The State of Utah’s sexual-education program in public schools is designed to promote abstinence until marriage and awareness about sexually transmitted diseases. Educators are not allowed to teach about contraceptives or abortion, thus causing a lack of knowledge among teenagers that often ends in life-altering pregnancies.
This can be prevented if Utah expands sex-education curriculum. I think this would be a very important first step in bringing Utah’s teens out of ignorance and into the real world. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Utah has any intentions to change the policies.
According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 31 percent of girls become pregnant before the age of 20. This puts the United States at the highest rate of teen pregnancies in the industrialized world. Not only that, but one in four sexually active teens will contract a sexually transmitted disease.
Because Utah hasn’t done any recent studies on teen sex, it is difficult to see where the state stands. As reported by an article in the Deseret Morning News, Utah has a lower teen-pregnancy rate than the national average but is not far behind. The policy makers like to see this as proof that their system based on abstinence is working, but I theorize that the lower teen-pregnancy rate could be because teen pregnancy is highest in minorities and Utah has fewer minorities than most states. Therefore, I think a lower teen-pregnancy rate than the national average shouldn’t be cause to believe that ignorance is better than knowledge.
Nationally, two-thirds of teenagers are sexually active by the end of high school. Therefore, it’s critical that they get scholarly information about sex during that time. Because Utah teenagers are not getting their information from school, the other likely — and possibly false — sources include peers, the Internet and parents.
Some people believe that parents are the ones who should talk to their kids about sex, but many parents don’t. I think it’s wonderful if a parent can talk to his or her kid about sex, but educating our youth is up the community as a whole. Our country puts money into public education so parents can go to work instead of staying home and teaching their children. Parents shouldn’t have to be the ones teaching their kids about sex when it’s a teacher’s job to educate.
Some common rumors you might have heard about sex and sexuality include: Coca-Cola can be used as a contraceptive, STDs can only be transmitted through intercourse and the pull-out method works.
Some of these might sound silly, but I assure you that these are actual ideas that have come across teenagers and adults. With rumors such as these it’s no wonder the teen-pregnancy rate is so high. This misinformation can kill, which is why our state needs a more in-depth sexual-education program. Teaching about abstinence to students who are already sexually active isn’t going to help anyone.
