Is abstinence education the best way to teach sex ed?

Is abstinence the best way to teach sex ed? It is easy to argue against an abstinence only education but lets take a look at what it COULD do if it was strictly followed by teens. Pregnancy rates would drop-no sex, no pregnancy; STDs would become history for the most part-again no sex no STD transmission; feelings of rejection/hurt for having sex with someone because it is something everyone does would not be a factor in having to prove yourself to your peers. All in all a pretty easy fix to some of our societies problems...BUT...is this realistic? No, it is not. Some adolescents will try sex because the physical feelings and hormone changes are just too over whelming for them, some will be raped some will have parents that don't care if the kids have sex. In my not so humble opinion, not teaching adolescents about condoms, choices (including abstinence), and the risk of having unprotected sex is ludicrous. Not letting teens know there is a safe way to have sex and to prevent pregnancy is not only smart but shows some trust in their judgement. We can't protect our children from everything that happens but we sure can teach them how to be responsible and accountable. Give them choices and I would bet most will make a good choice with a little help from their parents.

Survey Says Fewer Teens Getting Substance Abuse Prevention Messages

Messages of anti-drug use are falling and hence few teens are seeing anti-drug use. There is also less teens participating in anti-drug related programs that were in place just a short time ago. Why? One thing that I can think of is Generational Forgetting. It is a term used in prevention geared at young people mostly. We forget how harmful things can be, hence lighten up on promoting anti-drug use, in this case, to our youth. Montana has done a great job with the Meth Project and locally here with Mariahs' Challenge. The article states that anti-drug aids "hit and miss", thus the drop in teens seeing ads and participating in activities. Parents are a vital part of this article in that it stress different things to look for, regarding abuse. The article did not include any other sort of facet a teen may be involved in, including peers, schools etc.

http://www.adolescent-substance-abuse.com/substance-abuse/survey-says-fewer-teens-getting-substance-abuse-prevention-messages.htm

Social Agression: A Girl Problem

After doing research for my debate on social aggression, I found a lot of information on girls being the bullies and victims. Every site I looked at focused on girls. Surely, boys engage in this kind of behavior too. It may be more prevalent among girls, a preferred choice of aggression, but that doesn't mean that we can ignore the other gender. Boys can suffer from it just as much as girls. In my opinion, more studies need to be done on relational aggression for both genders. Social aggression is not just a girl dilemma.

Is Bullying Learned at Home?

In this article, this study conducted suggests that the "training ground" for bullying could start at home. Siblings, particularly older brothers that act aggressively and have a tendency to bully at school, pass this down to younger brothers, more often then sisters. Conflict at home can be positive in regards to empathy caring and respect. However, it can also have an adverse effect if it is taken too far. The article states that school bullying usually is social and has groups involved, where as at home, there typically is not a group component present. Tips are given to parents on how to monitor for bullying within the home. Some of these are closer monitoring of interactions, Mediate with older brothers, especially if he has a history of bullying at school, and a few others in mediation to allow for positive interaction.

http://www.education.com/reference/article/home-environment-impacts-bullying/

Parents' smoking, drinking influence children Study: Kids' 'play behavior' shows awareness of alcohol and tobacco use

This is one of the articles that I introduced in my debate regarding parents' influencing how their kids can potentially "turn out". Not only does this suggest that parents influence their kids, but so does the media in a strong way, and at an early age. I know this is nothing that is too surprising as this has been a main train of thought for quit some time now. This article is suggesting that even more research is needed. Dr. Joe DiFranza states that the emphasis however, is on how parents influence their kids. He calls children, "Little Learning Machines",and parents need to be mindful on what kids watch, including parents behavior.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9216875/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/

Abstinence Only

After reading the article "Is Abstinence Education the Best Education?" in the class readings, I am even more against abstinence only education. Yes you should teach self-respect. Yes you should teach moral responsibility. No, you cannot expect everyone to follow an abstinence only policy. The article mention that we live in a highly sexualized environment, which is completely true. Watch 10 minutes of T.V. and you can not deny it. It is for that reason that we can't expect students to refrain from sex as they are exposed to it on a daily basis. One part of the reading that really put me against the abstinence only view is the following excerpt:

What about all the teens who will remain
sexually active despite abstinence education?
Shouldn't they becounseled to use condoms?

Obviously, if a person is going to have sex, using a condom will reduce the
chance of pregnancy and AIDS, but not
to an acceptable level. Condoms offer
no protection against many other STDs
and their long-term consequences, such
as infertility. Schools have the mission of
teaching the truth and developing right
values-which means helping students
understand why the various forms of
contraception do not make premarital sex
physically or emotionally safe and how
premature sexual activity will hurt them
now and in the future.

If abstinence education doesn't work then the students need to be taught responsibility and safety, teaching the "truth" didn't work already. I felt that the author skirted around this question. I personally side with "Abstinence, but" education

Technology Provides New Forms of Bullying

Although bullying can take place anywhere technology has laid a foundation for it to occur in far greater depths. Before children had access to technology bullying would usually only take place in a face to face content, but now the child cannot escape such harassment anymore. Bullies are able to behave in such detrimental ways via technology that it has become an epidemic. It is unclear how many children are actually bullied not only in the united states but world wide. The serious problem with bullying today, is that these individuals are not able to cope in a healthy or stablemate way. Therefore, serious illness such as depression has skyrocketed consistently.
High tech bullying has been the result of direct and indirect harassment over a longer period of time. Cyber bullying has become on of the most malicious types of harassment in today's world. It has been noted that cyber bullying has a greater so called power over their victims when compared with physical bullying. Cyber bullying is taking place so much because children have direct access to these technological devices while lacking any direct supervision. Even though cyber bullying and so called traditional bullying can have the same side effects there have often been found many more illnesses because more children have access to and take part in bullying behind closed doors. Bullying is not going to cease to end until adult figurative as well as others personnel step in and take responsibility.