By Erica Brosnan Staff Writer
As a product of multiple private religious schools that did not offer any sexual education, I can safely assure you that teenagers don’t need to be taught about sex in school. They can figure it out just fine on their own.
Anyone with a sane mind and a little bit of common sense should be able to comprehend the significance of practicing sex safely. After all, our culture is obsessed with sex and nearly every mention of it in pop culture is followed with a warning to practice safe sex.
My friends and I figured it out just fine on our own and I tend to have faith that high school students aren’t idiots. They should be smart enough to know the basics of sex, to know to use birth control and to be aware that all parties involved have to agree before having sex.
My high school peers and I didn’t need a teacher to lecture us about the dos and don’ts of sex, and frankly, there are more important things we need to focus on teaching teenagers before we start worrying about the birds and the bees.
To me, sexual education in schools is the same idea as somebody saying, “We should start requiring religious education in every school because many children aren’t being exposed to it at home.” Many people would scoff at the idea because religion isn’t supposed to be a part of educational programs. It’s supposed to stay out of public schools.
Many people are angered by the idea of sex education in schools because they feel that teachers send a mixed message – “Don’t have sex right now, but here’s a condom if you want to.” – which violates their moral and cultural beliefs. The defense: If parents aren’t providing information on the topic, schools should pick up the slack, right?
If that’s the case, there are a lot of other subjects schools should be teaching, things that were lacking in a lot of homes where I grew up: how to take out loans for college, how to get a mortgage, how to fill out taxes and how to know when to do so.
There’s a world of information not being taught to teens. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I applied for a student loan. I didn’t even have a bank account until two months before I graduated from high school because it had never been taught to me.
I could take my questions about sex to my friends, to the Internet or to my parents or siblings, yet I couldn’t get a straight answer about what interest rate would be considered low for a student loan.
I completely understand the concern about sex education in schools, but the fact of the matter is that initiating sex education programs creates a debate about beliefs that many people aren’t going to be quick to change.
If parents are really concerned about their kids learning safe sex, they can talk to their own children about it. If teens are really desperate to learn about safe sex, they can find out about it online where the answers are straight-forward.
Let’s focus on teaching kids real-life future planning skills before we start worrying about if they can “do it” correctly.
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