Chioma Moronu
English 1301
Mrs. Kinkead
November 30, 2008
Comprehensive Sex Education in School
As demonstrated in the 2004 election, the federal government has recently increased support of more conservative social policy. In the last decade, this conservativeness has increased the number of restricted sex-education programs being taught in federally funded public schools. Every once in awhile the media bombards the public with information on how public schools in America, especially the poorly resourced schools of the inner-cities, are failing to teach students necessary math, writing or reading skills. However the media rarely informs the public that despite confirmed social beliefs about equal education, constitutionally protected separation of church and state, and public awareness of the prominence of sex in the media, the government continues to increase funding for abstinence-only sex education programs in hopes of reducing teenage pregnancy rates and STD/HIV infection rates.
There has been several organizations that have been recommending schools to teach comprehensive sex education including, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Academy of Sciences. Comprehensive sex education programs not only teach students that remaining abstinent is the best way to protect themselves but students also receive information about birth control, contraceptives, and how to prevent pregnancy and reduce the spread of sexually transmitted diseases(STD). However, federal legislation has been funding programs with an opposite agenda, abstinence only programs. (Landry 261). These abstinence-only programs became increasingly popular in 1998, however legislation for abstinence-only programs started in the 1990s. In 1996, Title V, a junior provision of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) was passed which put substantial money behind what is known as “abstinence education.”...