Sex Education and Information

Although teen pregnancy rates have been declining in the past, it is still a trend that is disturbing. With some having sex as early as 11-12 years of age, the chances of a teen pregnancy are increased. With teen pregnancy comes the need for health care. Unfortunately, there are many barriers to health care for a teen pregnancy.

Education is a must

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One of parents’ most important duties is to protect their children from harmful sexual values and behaviors. Yet many public schools force potentially harmful, sometimes shockingly explicit sex education on their students.

Most of the time, parents have no control over the content of these classes. Occasionally, a group of parents finds out about a particularly obnoxious sex education class and protests to the principal or local school board. The class may be dropped, only to be replaced by another class that teaches equally objectionable material.

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Discussing sex and sexual issues with teenagers can be a daunting task, especially for parents. The way media venues depict sex and sexuality has shaped societal perceptions and created an openness that was much more muted when I was a young woman. When my daughter was getting ready to enter middle school I felt we needed to have a discussion on the ramifications and risks associated with sex. My daughter had already told me about a fourteen year old girl she knew was pregnant and that a thirteen year old peer who had already had an STD twice. This last bit of information had been garnered in the sex education curriculum the school district used as part of ‘health’ in the sixth grade for children whose parents gave permission for their child to attend the class.

Opening and sustaining a shared dialog between teens and a parent is paramount as, developmentally and emotionally, most teens are somewhere between adolescence and adulthood no matter what their chronological age. Serious discussions, especially concerning peers or social-emotional issues must be approached carefully. The key is to not alienate teenagers by minimizing the value of their knowledge or experience, to be casual rather than demanding, not to lecture, and to include them in the discussion. Parents need to listen as well as talk no matter what the topic of a discussion is they are having with their sons and daughters.

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