Sex Eduation Controversy

Stemming from a rise in unplanned pregnancies and sexual transmitted diseases, the Bloomberg administration is now making sexual education compulsory for teenagers in New York City.  The program will be taught to middle school and high school students, and although abstinence will still be a big part of the program, they will now also learn about, and how to use birth control, appropriate age for sexual activity, how to protect themselves from unwanted sexual advances and how to avoid abusive relationships, according to Downtown Magazine NYC. 

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NY Times reports that parents will be able to have their children opt out of the lessons on birth-control methods. City officials said that while there would be frank discussions with students as young as 11 on topics like anatomy, puberty, pregnancy and the risks of unprotected sex, the focus was to get students to wait until they were older to experiment. At the same time, knowing that many teenagers are sexually active, the administration wants to teach them about safe sex in the hopes of reducing pregnancy, disease and dropouts. 

However, some of the details surfacing about the program, such as the students having to visit a drug store to purchase condoms, map out routes to free clinics etc. has the NYC Parents' Choice Coalition speaking out against the program. According to CNN, the group is urging parents to opt their children out of sexual education classes and demand that a more abstinence driven alternative be taught instead. My hope is they will not be able to do so.

I thought the abstinence "education" was ridiculous when they first introduced it, and luckily, since then, things have changed, and schools in several states are teaching students more in line with reality.  Do not get me wrong, I certainly hope that continuous teaching of abstinence has an impact, and that more teenagers will feel it is OK to wait; however, for the ones that don't (and be honest, how old were you your first time?), I find it so important that they know how to protect themselves not only from unwanted pregnancies, but also from STD's.

As parents we can certainly say we will teach the children this ourselves as we see fit; problem is, we tend to think of our children as just that, children, for much longer than they are.  When mine had to go through their school's sexual education last year, they weren't really keen on it, finding it somewhat embarrassing. But when I gave them the choice to either learn it in school or sit down with me, the choice was clear. This was not something they wanted me involved in.  Although, luckily they do think it is OK to come to me with questions.

As much as we might tell them we are available, and they can talk to us about anything, there are so many things our children will never discuss with us. Thankfully having these programs in school, they will at least know how to protect themselves physically; then maybe we as parents can work on the emotional aspect of it, and also reiterate the importance of waiting till one is older and responsible enough to actually be sexually active.