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Daniela Uriarte Pineda
Prof. Daily
English-1B
08 May 2017
Comprehensive Sexual Education: Misconception and Benefits for Future Generations
The controversial topic of sexual education has been a cause for debate since its
implementation to the school curriculum in the United States. Sexual education is defined as the
“provision of information about bodily development, sex, sexuality, and relationships” (FoSE); it
varies among countries and the content of the classes depends on cultural and social aspects. In
the United States, sexual education content is decided based on the state and federal funding that
the school receives. Unfortunately, federal funding supports abstinence-only programs which
teach not to have sex until marriage and have been proven to be ineffective as they do not delay
sexual activity and result in unplanned pregnancies as well as sexual transmitted diseases (STD).
Comprehensive sexual education, on the other hand, not only promotes abstinence but also
provides information regarding condoms and contraception (Advocates for Youth, n.pg.) We
should implement comprehensive sexual education to the school curriculum to be taught as early
as kindergarten and continued according to the child’s development or growth until high school
completion because it has been proven to decrease the rate of unplanned pregnancies, STDs, and
sexual abuse.
According to Debra Hauser, we live in a community that suffers from irrational fear,
which is “the cultural belief that teaching young people about sex will cause them to have sex”,
and this keeps educators from teaching young people honest sex education (Hauser, n.pag.)
Hauser goes on to explain that comprehensive sexual education has been proven effective and
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when young people receive such education “they are more likely to delay sexual initiation, and to
use protection when they do eventually become sexually active, than those who receive no sex
education or learn only about abstinence.” This irrational fear is keeping our future generations
ignorant as they are not receiving proper sexual education and are only being told not to have
sex. Similarly, Advocates for Youth expressed that there has not been a single abstinence-only
program that has been proven to help young people delay sexual intercourse for periods of time
or decrease number of sex partners as well as reduce STD or pregnancy rates among teens. On
the other hand, comprehensive sexual education programs were found to be effective through
extensive research conducted by Advocates of Youth. The findings were that these programs
significantly delayed first sexual encounter, teen pregnancy, number of sex partners, and STDs.
Moreover, comprehensive sexual education programs were found to increase the use of condoms
