Sex Education in High School

Sex education is conducted in schools, but can be a controversial part of the curriculum. There is constant subject as to what should be taught, and at what age. This paper will outline the key issues with respect to sex education in high school.

Sex education in America is taught either in high school or in middle school. The timing and content of sex education is in the hands of individual school districts, and therefore varies considerably around the country. The intent of sex education is to promote sexual health in general. Recognizing the reality that sex is part of human life, the aim to teach students about the realities and risks of sexual activity, and to prepare them with the knowledge that will help them to reduce those risks. This is born of the widespread social recognition that things like HIV / AIDS, teenage pregnancy and sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) are public health problems that need to be reduced or eliminated. Also, it is understood that information is effective in reducing these problems. Further, that youth are the most vulnerable to these issues -- in the case of teenage pregnancy by definition -- because they often lack concrete, factual information that will help them to make the right decisions. Lastly, a critical point is that there is a lot of misinformation about sex that is communicated in the school setting from student-to-student, and that it is in the interests of public health outcomes to combat this misinformation.

The structure of sex education in schools is subject for considerable debate. There is evidence that it is most effective when it is a standalone subject in schools, or at the minimum when it is a standalone subject within a broader curriculum in life skills. Where it is neither, the quality of sex education will be found to be failing to meet the needs of students (Whelan, 2013).

While the literature is clear about the importance of sex education in high school and the manner in which it should be taught, there remains difficulty in implementing sex education in a consistent manner. Part of the problem stems from myths. For example, county officials where there is weak sex education will often cite demand from parents for either no sex education or for abstinence-only sex education. This demand exists only from a small minority of parents, even in conservative areas (Tortolero et al., 2011). These authors note that only 7% of parents feel that no sex education should be taught in school. Indeed most respondents in their study favored sex education in middle school rather than high school.

There is disagreement with respect to the idea of abstinence-only sex education, with 27% of parents favoring that. Now, parents have already learned about sex so they have no horse in the race, but nevertheless they are influential in school policy, and in many places elect the school board. So the interests of the parents are often put above the interests of the students. The reality is that abstinence-only sex education does not change teenager behavior, a reality that is self-evident when one considers that sex is going to be part of everyone's lives at some point anyway. The point of sex education in high school is not to tell people never to have sex -- that's not a realistic outcome -- but to educate them so that when they do not make mistakes that lead to life-long consequences that were not intended. High school has the infrastructure and the captive audience, and it is the place where teenagers go to learn things. The abstinence-only argument is simply not tailored for the real world because it reflects on short-term decision-making whereas sex education provides knowledge for life. Knowing how to avoid HIV / AIDS is valuable for a person at any age, while knowing about abstinence is not. The conclusion is that sex education is not only important in high school, but that its structure and content should be based on sound reasoning, judgment and the interests of the teenagers, as it is their health at stake.