Explain why more parents are supporting sex education in schools and describe the types of sex education programs available.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Several large studies have found that approximately 90 percent of parents are in favor of a sex-education program in high schools. A slightly lower number of parents support the introduction of sex education in middle and junior high schools. The dramatic increase in HIV/AIDS and other STIs is the main reason that Americans have increasingly supported sex education in schools in recent years. The nature of sex education in schools is changing. U.S. schools today increasingly focus on abstinence and are less likely to present students with comprehensive teaching that includes information about birth control, abortion, and sexual orientation.

The two main types of sex education programs are abstinence-only programs and comprehensive programs, which include abstinence but also offer information on contraceptives. Despite the popular belief that teaching adolescents about sex causes them to engage in sexual behaviors, research has shown that this is not the case. In fact, adolescents who were taught in a comprehensive program were less likely to report adolescent pregnancies than their counterparts who were educated in an abstinence-only program.