Guest MINDSETTER™ Jane Zhang: Schools Need Birth Control Education
Saturday, September 29, 2012
As taboo as it might remain to openly discuss sex, one of the larger social debates that America witnesses involves sex.
Birth control pills rolled into reality in the 60’s. Roe vs. Wade dominated headlines in the 70’s. Nowadays, whereas some schools teach only 100% abstinence others include contraception. With MTV’s paying teenage mothers thousands of dollars to be on “16 and pregnant” along with appearances on the cover of People Magazine, no wonder young adolescents think it’s okay to engage in sexual intercourse even if they are not ready to fully accept the consequences of such an action. Over the summer, a young woman, 24 years old and already on her 6th pregnancy, presented to a local clinic for a routine pregnancy checkup. She never completed high school, was working a minimum wage job, and living on welfare. Her other two children, playing in the waiting area, were rather unkempt. Fathers of the babies were not involved.
One of the greater embarrassments in our education system is the lack of birth control education. Sure, it is the parents’ responsibility to teach their kids sex education but when they’re working long hours to foot the bills or are barely involved in caring for their children, schools must shoulder some responsibility. The purpose of education is not just to enlighten us academically, but to also make us socially responsible and accountable.
Yes, schools do have health classes that include sex education; however, research from the Guttmacher Institute indicates that 4 in 10 sex education teachers do not teach their students about contraceptives at all or teach that contraceptives are not effective. In the state of RI, according to Advocates for Youth, 39% of high school students did not use a condom during last sexual intercourse. Condoms are cheap, 99% effective and extremely inexpensive compared to the cost of raising a newborn.
This past summer, a fellow 16 year-old Rhode Islander wept because the boyfriend who had fathered her baby and who had promised to care for her and their child left while she was still recovering in the hospital post-partum. There were only so many resources the hospital could offer her. And there was a man in his early 30s, who had HIV/AIDs complicated by tertiary syphilis. Throughout conversations with hospital staff members, he remained in denial of his dismal prognosis and the fact that the syphilis had overtaken his brains. He likely won’t live past his 40s.
Currently Rhode Island requires that schools have comprehensive sex education, and that programs underscore abstinence, but there remains no requirement for condom and contraception education. It’s not, however, illegal to teach the latter. Home economics and government gets taught in school, so why not improved sex education? Curiosity gets the best of us, and abstinence isn’t always the solution. Abstinence in addition to contraceptive education should be mandated across the state. Of course nothing is 100% effective but anything is better than nothing. Shouldn’t society shield its citizens from the dismal consequences of sexually transmitted diseases? Shouldn’t society prevent unplanned pregnancies resulting in unwanted babies who might never receive the full love and resources they deserve?
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Comments:
tom brady
7:17am on Saturday, September 29, 2012
OK Jane
pearl fanch
8:14am on Saturday, September 29, 2012
No, schools don’t need to teach about birth control.
They don’t need to teach about sex education.
These are things that fall under the heading of FAMILY VALUES, and should be taught at home, by the FAMILY.
After all, when a high school girl comes home pregnant, it’s not the school that suffers from it. It’s that girl’s life that is virtually over, and it’s her family that suffers through the pain.
What schools SHOULD be teaching kids, is how to balance a checkbook.
How to stay away from credit cards. How to handle spending, saving.
There are so many kids (young adults) who have NO CLUE about finances. They leave school / college with thousands of dollars (sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars) in debt, with no possible way of ever getting out.
Ed Jucation
8:27am on Saturday, September 29, 2012
Here's some birth control education for you Jane. If Rhode Island would STOP encouraging teen pregnancy by awarding them extensive free social services then the teen pregnancy rate would go down. Get pregnant you receive: welfare, an apartment, free medial and prescriptions, WIC ,food stamps, etc. Taxpayers should not be footing the bill for these low-lifes. If they are immigrants, deport them and their families. The next step would be to sterilize them so no more kids.
Believe it or not, some women come to RI simply to get pregnant and receive benefits. Kids aren't stupid, they know how to NOT get pregnant but some simply choose to.
Not Telling
10:13am on Saturday, September 29, 2012
Why don't we just put condom machines in the bathrooms and have the school nurse dispense birth control pills? The school systems should pay for it too!
What ever happened to family values?
Where I work, my secretary's daughter just had a baby out of wed lock and like her MOTHER is collecting benefits and section 8 housing. Now her other daughter is jealous and went and got herself pregnant as well.
I agree if the state would stop the benefits package that we hand out like candy that many more teenagers and single (men and women) would think twice about having children before they can afford them. Why do I have to keep supporting children that I did not conceive?
Like Mr. Romney said, 47% of the people don't pay takes and the other 53% support them.
Leave birth control and contraceptive to the parents to teach.
Wuggly Ump
9:26am on Sunday, September 30, 2012
Sorry Jane, The schools shouldn't have to shoulder the responsibility of teaching what needs to be taught at home. Parents need to be responsible for for making their children "socially responsible and accountable. Actions have consequences.
I agree with Pearl, Ed, and Not.