First, let me start with an introduction: I'm, in many ways, a peculiar choice of representative for average teenagers. For instance, I actually enjoy reading and writing, and much prefer philosophical talks to tossing around a football. I believe in the value of education, and I'd rather take an ax to a television set than, God forbid, actually turn it on.
However, for as many ways as I stand out from the crowd, there are just as many facets of my personality that just about every other eighteen-year-old shares with me. I stay out past midnight and wake up past noon. My idea of a balanced meal is a Taco Bell Bean and Rice Burrito with a side of nachos. I like my music loud and my cars fast. I struggle with insecurity issues, whether it be with how nice my clothes fit or how my voice sounds or how elegantly disheveled my hair is. Oh, and I think about sex a lot. I mean, a whole lot.
Really, though, is that shocking to anyone that I, a teenage male, would have sex on my mind roughly half the time, awake or asleep? Of course not! Everyone knows teenagers are hormonal creatures, driven by strange chemicals and weird impulses and whatever's trendy at the moment. Our sex drives are reaching Mach one at this age. I become infatuated with every cute girl I see, going as far as to make every possible attempt at starting conversation with them (which can sometimes be as crafty as "Oops, I dropped this here pen and it rolled right over to your feet!" or as agonizingly blunt as "Hi, you're gorgeous. Have dinner with me?").
Of course, this isn't only just a male thing. Sure, it may be the stereotype that boys have sex on the brain all the time, but just because the female obsession with intercourse isn't as publicized doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Girls are every bit as preoccupied with the opposite gender at eighteen as boys are. The obsession is mutual, trust me on this one.
This mutual obsession is what leads us to the matter at hand: should schools give teenagers birth control? It's pretty clear to me, as a teen myself, that they should. Sure, some schools, especially the Christian institutes, preach abstinence, but very, very few teenagers actually follow that message. For most of us, the more you tell us not to do something, the more we want to do it. Take it from me: I spent twelve years of my life in Catholic school, including all four of my high school years. Abstinence was the biggest joke in our hallways. After every lecture on "waiting for marriage," we'd burst out of class laughing and trading stories about one another's sexual escapades.
It's truly naive of anyone to think that the abstinence message will ever reach more than a tiny sliver of the teenage population. Most of us don't have the same morals as the people preaching to us, let alone the self-control to actually keep our hormones in line. You just have to accept the fact that teenagers think about sex, they want to try sex, and they will try sex. There is no "maybe" in the equation. Their bodies are maturing. It's natural for them to want to explore what these developing bodies can do. Instead of trying to stop the process, schools should teach their students about it. If they educate their students on sex instead of keeping them in dark with scare tactics, then the students will be less likely to make dumb decisions regarding sexual activity. If taught about safe sex, and then given the necessary materials to carry it out, teens will be encouraged to be smart about sex, which will cut down the likelihood of teenage pregnancy and the spread of STD's. By withholding such supplies as condoms from students, then schools are only exacerbating things, as sexual activity between teens will be more likely to end in disaster if they don't know how to keep it from doing so.