The Importance of Sex Education
August 3, 2021
This post was written by Jacob Frazier. Jacob is a blog editor with the Alhambra US Chamber.
Effective sex education is sorely lacking in the United States. According to World Population Review, fully 19 US states have abstinence-only sex ed, meaning that they do not require any discussion of contraception. Only 18 states require discussion of birth control, and just 13 require that the information provided to children even be medically accurate. Schools might not even say what sex is in the first place, leaving the question of how sperm and egg meet to be answered by institutions like the family. This issue is one of the most important of our time, since contraception gives people control over who they start a family with, which is why high schools across the US need to better prepare their students to navigate sex and relationships.
Contraception might be the second-most consequential invention ever, right after agriculture. Rather than directly increase our resources or ability to survive, like medicine, nitrogen fixation, or constitutional democracy, contraception allows us to reduce the number of people consuming those resources. This allows us to stretch them further, and could reduce conflict over those resources. Modern birth control enables a shift toward conservation and cooperation, which means that decisions around family can become a more central focus moving forward.
Despite this possibility, many jurisdictions in the US disempower their own citizenry by refusing to give their young people the knowledge they need. The list of effective birth control methods is long and growing--barrier, hormonal, surgical, and other methods are continually becoming safer and more effective. However, not every method works for everyone, so in order to help students navigate the world, schools need to talk about each type of contraception and how they work so students can make informed decisions. Otherwise they will fall behind students from other schools who were given the tools needed to make the best decisions possible.
Some believe that telling students about sex and contraceptive methods besides abstinence will increase the risk of pregnancy, but the opposite is true. Without teachers to guide them, teenagers end up relying on the advice of family, friends, and media, which can be either helpful or harmful. And with the ultimate teacher being personal experience--is it any wonder that out of the top 10 states for teen pregnancy, 5 are without state-mandated sex ed?
Sex ed is valuable not only to help prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, but also to give people tools to build healthy relationships. Schools often fail to talk to students about healthy romantic relationships, consent, LGBT-related issues, and how to avoid and escape abusive situations. Those that do discuss these questions help students build a healthy life around their own goals and values, both during high school and in the years after.
Better sex ed does not foist anything upon students. Instead, it gives them the information they need to prevent things from being foisted upon them--if a student plans to wait until they get married to have sex, or never to have sex at all, they are as empowered by accurate information about sex as a student who does not share the same intentions. The point is to give everyone a better idea of their options when they step out into the world. Schools currently suppress that knowledge, discouraging teenagers from seeking it out, which adversely affects everyone who wants to make their own sexual decisions.
By the time students reach college, they are already expected to know about sex, and more educated students tend to also be more educated about sex. However, colleges can still implement sex ed programming for their students that covers a range of topics and can bridge the gap left by high schools. They can also help prepare their own students to deliver sex education to the rest of the country. Often the role of sex ed teacher falls to a gym teacher, who picks it up for two weeks and then drops it until the next year rolls around. Stronger programs for learning to be a sex ed teacher could have a ripple effect that could open people’s eyes. Ultimately, however, the change in policy has to come from the ground up, and each person has power to teach others about sex and push for policy changes that make that knowledge universal.
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