There is a movement that believes that only abstinence should be taught in school during the sexual education courses. I grew up in a small, conservative town, and for every day of contraception and birth control that was taught, the instructors were required to teach ten days of abstinence education.

I wholly disagree with this policy, because it simply doesn't work. Teenagers do have sex regardless of whether or not their parents believe that they should, and education can only help to prevent unwanted pregnancy and disease. Knowledge is power, and I don't believe that it encourages teenagers to have sex. In fact, I think it can be a deterrant when teenagers understand all of the risks that are involved.

I also think that schools need to include sexual education that is geared towards homosexuals. This group often gets left out in the cold, and it is equally important for gay, lesbian, and bi-sexual teenagers to know how to protect themselves.

Any thoughts?

Actually, I think it has to begin MUCH earlier than that, but I think it is a good idea. If nothing else, hopefully it would get across the idea that casual sex is just not smart. As I've said in other posts, family values, examples, education, are primary. And, of course, I will say again how much I blame TV for the spreading the idea that casual sex is ordinary, accepted and mostly has no consequences. Sit coms are particularly bad in this respect.
I have talked with some of my teen and college age grandchildren, and in the end they did agree.
Raging hormones will be an eternal problem and I accept that, but the moral teachings certainly cannot hurt. I do, obviously, agree with you that sex education is important. Stressing the consequences is primary. I live in a state with a very high teen preg. rate that is slowly being reduced since starting a new abstinence ed. program that stresses parent involvment at a young age. It helps council parents on how to talk to their children...this is a difficult thing. I Know! As they say, been there - done that. Could it be helping? I hope so!
Good subject.

i think sex education should be taught in schools. this is an issue that involves everyone, since we are humans and we all have our different thoughts about sex. putting the idea into children would be a good thing to do because many of todays teenagers are out there experimenting new things, and sometimes it is sexually. parents need to tell their kids that sex will happen but it should happen down the road in life when they are aware of how powerful sex really is. many use sex as a way of pleasuring each other, but that is really all the further it goes. sex is something more than a fling to those who are willing to wait and that is the best thing for teenagers to do. also during sex education, i think the instructors should tell their students that plan parenthood and other places that offer birth control pills, condoms, and absteince are very helpful to those who want to learn about sex.

Sex education should be done by PARENTS. The problem is that parents absolve their reponsibilities to teach sex so that it's now left up to TV, peers, internet, and teachers.

I believe that this issue of teaching sex ed should be left up to the parents also.

I have mixed feelings about this topic. On one hand, I strongly agree with cyan, and I feel that sex education should be taught: birth control, safe sex; along with the dangers of not being responsible with your body. But on the other hand, I agree with osteng (don't get used to it ) and David; I feel a lot of responsiblility should be placed on the parents to teach their kids about sex. My parents never really sat me down and had the "big sex talk"; but I do remember my dad telling me two very important things about sex.
1) Make sure the first time you have sex, you're making love.
2) Never have sex with anyone that has more problems than yourself.
Those two lessons alone kept me from having sex a lot longer than anything my teachers taught me in school. (although, in retrospect, I should have paid better attention to that second lesson ) But the basic idea I'm trying to get across is that teachers can say whatever they want but it won't make nearly as much of an impact as a simple talk with one's parents. The only problem is that too many parents now a days don't realize the importance talking and (more importantly) listening to their child. So maybe their should be sex education for parents, like what MOUSE was talking about. Talking to your kids about sex shouldn't be a scary thing, as long as you are honest with your kids, you have a much better chance of your kids being honest with you.

-Kisov

It would be nice if the parents would provide sexual education to their children, because as many of you have said, it can make a stronger impact, and some parents do, but there are a lot of them that don't. By improving the sexual education that teens receive in school, we are insuring that every student has some basic knowledge. If the parents have already taught it, than those kids are all the better for having it reinforced.

Additionally, there are some subjects within sexual education that parents may not be properly educated about themselves. As I mentioned before, I think that safe sex for all sexual orientations should be taught, and some parents are not educated in that aspect nor do they want to be. It's difficult for some parents to accept the fact that their children might be participating in sexual acts that they don't agree with, and those kids may not feel comfortable talking to their parents about those issues either.

(edited, because I added content)

How do all,

My #1 post. Figured this is as good a subject as any. Of course children should receive education about sex, whether that be from the parents, schools, or as I did it back in the 1960s: I read a book about sex. There were not very many truthful, honest books available back then but now there are tons out there. I'd suggest to parents who want to have the primary influence on what their children think about sex to buy a book or two for the kids and require them to read before any talking begins. Let the experts have their say first, which is always a good beginning for any educational experience. Furthermore, how about some discussion about how we live out our lives: the major stages. At some point sex becomes unimportant. Meanwhile, biology is trying to trick you into reproducing. Most people can't afford to raise large families any longer, and so a lot of sexual repression goes on. This can lead to many different kinds of behavior, some not so healthy as others.

I'm not sure there is such a thing as healthy sex. Seems to me that humans have been doing a lot of harm to other humans to satisfy sexual drives for millennia. Sexual drives have also been used to manipulate: bribery, entrapment, profiteering, and so on, since the beginning. Genesis is full of it! Hey, how's about starting with the first book of the Bible for a basis of discussion? Eh, maybe not. It might scare the dickens out of the little tykes.

If parents are supposed to educate their children about sex, who's supposed to educate the parents? Just because a couple has managed to conceive hardly makes them expert. Sex education is, literally, vital - a lack of sex education (or, worse, parental misinformation) can be deadly.

I am tempted to suggest that those who oppose sex education in schools should be allowed to excuse their children from such classes. That way, their kids would be much more likely to be grappling with teen pregnancies, STDs, and death by AIDS-related illnesses. But that would be very mean-spirited of me - and, no matter how ignorant one's parents may be, there's no reason for the child to have to pay the price. Therefore, I'll instead suggest that sex education should be mandatory for all students everywhere - and the earlier the better.

I was a senior in 1986 and we had a class called Sociology and Living. This class was one of the most educational of all of them.

It's the one that students pair up and get 'married' and they carry an egg around for two weeks to learn the responsibility involved in having a baby. That part was kind of lame but fun.

The other components to the class were very usefull.

Learning Family Budgeting
Self Defense and Rape
Spousal and child abuse
Birth Control
CPR for infants and adults
Pregnancy and childbirth
Infertility
Geneology issues
Birth defects
Drugs and Alchohol effects related to family living

All of this taught together put it all in context and was a responsibe way to do it. It wasn't simply talking about sex. Some of these things are never taught by parents. The speakers that came in and the shows we saw about child abuse has had a lasting impression on me.

By my senior year most of the girls were no longer virgins, including me. I was able to take that class with my boyfriend (we had been together all four years of highschool.) Later, after graduation, it helped me realize that he had abusive tendancies. I'm glad we didn't end up getting married like I had once hoped.

Parents who do not want their teens to learn these important issues are not doing them any favors.

Wertz and Danya,

Excellent points. Since our bodies are built to procreate even if our minds aren't trained into understanding what the heck is going on, too many children have uninformed and misinformed parents. My folks were pretty tight-lipped on the whole subject. My older brothers had a lot of useless information, and so, as the good researcher that I am, the library became my source of quality information.

Back in the 1980s, one of the kids I was helping to raise came home from sex ed class and wanted to know what the big deal was about her "jeans". Oh, Kathy, if only you knew! She was only 11 at the time and a lot of the information went over her head. At least we got the "genetic" issue straightened out. She made it through high school in fair shape, partly due to getting the straight facts on sex early.

That's all kids want--the truth. They'll deal with issues like the rest of us have, but going off into the nasty real world armed with solid information helps survival. Thanks for the breakout of your experience, Danya. There is so much more to sex than sex and a lot more to raising a family than most understand heading into the responsibility.

I would like to add that saying that it should be the parents responsibility to teach sex is the ideal situation. Though I'm not necessarily opposed to schools teaching it.

As an aside, our sex-ed class in high school was a joke. The teacher took it as a joke. And the students took it as a joke. The teacher who taught it was the newbie teacher that was assigned the sex-ed class. The only things the kids were taught were simply the anatomical parts and STDs.

Just because parents can have intercourse and produce a child, of course don't make them experts in sex. But, at least they know a little more than the kids (hopefully).

My main beef though is that parents have absolved their responsibilities as parents, including sex education. Parents need to act like parents and not simply replicators.

As for resources for parents, there are a multitude of books, classes, seminars available now.

But, as the situation is now, with parents absolving their responsibilites (either by choice or by default), schools now have to take up the slack.

Yes Sex Education should be taught in schools perferably in the sixth grade. When I was in school I was introduce to D.A.R.E. (which stands for drug awareness resistence education). The D.A.R.E. program taught me the consequences of using drugs. My school wanted this program because in the mid 90's drugs were on the rise and kids were starting to distribute drugs for the drug dealers because they would receive less time if they were caught. Sex education on the other hand was introduce to me in the sixth grade and I had to ask my parents if I could participate in the course. They allowed me to participate. What I learned in sixth grade about sex changed by life. I saw movies that had sex in it at that age but in the movies the people wasn't using protection. I didn't know condoms exsisted at that time. Being exposed to this sex education course changed my life in my opinion because once I got to junior high my friends were having unprotected sex and having babies. Sex education is knowledge and the sooner you know about sex both positive and negative effects the better.

Otseng: I agree entirely and hope I wasn't implying that parents should abrogate their responsibility to the school system. It's just that, as you mention, most parents will not avail of the resources at their disposal, whereas our schools should have a duty to do so.

I believe that sexual education should be taught in ALL schools. As a teen you get that urge, yes teachers say do abstenince but when was the last time you listened to a teacher? I believe that abstience should be talked about during the chorus but we need all types of education about sex for example the use of condoms ETC