Why is it that Americans only teach abstinence to teens? It obviously isn’t working, because teens are still getting pregnant. In fact America has the highest teen pregnancy rate out of all developed nations. Per every 1,000 girls age 15 – 19 there are 52.1 teen pregnancies in America. Compare this to 2.9 in Korea, 4.6 in Japan, 6.2 in the Netherlands, 7.9 in Spain, 9.3 in France, 13.1 in Germany, and 20.2 in Canada. The closest developed nation is the United Kingdom with 30.8, still 21.3 fewer pregnancies.
Bases upon these numbers there is obviously something wrong with how Americans are taught about sex. We “teach” abstinence, but we know it isn’t working, if it was working we wouldn’t have so many pregnant teens. What we should be teaching to today’s teens is that you should wait to have sex, but if you aren’t going to take some precautions. Teaching teens about the “pill” and condoms can have a real impact on the number of teens who get pregnant.
My freshman year of high school I did a project about the difference between American and European drug use, alcohol consumption, and teen pregnancies. What I found out while doing my research is that in Europe sex is not a taboo subject, and I know this to be true having been there before. Teens are of course are encouraged to wait to have sex until they are more mature, but Europeans have realized that everyone has sex, it is a part of life, and when you are a teenager with raging hormones you aren’t thinking in the moment. So if you give them the information about safe sec practices, encourage them to be on the “pill” and use condoms if they are going to have sex then when it comes time to do it, they will use a condom.'
So what reforms would I suggest to how American teens are taught about sex?
1. Tell them to wait
2. If they aren’t going to wait, tell them to use some sort of birth control
3. Teach them how to obtain and properly use birth control
All of my numbers came from, http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/repcard3e.pdf , I imagine that these are fairly accurate because it is Unicef.
I feel as if you can say what you want and try to teach something until you die but teenagers are going to do what they want. I am only 18 and I grew up basically without a mother and a father. My mother always chose drugs over her children, and I gues my dad felt as if he was to good for me or something. Everyone thought I was going to be wild, have a baby by the age 18, because my mom had two at the age 18. Everyone though I smokedd weed at the age of 16 and that I was having sex. HA HA, I was never doing any of that. All I did was go to school, do my homework, do afterschool programming, go to my friends house sometimes and that was it. So that makes me realize it's really not about the teaching because I was never told not to do this and not to do that.... I just knew by myself and I knew I didnt want to end up like everyone said. Today I am working, going off to college in January, and I dont do drugs, never tried them and I have NO kids, except the children I babysit!
I think you missed my point completely. You also sound like a very rareexception, who set out to prove everyone wrong, and I applaud you for that. The point I was trying to make is that when teens are educated about safe sex techniques, the probablilty of pregnancy goes down. The reason America has such a high teen pregnancy rate is that we only teach abstinence. Teaching teens about safe sex isn't encouraging them to have sex, hormones are doing that, it acknowledges that fact that teens are going to have sex, and that they need to know how to protect themselves.
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