If you’re ever looking at the perfect example of how schools get away from teaching basic education, there’s no better example than sex education.
Right now, the Jackson County Board of Health is considering a resolution requesting the county school system to change its sex education policy to teach not just the benefit of abstinence, but also about birth control and sexually transmitted disease.
These are not issues that should be taught in school, but since kids are not learning about sex from their parents and since Georgia is among the leaders in teen births and Jackson County leads the health district in births to teenagers, the schools are being asked to step up.
Were every child blessed with responsible parents who would do the right thing, this would not be an issue. But the truth is, too many parents fail to give children the information and support they need to protect themselves. Abstinence IS the best policy; unfortunately, most teens do not choose abstinence, and those kids need to know the consequences of sexual activity and have good information about how to remain as safe as possible. The parents are abdicating this responsibility, so for the sake of public health, the schools will be asked to step in.
The teen pregnancy rate is also a factor in Georgia’s high dropout rate. Girls who become pregnant in high school often face a very difficult time graduating. Preventing pregnancy thus becomes a key component in reducing the dropout rate.
Sex education is not the only area in which schools are expected to stand in the breech. They must now counsel students on anger management, teach them about the dangers of drugs and educate them on the consequences of alcohol. Whenever a social problem arises, our school systems are made to address it because that is the one place where young people are a captive audience and can be reached en masse. All of those efforts take time and funding away from the real mandate of schools, the teaching of reading, writing, mathematics and critical thinking skills.
Sex ed, of course, comes with its own controversy. There are those who think abstinence should be the only course of action for teenagers and there are those who see the disastrous results of that policy and believe local schools should offer information on pregnancy and disease prevention to the kids who reject abstinence.
Ideally, schools shouldn’t have to teach children about sex, but because parents are not living up to their responsibilities we add sex ed to reading, writing and arithmetic in an attempt to reduce the devastating social and economic consequences of teen pregnancy. The reality is that teenagers who are sexually active need the ability to protect themselves and each other from pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Having failed to get that education at home, schools are the only venue where those children can be reached.
