Sexuality education

The following video discusses two different views on sexual education, one view is taken from an American psychiatrist and the other is taken from a doctor in New Zealand. New Zealand has amazing low numbers when it comes to teen pregnancy and STI outbreaks and this is a result of having good sex education taught within their schools. But even with these results some people like the American doctor, do not believe that these topics should be talked about in schools, they believe that the only place that students should hear about these issue is at home with their parents. But what happens when parents the parents do not want to talk to their children about sex either? Then where do kids get their information from? With todays’ society the media has such a large influence on teens that if they do not get educated on sex and other related relations they will follow what they see on the media because they think it is “cool” and the “normal” thing to do.

Almost all adolescences will have sexual interactions at some point in time no matter if they have been educated on the matter or not. So if nothing stops these kids then what do we have to lose? Nothing, but with discussing these matters with kids you may prolong the process along with increasing the chances of them using condoms and birth control and it also increases their knowledge on STDs and other consequences of sex. But sex education should not just focus on the bad; it should also focus on the good. Kids do not want to hear about all the things that they should not do and what they are not allowed to do, they will simply want to do the opposite. Sex education should not just talk about intercourse, rather sexuality education as the doctor of New Zealand likes to call it, should focus on diversity, relationships, assertive behaviors, and many other topics.

Too many people are focused on the issue of morality, what is right and what is wrong, but sex is a normal process of life. There are many topics in this world that are not normal per say but that does not mean that we should sweep them under the carpet in hopes of people not knowing about them or doing the right thing without knowing what the right thing is. Sexuality education should be taught within our schools, it is a vital topic to be discussed for our teens to be healthy and happy. It was even brought up in the video that our current curriculum is twelve years old, over a decade! Within that decade so much has happened, the last fifty years have been a rapid race in time. So much has changed with the new advances of technology, so with all of these changes why would we not feel the need to update our sexual education curriculum? Everything in life changes, people, places, even things, this is something that has a huge effect on society, on future generations so it is imperative that it changes with everything else as well.