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Abstinence Only Sex Education Parents want to control the communication to their children on sex and do not want their children expose to certain Information sooner than what they feel appropriate. Parents do not approve of the method of teaching safe sex vs.. Abstinence. They believe abstinence is the only way to go and that once a child learns how to protect itself they will become sexually active. While sex education often begins with the teaching of abstinence, some parents dispute the school’s approach of Including topics of contraceptives, pregnancy, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases in their sex education program.
Specifically, parents want their children to be taught that abstinence is the best approach and that sexual activity should be reserved for marriage. In a 2003 phone survey to 1,004 parents, conducted by Goby International, “47 percent of parents want teens to be taught that young people should not engage in sexual intercourse until they are married. ” Parents support the abstinence message and would like their children to be taught of the strong link between sex, love, and marriage.
Despite parents’ wishes, sex education programs typically do not discuss love or commitment, and rarely discuss marriage. In standard sex education classes, sex Is presented purely as a physical process with the key messages centered on how to avoid pregnancy and disease through proper use of contraception. As the top of sex education is encompassed in a health class, the curriculum is centered on maintaining and protecting the student’s physical health.
While parents cherish their children’s health, the message of safe sex is not the message parents want given to their children. They prefer a message of no sex. According to the Goby survey, “some 44 percent of parents believe that teaching bout abstinence Is more Important than teaching about contraception; another large group (41 percent) believe that abstinence and contraception should be given equal emphasis. ” Unfortunately, government spending does not support parent’s wishes as currently the government spends $4. 0 for the contraception message and only $1. 00 on the abstinence message. With funding of that magnitude behind the message of safe sex, the abstinence message will rarely be heard. Instead children will hear all the means available to have safe sex which ultimately encourages casual, non-committal sex. However, abstinence education teaches that “human sexuality is primarily emotional and psychological, not physical. ” when you have sexual relations you create a bond with your partner.
The participation In so-called casual sex can create stress and unhealthy emotional strain on a teenager, Casual sex hurts the self-esteem of an adolescent whose self worth is already in doubt. “Sexually active teens are tar more likely to be depressed and to attempt suicide than are teens who are not sexually active. ” With an abstinence program teens are informed about the basic facts of regret and depression; whereas, comprehensive sex-education orgasm do not include this information.