Sex education in schools falls short: #tellusatoday

Nearly half of the 20 million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases each year occur in young people between the ages of 15 and 24, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Letter to the editor:

Some say that the church leaves sex education up to the schools, and the schools leave it up to the parents, who spend most of their time trying to make enough money to just feed and shelter their children (“Pregnancy rate, STD stats show sex ed in U.S. not working”).

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Unfortunately, schools have taken a negative approach to sex education and have failed. Sex has become the symbol of ultimate fulfillment, from a personal, selfish objective. It has become the key to selling everything from automobiles to some drugs. The nude body, nature’s most beautiful form, is promoted as dirty and sinful. In reality, sex is God’s gift to his human hosts to participate in the miracle of reproduction.

Let us take a positive approach to sex and accept it as it is, and end the negative approach of “purity,” or, God forbid, the unbearable yoke of abstinence.

Eugene Whitney; Chula Vista, Calif.

Pregnancy rate, STD stats show sex ed in U.S. not working

Comments from Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:

Not teaching our children about their bodies results in unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

Give them good, factual information, and they at least have a chance to make better decisions. Should they wait until they are married? Yes, they should. Will they? Maybe. If you don’t give them the information, you guarantee ignorance.

— Brian Kindel

The problem is that we rely on schools to teach sex education. Our nanny state has only so much time to spend on this. Solid families would help.

— Steve Macy

Sex ed isn’t working because it is being taught in a moral vacuum. They’re teaching condom use but not responsibility, consent, relationships or waiting until you’re mature enough.

— Linda Ellis

Why should sex education work? It’s like giving young kids a how-to manual. You’re basically saying: “Now don’t do this, but here is what you do.”

— Gary Lee

We should be educating children on how to be safe when they have sex. And I don’t just mean schools; parents, too.

— Dennis Smith

We asked our followers how to improve sex education in U.S. schools. Comments from Twitter are edited for clarity and grammar:

Teach from the reality that teens are going to have sex; get rid of the notion sex is bad. This would be a good start.

— @vanessa49071

The religious community warned of this but was ignored by the godless left. Mistakes harm real people.

— @terryhoffman191

Make birth control accessible to everyone, give out free condoms everywhere and fund Planned Parenthood.

— @ayyetacos

Allow religious schools to preach their faith but require public schools to teach sex education to reduce harm!

— @ccbelltowski

For more discussions, follow @USATOpinion or #tellusatoday.