FREE ESSAY ON SEX ED

SEX ED

There are many reasons why people argue for and against sex education being a set
curriculum in our school systems, but not many people look at the facts of the issue
before deciding that sex education is not right. The plain truth is that there has been a
dramatic increase in the number of teenagers that have become sexually active. The age at
which sexual intercourse first occurs is becoming younger. According to Stong and
Devault, in 1996 17% of girls and 38% of boys admitted to having sex by the age of 15.
These children that are having sex are doing it without proper knowledge of the risk they
may be in. Without proper knowledge a person might go into the world thinking that as
long as they use a condom, there will be no trouble. A young lady may thing that she
taking a safe approach as long as she is using birth control. This is just not true, yet
it is happening everywhere in America. Some may say that this problem is not as big as it
is made at times, but how would they explain to alarming rates of teen pregnancy and the
alarming rate of people being infected with a sexually transmitted disease.
There have been many studies done on pregnancy in the past, but many people refuse to
look at the findings. Samual Hatcher is a social science expert who has conducted
numerous studies on human sexuality from 1994 to present times. He noted everything from
percentages of pregnancies to number of people already infected with certain sexually
transmitted diseases. His findings have been backed up by other social science experts
and by United States government health agencies. In his findings, Hatcher found that
12.5% of all young women in the United States, between the ages of 15 and 19, become
pregnant each year. 
It was also noted that and estimated 1.5 million new cases of Gonorrhea are contracted
each year at which up to half of the cases go unreported. It is said that so many cases
go unreported because many people have no symptoms (10% of men and 80% of women) (Hatcher
97).
Chlamydial infection is the most common sexually transmitted disease in America. There is
an estimated 4 million new infections every year. This is also a disease that strikes
many people without any symptoms. It is said that 40% of women with this disease will
have no symptoms. It was also noted that 40% of all people that have Gonorrhea also have
a Chlamydial infection. (Hatcher 96, Ortiz 98)
Syphilis is not the most common sexually transmitted disease, but is one of the more
serious diseases. It is estimated that two hundred thousand people contract it each year.
It is more serious that most others because it has been proven to result in paralysis,
blindness, insanity, and even death if it is gone untreated. (Hatcher 97, Ashman 96)
A sexually transmitted diseases that has been getting a lot of publicity in our media
today is Genital Herpes. Two hundred thousand people contract genital herpes each year.
This number is small compared to the enormous amount of people contracting others
diseases, but the number of people with this disease is greater because there is no know
cure for genital herpes. There is an estimated 30 million people that have this disease
living in the United States.
Although there are cures for many sexually transmitted diseases, there is one disease
that has a mortality rate of 100%. This disease is called Acquired Immunodeficiency
Syndrome, otherwise known as AIDS. AIDS is not said to be largely identified in
adolescents, but 21% of all AIDS cases are identified in people in people between the
ages of 20 and 29. This says a lot for teen sexuality when of remembers that it often
takes ten years to exhibit any symptoms. This would put the age of contraction between 10
and 19 years of age.
Many people wonder why so many contract diseases when there is access to contraception.
What many people do not know is the actual effectiveness of the contraception that is
being used. When people read the effectiveness on boxes or hear them on television, they
are hearing the theoretical effectiveness, not the actual effectiveness. The difference
between the theoretical and the actual is that the theoretical is done under direct
supervision and used exactly as recommended. The actual effectiveness is the
effectiveness the contraception has in real setting. What many people do not know about
contraception may startle them. I will first start with the contraception targeted toward
women.
For example, the birth control pill is said to have an effectiveness of 99.9% when is
reality it is only 97% effective. This number is not big until a person realizes that it
is the second leading method of protection. Using birth control may help against
unplanned pregnancy but does not help protect people from getting a sexually transmitted
disease. A diaphragm is another popular form of contraception that many women use. The
theoretical effectiveness of this method is said to be 94% effective, but actual
effectiveness is only 82-94% effective depending on which study is looked at. The sponge
is the last device targeted toward women. It was said to have a theoretical effectiveness
of 92%, but the actual effectiveness is much different. In actuality the effectiveness of
the sponge is only 67-91% effective, which had a major role in the device being deemed
unfit and is now impossible to obtain legally. (Masters 95, Hatcher 96, Carroll and Wolpe
96, Ortiz 98)
The amount of contraception available to men is less than that available to women. The
main contraception available to men is the condom, and it is the most highly used form of
all contraception. The condom has a theoretical effectiveness of 98%. The actual
effectiveness is much less and is only 88%, which is not much more than the actual
effectiveness of withdrawal, which is 82% (Masters 95, Hatcher 96).
With people falsely believing they are being protected form sexually transmitted diseases
and pregnancy, it is no wonder why there is not a set curriculum for sex education in our
country.