Updating Sex Ed Programs With New Federal Funding

Bring up the topic of sex and it can be an awkward subject to discuss. It’s regarded as something intimate or simply recreational; it could be a controversial taboo or just a natural part of life and relationships. Whatever your view is on sex, the truth is, we all are eventually exposed to sex and the decisions, precautions and consequences that come along with it. As children we are curious about a lot of things and naturally sex becomes one of them. Seen as a step backwards for some but more like a step forward for others, a shift away from preaching the abstinence-only message in the classrooms is underway. I remember sex education while I was in school.
 
The videos that told us about our anatomy, menstrual cycles, certain emotions we’d begin feeling for the opposite sex which were received with awkward giggles and blank stares more than as influential words of guidance on the subject. As we got older but still needed parents signatures to sit through sex-ed day or sex-ed week, we pretty much knew all about our body parts then, what they did and what we could use them for. But then it became the “say-no-to-sex” answer to our sexual curiosities that became just as awkward and really mostly outdated as a message that truly hit home or detoured a generation from experimenting with sex. I figured this much because I remember seeing girls pregnant and dropping out of school as early as 7th grade up until I graduated high school. If outdated-ness on the abstinence message was something I and obviously other teens were feeling back in the early 90’s, I can only imagine what kids today think about that message.
 
Earlier this month msnbc.com reported that the federal government is, for the first time in over a decade, funding sex education programs that aren’t solely based on abstinence. According the article “beginning this school year, a five-year, $375 million grant is being divided among 28 programs that have been proven to lower the pregnancy rate among participants, no matter their focus.” What that essentially means is while safe sex is being promoted within these programs (i.e. using condoms and birth control), so are topics like improving teens’ academics, encouraging involvement in extracurricular activities and even helping improve parents’ job statuses.
 
The 28 qualifying programs approved by the Department of Health and Human Services had to be supported by at least one study showing a positive, statistically significant effect on at least one of the following categories: sexual activity, contraceptive use, sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy or births. The Carrera Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program is one such initiative getting HHS funding. Birth control is handed out as part of the agenda but students are also receiving music classes, field trips, tutoring, free medical and dental care and much more. An interesting highlight in this program is that parents who may have been teen mothers themselves can get help through the program, including resume tips, mortgage advice and high school equivalency classes. The article is filled with many good points and ideas of how to help enhance sex education. The link is provided below if you’d like to find out more details.
 
Sex, like everything else in life is complicated. There isn’t just one way to explain it, one answer to preventing and educating kids to deal with it and it’s more than just the school's job to inform children what it’s all about. Like the program aims to do with its multifaceted approach, helping children makes sense of what to do when they reach that sexually curious adolescence is a combination of parents’ guidance, teachers' lessons, peer influences, media projection and a number of other factors in their surroundings. Common sense has continually pointed to kids not taking the abstinence rule to heart, so why not arm them with more well-rounded information and options along the way when it comes to sex. Knowledge is power right?
 
Original article link: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39457080/ns/health-sexual_health