Dear Planned Parenthood
My name is Viviann and I am a junior in high school. I finished my Health credit my freshman year, and TBH.
Health class can be so much more than what it is. From what I remember, our class went over the average “what is wellness,” how the body works physically and how addictive substances affects those processes. After learning the basics, we went over the actual sex education. Might I digress by saying the teacher I had was clearly uncomfortable with the subject, he had even stated this himself. So in his plan to teach his students, he had other people from different sex education organizations come relay the information to us.
Don’t misunderstand though, these organizations were professional and had worked to teach young adults all over the states. They taught various topics: healthy relationships, abusive relationships, STD’s and treatments for them, pregnancy and what to do, etcetera. The overall experience was average, but could be improved into something of higher-quality. It may depend on opinion, but the type of Sex ED I would like to see for the future begins with comfortable acceptance of the material. Having an educator comfortable teaching both male and female students would eliminate the stereotype that sex is a taboo subject that even adults feel awkward about. If you are going to teach impressionable teens about the many elements of sex, you must establish that you don’t only have ex have expertise in the subject, but that you also encourage students to want to learn more about sex and be able to feel comfortable asking questions.
This would ultimately decrease the number of teens who go out and “try things for themselves,” because they felt uncomfortable asking. It may also be beneficial to remove unconscious bias from more radical teachers. The unconscious bias that sex should be saved for after marriage. I hear complaints from my peers all the time about their health teachers who remind them incessantly to not have sex until they’re married or that they don’t really teach anything else other than abstinence. Teenagers are going to experiment one way or another, demanding that they don’t have sex isn’t likely to work.
Rather, having more teachers show the effects and preventions for STDs and pregnancy is more appropriate. Teachers more aware of the fact that sex is a natural thing among everyone and is it more likely to happen than not is the most useful way to educate. Extra food for thought, it would be interesting and possibly very helpful for schools to start implementing LGBT aspects into health education as well. Seeing as how America has already legalized same-sex marriage, we can only continue our progress as an equal nation. Teaching teens about the definitions and acceptance over what gays, lesbians, and bisexuals are would be something truly of the future.
