Sex Education in Schools

The concept sex education in schools has been a topic of concern in American education for many years and is constantly a subject of intense debate. Throughout the years sex education has been discussed in nearly all aspects of American society, starting from classrooms to boardrooms and finally up to the Supreme Court. Regardless of all the commotion caused from the idea of sex education, the support for school based sex education is now higher than it has ever been. Recent polls suggest that 93 percent of all Americans support sex education in high schools, with 84 percent accepting its usefulness in colleges. Also, it was found that 89 percent of Americans support the idea to provide information and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and also that, it would be useful to concentrate on how to avoid unplanned pregnancies and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV infection and AIDS. Further studies have shown that more than 90 percent extended support to ten out of the fifteen topics selected and the support for the rest was between 76 percent and 88 percent. This earlier unseen support for sex education in schools should act as a motivation for American schools to act upon it. (School-Based Sex Education: A New Millennium Update)
This does not imply that all Americans agree on the type of sex education that is best suited for their children. The major area of conflict is generally focused on abstinence-only education and these are heavily supported by federal government funds. Though only 15 percent of Americans prefer abstinence-only sex education, it is taught as sex education in almost 30 percent of public middle and high schools. This despite the fact that most Americans would like to have a broad based sex education curriculum, which includes topics like how babies get made, how to use condoms and how to get screened for sexually transmitted diseases. Another area of controversy is whether family planning clinics and doctors should...