Sex Education Vs Faith-Based Abstinence Programs

Sex education has often been a struggle for most educators. Juggling between the demands of liberals to the excessive moralistic ramblings of the conservative right, sex education is often the sacrificial lamb between the seemingly eternal fight between liberals and conservatives.

Like an evil apparition, sex education is viewed by conservatives as just another spin to glorify and promote sex. The idea that sex is only exclusive to married, heterosexual adults, while wholesome from an aesthetic point of view is wholly unrealistic.

Sex: The Primal Force of Life

The reality is, Man is genetically tuned towards sex. The idea that somehow, sex is exclusive to certain clusters of people gives a very morbid picture of sex.

Once a man or a woman has reached a stage of puberty, hormonal changes will induce a certain attraction to the opposite sex (or in some cases, the same sex). Every man and woman is somehow genetically tuned, so to speak, towards sex, because without sex, man, as a species in the animal kingdom, will not be able to reproduce.

Hence, sex is the most natural thing in the animal kingdom, and being animals that we are (technically speaking), means we will exhibit the same inclinations towards sex.

Sex Education: A Subject of Paramount Importance

Given that sex is so pervasive within our society, chances are, as educators, school teachers must advocate the right values towards sex.

For a start, the idea of sex education is to give children a rough guide towards the ideas of safe sex, to understand their respective sexual organs, and give them sufficient knowledge so that they do not become potential victims of sex offenders.

Contrary to what conservatives claim, the idea of sex education is not to teach children how to have sex. Rather, it is to protect them from harm when they have reached sexual maturity.

Abstinence Programs: Programs of Ignorance

With the rise of the Republicans and the Bush Administration, abstinence programs seem to be favored over secular sex programs when government grants are handed out, which really presents a huge obstacle for authentic sex educators.

The stark reality is, abstinence programs are a poor substitute (if they can be considered substitutes at all) towards the sex education movement.
According to DiCenso et al, four abstinence programs and one school program were associated with a pooled increase of 54% in the partners of men and 46% in women.

Their conclusion?

"There is some evidence that prevention programs may need to begin much earlier than they do. In a recent systematic review of eight trials of day care for disadvantaged children under 5 years of age, long term follow up showed lower pregnancy rates among adolescents. We need to investigate the social determinants of unintended pregnancy in adolescents through large longitudinal studies beginning early in life and use the results of the multivariate analyses to guide the design of prevention interventions. We should carefully examine countries with low pregnancy rates among adolescents."

Sex Education: A Important Step Towards Curbing STDs, AIDS

Sex educators are the first line defense in the ongoing battle against AIDS and STDs: By providing children with more information, they will be able to carry out protective measures, such as protected sex, which will help reduce the spread of AIDS and other STDs.

Given the fact that the AIDS epidemic has reached pandemic proportions, prevent in the form of education is the best form of defense. Teaching children not to have sex is the moral equivalent of teaching kids not to steal cookies from the jar: It almost never works.