Is Birth Control The Solution To Teen Sex?
...sexual activity have
increased among adolescents in the United States. Approximately 1
million adolescent girls become pregnant each year and 86% of all STDs
occur among persons aged 15-29 years.1 Premarital and teenage sex are
far from being a new idea. What is new is the way we deal with it.
One of the most common solutions is to distribute mass quantities
of condoms and hope for the best. Another popular technique is to tell
our kids to just say no. Abstinence is the ideal cure for this problem,
but, unfortunately, it isn't very realistic. Our society has propagated an
environment in which promiscuity is more than acceptable, it's
encouraged. Teaching our kids to cover themselves in latex is not the
answer. Neither is closing our eyes and expecting them to preserve their
virginity. Both techniques have been ineffective.
What we need is to teach our children how to say no. The
education system has taught us where everything is and how to use it.
Now we need to teach them how not to use it. Only 17 percent of girls
say that they planned their first sexual intercourse.2 This suggests that
most have sex because they don't know how to thwart sexual advances.
The first thing we need to do is teach our children to respect their bodies
at a young age. Next we need to return morality and responsibility to
the home and the classroom. One of the ways we can do this is to stress
traditional family values, promote monogamy, and return some shame to
adultery. After we have accomplished this, we need to expand or sex
education to include how not to have sex. This can be accomplished
through the use of role plays. Have students act-out a date and practice
ways to say no. The use of older student speakers would also be a very
effective tool. Lastly we need to instruct our older children in the proper
use...
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