Amarillo College Ranger

Issue date: 4/5/07 Section: Religion & Politics

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Abstinence-only-based sexual education curriculum doesn't work. As a high school student in rural Texas, I witnessed several girls of various ages who became pregnant not only in high school, but also in middle school.

Girls as young as 13 were waddling around the corridors of school with their bellies bulging, and who knows how many more were infected with STDs? It doesn't take a book of statistics to step back and take a look at our high schools and realize that somewhere something is being missed in our sexual education courses.

Face it: Teenagers are going to have sex, and in today's society they're becoming sexually active much earlier in their lives. Texas is a land where abstinence-only education reigns, and that is one of the biggest mistakes in our education system.

When you tell a strong-willed, hard-headed, teenager with a goal to defy authority not to do something, they're going to want to do it, especially if they have their hormones behind them telling them it's what they're naturally supposed to do.

So all that time health teachers have spent telling them sex is a bad, immoral, dirty action that should be saved for the marriage bed is a complete waste, not to mention that these young people are left unequipped with the knowledge of how to protect themselves.

Of course, generally everyone of a post-pubescent age knows about condoms, but after being told over and over that sex is a terrible thing that everyone except married couples should be ashamed of, what student in their right mind is going to brave being seen purchasing them?

Perhaps it makes better sense to educate them about their options: where and how to get condoms as wells as other types of contraceptives.

We should challenge our educators to have the guts to say, "It's probably best that you save sex for a mature adult relationship, if not marriage, but if you choose not to do that, here are some options to keep you safe." Teaching young adults to be ashamed of their bodies and their natural hormones certainly isn't cutting it.

The world quickly is becoming more and more raw, and education should keep up with that. Attempting to hold onto the bread-and-butter family values of the '50s is just encouraging young people to make irresponsible choices. I believe comprehensive sex education would be a huge leap in our high schools.

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