The Importance of Sexual Education

599 Words3 Pages
Sexuality education is “a lifelong process of acquiring information and forming attitudes, beliefs, and values about identity, relationships, and intimacy. It encompasses sexual development, reproductive health, interpersonal relationships, affection, intimacy, body image, and gender roles.” (Bruess and Greenberg 18) There are multiple types of sexual education. Only two are sexuality educations are taught in America: abstinence-only education and comprehensive sex education. Abstinence-only education teaches children to abstain from sex until marriage. This will in turn protect them from sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy. The federal government passed a law, US Social Security Act, Sec. 510(b)(2), that defined what abstinence-only education. It is broken down into 8 standards: 1. It must teach the health, social, and psychological benefits of abstaining from sexual activity. 2. It must teach that abstinence until marriage is the expected standard for school students. 3. It must teach that monogamous relationships are the expected standard for all sexually functioning members of society. 4. It must teach that abstaining from sex until marriage is the only way to avoid out of wedlock pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. 5. It must teach that sex outside of the marriage is likely to lead to harmful psychological and physical effects. 6. It must teach that bearing a child out of wedlock is more than likely to harm the child, the child’s parents, and society. 7. It must teach how to reject sexual advances and how drug and alcohol use increases your chance of sexual exposure. 8. It must teach the importance of reaching self-satisfaction before having sex. Abstinence-only educational programs only speak of sex before marriage as a way of having an unwanted pregnancy or catching a sexually transmitted
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