According to California law, "School districts are not required to teach comprehensive sexual health education in kindergarten to grade twelve classes." Including California, there are 28 states that do not require sex education be taught in public schools -- that's just over 50 percent of our 50 states.
With over half of our youth not receiving mandated and regulated sex education, it's no wonder why the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any developed nation. "In 2014, there were 24.2 births for every 1,000 adolescent females ages 15-19 or 249,078 babies born to females in this age group," said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Although the teen pregnancy rate has been on a steady decline for the past 20 years, it's shocking that our society has not taken a greater interest in this issue. (Um, "Teen Mom?" Really, America? Never mind, that's a topic for another time.)
Perhaps the reason for the exceptionally high teen pregnancy rate is connected to the lack of overall sexual education. More than 40 percent of teens age 18 to 19 claim they know little to nothing about condoms, while 75 percent say they know an equally low amount of information about the pill. The lack of knowledge on such topics is mainly because about one in four of all adolescents attend abstinence-only programs, which do not provide accurate information, if any, about contraceptives.
If the high teen pregnancy rate is not enough to trigger a reaction from you, perhaps some statistics regarding sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) will change your mind.
There are an estimated 20 million new STIs in the United States each year. This means 20 million diseases or infections will be contracted each year (this number does not include all STIs, just the new ones people previously did not have). Despite making up only a quarter of the sexually-active American population, young people aged 15 to 24 account for over 50 percent of all new STDs in the nation.
In a 2013 survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 34 percent of high-schoolers had been sexually active in the past three months, from the time of the survey. Of these, 41 percent claimed they did not use a condom during the last time they had intercourse. The CDC also found that only 21 percent of all students who claimed to have had intercourse had not been tested for HIV at any point in their lives. That means that 79 percent of high school students were sexually active and still not aware if they were at risk of contracting or passing on the virus that leads to AIDS.
With all of these statistics (and then some) floating around on the worldwide web, we must ask ourselves what this all means. How does this affect us as Americans?
In short, it means we need to educate our youth more. Sex education should not be a topic that is left for students to explore on their own, whether that be through pornography, the internet, peers or other unreliable sources. Sex education is a matter of public health, safety and happiness, and it's time that our society starts viewing it like one -- starting with mandatory sex education in public schools.
Sex itself is considered a personal subject and it's quite understandable why many parents would not want their children exposed to certain materials at school. However, this is exactly the problem. Our society's overall secrecy about sex has made it a taboo topic. Sexuality is a natural part of the human experience, and if schools were required to explain this (and so much more) to kids, many issues would subsequently be taken care of as a result (maybe the teen pregnancy or STD rates, for a start). Scientific information and biological explanations should not be "hidden" from children simply because they're about "private parts."
The positive results of having an accepting society that can talk about sex with their youth openly and honestly are evident in many countries around the world, most of which are in Europe. In countries such as France, the Netherlands and Germany, sex education is thought of as an essential part of education. No different than teaching a student how to read or write, teaching them about their bodies is an important aspect of creating well-rounded adults that will one day graduate and become adults in the real world. (If you don't believe me, check out this neat little document that compares the U.S. to European nations.)
Education is the only way to create a society that is inclusive and understanding. It's only human nature to be afraid of the unknown, and this heightened natural fear has put our nation behind, leaving kids scared to say the word "sex" in front of their parents (or say it ever, without giggling, heehee).
Not only would mandatory sex education solve issues of misinformation about sex among our youth, but it would also lead to a more knowledgeable and accepting society. Information about abstinence, contraceptives, healthy relationships and sexually-related health risks are all valid and realistic topics that need to be taught to our youth -- no one is born knowing all there is to know about anything, especially sex. The classroom would allow students to see sex-ed as simply another topic, erasing much of the current stigma related, as well as addressing many other pressing issues such as LGBTQ+ rights, sexual abuse, breastfeeding, rape, masturbation, abortion and so much more.
If we wish to have an educated population, it's time we start truly educating them, rather than picking out the parts that are "uncomfortable." The only way to make talking about sex more comfortable is to start talking about it already.
