sex ed

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1 According to a recent survey, college studentswhere confused about certain aspects of consent. 2. Accordingto the Washington Post when they asked, " What is someone undresses? Or gets acondom? Or nods in agreement? ... "at least 40% said yes it is consent and atleast 40% percent said it did not."§ ***That ambiguity is a problem because everyone needs to understand what real consentis and the importance of it. Transition: Schools focusing on so much timetelling kids to say no to sex, forget to teach students what informed and enthusiasticconsent looks like. **talkabout results on survey

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I. Thefact is that according to the CDC, Men have an average 6.6 partners and womenan average of 4.3, which means most males and females have more than one sexualpartner in their life time. II. Andaccording to the Atlantic, "...The average age Americans lose their virginitiesis 17.1..." a. So just saying "don't do it is notpracti cal" and even when schools do teach Sex Ed they can teach it with astrong bias. III. Alot of schools bring in outside sources who talk to students about the dangersof sex, which as a result just promotes abstinence. a. For example, Shelly Donahue, visitsto schools and compares women who have had sex a lot to a piece of used tapsaying that the more it's used the less it will stick/ be able to create abond. Transition: By putting such a negativeconnotation of sex in a child's head we are not preparing them for the futureand setting them up for disasters in their early sexual life if they choose topursue one. They do not understand the meaning of safe sex or something assimple as consent.

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Introduction: a. Teachingsex ed in schools is very important for obvious reasons. i. Mostparents do not want to talk about sex with their kids ii. &Most kids do not want to talk about sex with their parents iii. &kids have good questions that need good answers b. Thereis no required standard for sex ed in this country c. Only22 states and the District of Columbia require publicschools teach sex education (21 of which mandate sex educationand HIV education). http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/state-policies-on-sex-education-in-schools.aspx i. Andonly 13 states require that the instruction be medically accurate (which iscrazy) Transition: You wouldn't expect a history classto not be historically accurate so why shouldn't a class on sexual education beaccurate?

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a. According to the Washington Post,"...Congressed increased to $75 million a year finding for programs that promotesexual abstinence until marriage" i. That's an increase from $50 millionfrom the years prior b. Students are still being taughtabout practicing abstinence at school with programs such as: I. WAIT Training (Why Am I Tempted) ii. Go APE (Abstinence protects everyone) iii. Sex Ed- No screwin aroundTransition: Transition: Abstinence is a healthy choicethat many teens will make, but it should not be the only thing schools teach.

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a. For instance while in Mississippiwhere you are allowed to talk about contraceptives, according to MississippiFirst, complying with HB999 Mississippi's sex education law, "...Prohibits condomin a sex education class..." i. This is really bad because one: kidsare not taught the instruction/demonstration for properly engaging in safe sexand two: according to Mississippi Adolescent Reproductive Health Facts,"...Mississippi was ranked number 2 in highest cases of teen pregnancy" Transition:Mississippi's restrictions are just the beginning here, in 8 States there islaws limiting what teachers can say to students about homosexuality to theirstudents.

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a. Meaning that a teachers answer tothe question "is it ok to be gay", which was asked to the New York Times, couldbe a shoulder shrug or a lot worse. b. Additionally, Utah's law accordingto the Utah State Legislature Instruct in health, "...prohibits any instructionon the intricacies of intercourse.." for reasons that John Valentine, one of Utah's legislators,explain as "these are the type of things we do not want to be taught in ourschool, these are the types of things that should be taught at home". Transition: It is very rare that these uncomfortable conversations take place at home and is more reasonable for thisto be TAUGHT at school. However, the teaching at school is not being donecorrectly & although most might think abstinence is a belief of the past itis still very much around today

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a. TheNew York Times recently published an article where children wrote questions onan index card to a sex educator. i. Themost important question was "will this go well for me" and unfortunately afterdoing some research, the answer depends on where you live & since there isno requirements in this country most kids are left with unanswered questions. b. Ourpatchwork system varies widely and not just from state from state but also fromdistrict to district and even from school to school i. Infact one Ohio newscast (Fox19) tried to find out what their kids were learningand hit a brick wall. 1. " the school has no sex edguidelines so every school decides what is best for what eve kid" & of thefour public schools investigated none would tell the newscast what they teachand when they teach it even though this is all supposed to be publicinformation. c. That is really not good because twocompletely different teenagers should not have two completely differentunderstandings of sex ed just because they're in two different schooldistricts. Transition: While it is hard to find out whatkids are learning, in some cases it is possible to find out what they are notlearning.

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· When students graduation High School without a full understanding of consent orsexual education they are put into a pressuring and troubling culture withoutthe knowledge they will need to make smart decisions. There is no way we would allow any other academic program system to consistentlyprepare students to fail for life after school and human sexuality, unlike calculus,is something you actually need to know about for the rest of your life.