Maria Garay

Beth Bailey
English 2010
March 31, 2015
Sex Education
Isnt it interesting to say that nearly one million teen girls get pregnant each year? Nearly
four out of ten young women get pregnant at least once before they turn 20. How each year the
federal government alone spends about $40 billion to help families that began with a teenage
birth. How approximately four in ten adolescents between the ages of fifteen and seventeen
report that they are sexually active. How one in two sexually active young people will get an
STD by the age of 25.
The U.S. has the highest rates of teen pregnancy, birth, and abortion in the industrialized
world. In fact, the U.S. teen pregnancy and birth rates are nearly double Canada's, at least four
times those of France and Germany, and more than eight times that of Japan. We are the leading
Country in teen pregnancy! This means we have more sexual activity going on between
adolescence, it also means that we are at a higher rate of having common STDs. It can be more
than one thing, they could be pressured into doing it, they could be raped, and they could have
been intoxicated. There are hundreds of possibilities of why we have the highest rates in teen
pregnancies. From my point of view the most important reason why we are the number one
leading in teen pregnancy in the world is due to the lack of education. We avoid talking about
sex and STDs, we feel uncomfortable talking about it due the fact that we arent used to doing it.

These are all things that are going on around the world, and if we dont do anything about
them and educate people (especially adolescence) about whats going on, this situation will keep
getting worse. We will have increased numbers of teen pregnancies and STDs every year. Next
thing you know the human species will be extinct due to an STD, such as AIDS. All because
were werent educated on how to be safe, how to prevent STDs, and how to tell someone you
are being sexually active and infected without feeling scared or judged. That is a huge problem
that we have, many people infect other people due to the fact that they are afraid of telling their
sexual partner that they are infected. They keep it to themselves and not say anything, this
becomes a problem because then they can potentially affect their partner.
They could avoid infecting someone else if they knew how to properly deal with it and
tell their partner and how to avoid from infecting someone else if able. We need to extend the
way teachers teach about Sex and STDs, make it something that is not only recommended but
something that is required. It has to be a required class in order to graduate, and make it
specifically on Sex education, not on "health". Yes health does cover the subject but it does not
go into broad detail of the subject. They do it quick and easy, this is cause of the fact that people
dont want to feel uncomfortable talking about it. It is a part of life, it happens every day; its a
way of life. War is part of life and it happens every day, it may not be in everyones life but it is
there and we're taught about it, specially, with dates and details. So why not do that with sex?
When it happens more often than war does, where its all around us, where we were created by it!
I guarantee that if we were to educate every student on what could happen, how it
happens, how to prevent STDs. We would have rates of teen pregnancy and STDs going down
drastically. Pregnancy is very common amongst teens, but STDs are common amongst everyone,
they are everywhere and are spreading like a wild a fire. The National Overview of STDs in

2010 reported that there were a total of 1,307,893 cases of the STD Chlamydia infection reported
to the Center of Disease Control (CDC). This is the largest number of cases ever reported to the
CDC for any condition! Chlamydia by region during 2001-2010 rates increased in every region.
In 2010 we had a total of 309,341 gonorrhea cases in the United States. A rate of 100.8 cases per
100,000 population. In 2010 a total of 13,774 cases of P&S Syphilis were reported to CDC.
These numbers will continue to increase if we do not make a change and inforce sex
education in all schools. "Sex education should be continued to be supported in formal settings,
such as schools, and to be the most effective, should occur before youth engage in sexual
intercourse for the first time."- Trisha Mueller In the article "Sex Ed Works" they talk about how
it doesn't matter what kind of sex education teens or kids are receiving anything is helpful and it
is more likely for them to participate in safer sex when they choose to, meaning they would use
birth control. Where as if they were never informed or taught how to be safe "if" it were to
happen they wouldn't be safe and that would cause an accidental pregnancy.
Another problem that happens is we start getting a lot of teen drop outs because of
pregnancy, the woman commonly drops because they start taking care of the baby and they can't
deal with the stress of going to school, doing homework and taking care of a baby. Another
reason they drop out when they get pregnant is because they need to get a job to take care of the
baby and do what they can to support the baby they choose to work rather then get an education.
A study done by WYMAN says that 1 in 3 moms have neither a diploma or a G.E.D. because
they couldn't do it.
We could change all of these problems like teen pregnancies, STD's, and drop outs if we
enforced some sort of sex education in every school. It would help graduation rates increase,

prevent STDs and teen pregnancies would drop drastically. This would benefit everyone in a
better way. We need to open our eyes and face reality and provide a better education system to
help the innocent protect their future because if we don't it will only get worse. Like they say,
"Curiosity killed the cat", we don't want any of this to happen to the kids now and in future
generations because of curiosity. So let's make a change and go sex ed!