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Example research essay topic: High School Students Public School System - 2,030 words

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Talking to American kids about sex is becoming more and more difficult. In the ever-changing landscape of our westernized society, one constant is the pervasive theme of sex. From magazine covers and television to the Internet and roadside billboards, sex sells in this culture and we, as people, are constantly bombarded by sexually based messages. It is thereby understandable that children and young adults would be confused about sex; especially since the adult population has become less than open on the subject of sexuality. With parents unwilling to talk to their children, the job of educating America s youth about sexuality, and the dangers thereof, has fallen to the public school system. The same public school system that graduates students who cannot read their diplomas is, in our modern American culture, responsible for teaching children about sex.

The concern of parents and teachers alike across the country is how to best educate children on this touchy societal subject and what message should be most prominent in that process. These programs range in focus from an abstinence-only message to full discussions of sexual orientation and contraceptives and often times it depends on location of the school as to what focus the children will be subject to. This research will show, however, that our society fails to provide children with a consistent message regarding sexual development and that programs nationwide should be standardized in order to better prepare and protect young people for their sexual maturation. First it is important to understand where teenagers are coming from in order to best assess the needs of sex ed programs. As shown in Chart 1, more than half of the high-schoolers in America reported themselves as having had sexual intercourse in 1999, according to statistics published by the Centers for Disease Control. This is an increase in percentage over two years ago, however it is a decrease of over four percent since 1991.

The median age for first sexual intercourse in America was sixteen and one half years, placing the average teen in their late sophomore / early junior year at the time of their first experience with sex. Just over 8 percent of the high school population, or over sixteen percent of those reporting sexual activity during high school, said that their first experience was before they had reached the age of thirteen. At the age of thirteen, most students are in the seventh grade while many programs do not include serious discussion on the risks involved with sexual activity until later in high school. Source 1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Youth Risk Behavior Survey Chart 1 Many municipalities have been, in recent years, pushing to enact an abstinence-only message in their school s sex ed programs. Title 42 of the United States Code, the set of laws enacted that govern the nation, provides additional federal funding to schools and programs in states that promote abstinence. Even more funding can be obtained for schools that teach abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage as the expected standard for all school age children.

Four in ten teachers consider abstinence to be the most important message regarding sex education in schools and seven in ten believe that students who receive abstinence-focused education are less likely to be sexually active. States, including Virginia, Texas, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa and the District of Columbia, all take advantage of the federal funding programs and incorporate a heavy focus on abstinence in to their sexual education programs. The alarming trend, however, in abstinence education is that some sixty percent of teachers who did teach with an abstinence-only message either presented no information on contraceptives at all or taught that they were ineffective. This indicates that teachers are delivering, at best, less than all the facts in their classrooms and, at worst, a less than truthful representation of the facts that their students would need in making choices regarding their sexuality. Over ninety-three percent of public high schools in America offer some kind of course on sexuality or HIV, 510 junior and senior high schools have health clinics linked to the school and more than 300 schools have condoms available on campus. With a teen pregnancy rate more than double that of other industrialized nations and over one million teenagers becoming pregnant each year, the question of why American teens need sex education is asked and answered.

Moreover, teens have the highest rate of sexually transmitted diseases of any age group. One in four teens will contract an STD before reaching the age of twenty-one and one in four of new HIV infections each year occurs in a teen. The problem seems to be that the approach we are taking is not the most effective in reaching teens. Canada, England, France, Sweden and the Netherlands all have first intercourse ages similar to that of the United States, yet their teen pregnancy rates are at least less than half that of ours. The difference is not in the availability of contraceptives, but in the focus of the message delivered by the sex ed program.

The foreign countries listed above base their programs on openness about sex, consistent messages throughout society and open access to contraception and by doing so, have lowered the occurrence of negative sexual outcomes. In the United States, while more than ninety percent of teachers believe contraception should be taught, only half believe it should be taught beginning in seventh grade. What this means is that we are teaching children about contraception later in life than we were teaching during the 1980 s. America is taking the exact opposite approach that is being taken in other industrialized nations and, not surprisingly, is achieving opposite results.

In the state of Texas, for example, while the state promotes an abstinence-based education in schools, some 21, 752 girls under the age of seventeen gave birth in 1998; almost 13, 000 of those babies were born to people of Hispanic descent, 5, 500 to white teens and 3, 500 to black mothers. Steps are being taken in America to begin reversing this trend. In January of 2000, a new law took effect in California that requires schools teaching sex education to use medically accurate, bias-free information. Students complained that much of the information they were receiving was tainted.

Meredith Brown, a ninth-grader at Granite Bay High, said that her former teacher evaded some issues during their sex ed class. It was annoying. He would use weird words and slang terms to cover important and relevant issues, she said. While sex education is not required in California schools, it is required in twenty-two other states and the District of Columbia.

New programs initiated in California are not always successful in changing the way teenagers view sexuality. A program in the Folsom Cordova Unified district teaches students much needed information about contraceptives. However, the program does not allow students a chance to handle any of the devices and students are not shown how to properly put on a condoms. As a partial result of this and other incomplete programs, nearly 60, 000 babies were born to teenagers in California in 1998, according to the state department of health. There are, however, many programs that are proving their effectiveness in trials around the nation. Reducing the Risk, a program for high school students in urban and rural areas in California, used activities based on behavior theory to reduce unprotected intercourse.

The program either helped teens avoid intercourse all together, or stressed the use of protection; an equal partnership between abstinence and awareness. Ninth and 10 th graders attended 15 sessions as part of their regular health education classes and participated in role playing and experimental activities to build skills and self-efficacy. This program resulted in increased use of contraception among students who were sexually active and a greater proportion of students remaining abstinent after the program. Also in California, Healthy Oakland Teens (HOT) works to target 7 th graders attending a junior high school in Oakland, CA.

Teachers cover basic sex and drug education, while upper-class peer educators lead discussion and exercises based on values, communication and decision making processes. After one year, students in the program were much less likely to initiate sexual activities such as deep kissing, genital touching, and sexual intercourse. Elsewhere in the country, Postponing Sexual Involvement, a program for African-American 8 th graders in Atlanta, GA, used peers to help youth understand social and peer pressures to have sex, and to develop and apply resistance skills. Part of the program also taught about human sexuality, decision-making, and contraceptives. This program successfully reduced the number of abstinent students who initiated intercourse after the program, and increased contraceptive use among sexually experienced females. Each of the programs, as outlined in the article Does Sex Education Work, focuses on abstinence and protection simultaneously.

The program does not take the approach that only abstinence should be taught, because that neglects the fifty percent of high-school students who choose to partake in sexual intercourse before graduation. Based on twenty-three studies conducted around the country, there are several characteristics that make a sex education program successful. First, programs must focus on reducing the risky behavior that leads to STD infection and pregnancy. Contraceptive usage is stressed here, along with refraining from sexual activity. It should not be assumed that teens not taught about contraceptives will seek out that knowledge on their own and so, while reminding students that abstinence is the only proven risk-free option, the importance of contraceptives and their proper usage are taught.

Another factor of a successful program is the modeling and extensive practice in communication, negotiation and refusal skills. In this element, teens are taught how to talk to their partners about willingness to engage in sexual activity and their expectations regarding protection and usage. It is also stressed to teens that it is alright for them to refuse sex, noting that their body is their own and no other person or group should ever influence or force them to do something against their will. These programs also focus on diluting the messages of the media in regards to sex. Finally, a successful program helps to reinforce appropriate societal values in regards to unprotected sex that can strengthen the values of the individual. This strengthening also helps to develop group norms that put a high priority on sexual protection.

Sex education in the United States continues to be an important part of the American culture. Parents and teachers can not afford to pretend that students are not going to have sex. As the results show from Texas, where abstinence is the message, that message is not getting through and it is resulting in 20, 000 teen pregnancies carried to full term. Foreign countries are talking to their children about sex and the message is getting through because it is being handled in a mature and open manner. It is not considered the taboo topic that it is here in America. Sadly, it seems that the American culture has taken a step backwards in sexual evolution; now wanting to delay discussing sex with teens almost to the point where they will have already had their first experience.

Sex education in America, to properly and effectively prepare teens, must have a standardized message and philosophy that dispels media influences while teaching abstinence and protectionism side by side. The results from programs that have taken this approach are clear in their verification that these programs do work. Teens who are going through these programs are coming out better prepared for the confusing world of sexuality and, based on the data, these are programs that more teens need. While sometimes values blur our judgement, the reality is crystal clear in that teens need to be dealt with openly and honestly. Not using slang or descriptive words, using straight-forward terminology that will better their sexual development.

In the battle to end unwanted teen pregnancies and fight the spread of STD s, sex education is our best weapon. Teens need to have all the information, so that when they make a decision, it will be a smart and healthy one that they can be comfortable with.


Free research essays on topics related to: public school system, high school students, parents and teachers, centers for disease control, district of columbia

Research essay sample on High School Students Public School System

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