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This subject seems to always end up between a rock and a hard place. When just the act of teaching sex education at all is being battled for and against in public schools it is even more difficult to discuss how health teachers should go about teaching it. Should they take the side of the saints? Should they assume that it will be enough to tell children "Just don't do it"? But on the other hand, can you really ignore the effects that media, music, clothing, and peer pressure are having on children even too young to partake in sex?

Apart from my parents, the concept of teenage abstinence was never pushed on me during my years of middle and high school. I had health classes every single year taught by various people including an 80-year-old man and even a Christian school gym teacher. It was the 90's and even by then they seemed to have given up on us. "When you have sex..." was usually the opening statement of such classes. They showed us the normal diagrams and movies but they also handed out condoms for us to keep and instructed us to set up regular doctor appointments concerning STD's. It was their job to instruct us on safe sex instead of abstinence. They assumed all of us were having it so now they just wanted to keep us safe.

If parents had sat in on some of those classes I'm sure they would have been completely appalled at the discussions and instructions, but were the teachers necessarily wrong in their tactics? It is my belief that parents struggle with how the times have changed since they were teens. Back then it might have seemed completely uncalled for to teach anything except abstinence. Since the sexual revolution, however, parents need to realize that abstinence can now only be thought of as a hope and a wish instead of a definite fact.

Teaching abstinence has the same effect as setting a drinking age and banning drugs. There will always be teens who completely ignore the obvious dangers set before them and take the risk to have a good time. Understanding this, we realize that the best thing to do is to teach safe sex practices. At least that informs young adults of how to protect themselves. The truth is, a large percentage of teens are sexually active. Forcing them to listen to a speech about keeping their virginity and "saving it for the right one" will teach them absolutely nothing. If anything, it will force to become even more rebellious. What's more, high school will the very last time they will receive any instruction whatsoever on the subject. In college no one will be there to tell them what and what not to do. The decision will be there's and the peer pressure will be deathly. All warnings to "save yourself" will be completely forgotten.

Do not misunderstand me. I do not believe that all teenagers are sexually active. I do not believe in forcing sex upon them or saying that it is in any way a good thing to do at such a young age. But if we choose to have sex education in schools we must be realistic and use a little bit of tact to reach our audience. More specific advice should be taught by the parents. I listened to mine!

Learn more about this author, Alysha Carroll.
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