. 1 in 5 teenagers receives abstinence only education, and only 62% of females and 72% of males have received education about contraceptives prior to having sexual intercourse. There has also been a recent trend in abstinence only education in sexual education programs.
While abstinence is a great lesson, it is not practical. Even with increased abstinence only teaching, there are still three-quarters of a million teenage pregnancies, and over 50% of the teenage population is having sex regardless of the fact that they are taught it is “bad,” “wrong,” or “immoral.”
A staggering finding is that despite the known consequences of educating students without providing them with information in all subject areas of sex, teachers are increasingly teaching less about everything but abstinence. In my own health and sexual education class, we spent more time learning about the parts of the eye and the ear than we did discussing sex. In the past ten years, 1 in 4 teachers relay the abstinence only message, while 20 years ago this number was only 1 in 50. It is time for the government to start enforcing that sexual education is taught on its own and not as a part of a health class where it can be avoided for all but a few class periods. It is time that no child should be allowed to be exempt from enrolling in sexual education classes. It is time that the issues of contraception, childbirth, sexually transmitted infections, and abortion are addressed, and not pushed to the wayside.
Once again, it is time to move forward as a society. Teenagers have been having sex for as long as it has been physically possible for their bodies to do so; in other words—forever. It is time to get out from under the shield of oblivion and be responsible. Contrary to the beliefs of many, it is possible to teach about sex without encouraging it. Most parents talk to their children about alcohol and how many have a “good time” by using alcohol, but they also talk about the damaging effects it can have on one’s body, so why not educate teens about sex—all parts of it. Do not simply hand kids condoms and let them run with it; educate them. Teach teens about the consequences of sex, and tell them your opinions on sex, but then let them decide for themselves, because they will anyway.
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