J. Clarence
Jul 27, 2017 · 2 min read

Quite a lot obviously. It is easy to just tell a teenager not to have unprotected sex; however, if all you ever needed to do was tell someone not to do something and they in fact did not do that we would live in a different world.

The simple fact of the matter is teenagers are after puberty are developing into sexual beings, and they are going to want to have sex, and, if they are able to give consent, that is an aspect of the human experience that we shouldn’t be surprised or shock they engage in or have genuine questions about. At issue is making sure that they are educated about safe sex practices, including abstaining from sex but also engaging in it, and the possible ramifications of sex, both the good and bad, so that they can make — wait for it — educated decisions about what is best for them.

Look, we have been here before, and we know what happens when we go down the route of abstinence only education: teens do not get the information that they need, and they engage in behavior based on misinformation and they face terrible consequences for it, with any and everything ranging from unplanned pregnancies to STI infections.

There’s a lot about sex that we human beings instinctively will not know as we develop into sexual beings. We as adults have a responsibility to teach them about what they need to know rather than what we merely want them to know. The fact that talking to teens about sex makes us feel icky is irrelevant. It’s like teaching a teenager how to cook or do their laundry, do you real think they are better served if we tell them to just wait until they are married to figure it out.

We have the unique ability to prepare our young on how to properly make informed decisions about how they are feeling, and instead a large segment of the population would rather stick their heads in the sand and spread misinformation or unrealistic information just so that they can sleep better at night.

It would be one thing if this antiquated ideology actually proved to be effective, but it never has been, and probably never will be, and yet it persists as an actual supposedly respectable policy position, when it in fact should be thrown out the window like most policies adopted by social conservatives , especially when it comes to education.

J. Clarence

Written by

Amateur Wonk. Free-Market Progressive. DC resident. Policy and politics lover. Doughnut aficionado.