Comprehensive education

July 06, 2008 06:18 pm

— Oklahoma should see what many other states are seeing, that teens need comprehensive sex education.
A recent national story reported that about half of the states are now refusing to receive any federal funding for abstinence education. The funding began in 1996, but as of Oct. 1, only 26 will continue to receive the money for the program that only teaches teens they should wait for sex until marriage.
Teenagers should be taught abstinence, but all teens don’t wait. They also need to hear about contraception and the prevention of disease.
Oklahoma’s teen pregnancy rate has fallen over the last few decades, and abstinence-only education probably has had something to do with that, but the message doesn’t reach all teens or a significant enough number of them and Oklahoma still ranks eighth among states in the rate of teen pregnancy.
Some will say that teaching contraception alongside abstinence sends a mixed message to teens and young adults, but that ignores the fact we live in a sexually hyped society, with sexually charged television shows and ads, movies and magazines bombarding youths every day.
Young men and women should have children when they are ready to commit themselves to taking care of children and are as financially and psychologically prepared for children as possible. Instead, too many teens and young adults in the United States are entering motherhood and fatherhood sorely prepared for the task.
The states that are dropping out of the abstinence-only program drop out sometimes because they don’t have the matching funds for it, but also because it isn’t the best program and they are having to deal with problems, such as children living in poverty and child abuse, that can be attributed to immature, unprepared parents.