Teenagers are already under a great uncontrollable pressure due to the new hormones flowing through their bodies. Although many believe intercourse should be avoided until finding a significant other bound for life by marriage, it is still important for adolescents to be informed about this new experience. Sex Education is a very important part of maturing from a teenager to an adult, but it is it always beneficial to you? There are many pros and cons of learning about this at such a young age.

Sex Education is a pivotal moment in a teens growing years. It is a chance for students to learn proper safety techniques in order to prevent not only teen pregnancies, but also sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s) or HIV, AIDS. Studies show, “Males attending school who had received sex education were also more likely to use birth control the first time they had sexual intercourse,” stated www.sciencedirect.com/; however they also explain, “no associations were found among females between receipt of sex education and birth control use. These patterns varied among sociodemographic subgroups.” One reason that some prefer to use birth control and others stray away is due to the fact that although this one protection method does protect women from unplanned pregnancy, it can not protect anyone from getting an sexually transmitted disease or a virus. Birth control however, is not the only protection method;  there are many other ways to stay safe from both unwanted situations. A very well-known way to protect one’s self during intercourse is the use of a condom which provides a layer between body-to-body contact. This is not completely reliable though, so a smart decision made between intimate couples is the use of both condoms and birth control. However as taught in most health classes, “Abstinence is the best option.” People are extremely vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases studies have shown that “In 2015, a total of 229,715 babies were born to women aged 15–19 years, for a birth rate of 22.3 per 1,000 women in this age group,” stated www.cdc.gov. This just goes to show what can happen without having sex education in school.

Although there are many benefits of having sex education in your highschool years, it can also have its downsides. Sex education, if not taught properly can lead students to believe that intercourse before marriage is encouraged just because they are learning about it. Some people think that sex education gives students the knowledge of safe intercourse with partners making them possibly believe that they should participate in these acts as well. This is not the case whatsoever. Sex education is meant to teach the dangers of sex, but students might look at what they are taught in different perspectives. “AIDS led to two modifications: Teaching students to practice “safe [or “safer”] sex” through the use of barrier contraception; and grafting an abstinence message onto the old comprehensive model” stated http://www.ascd.org. This could send students mixed signals about what sex education is trying to portray about the lessons. People tend to say that sexual encounters for adolescents are inevitable.  However sex education nowadays is not only teaching the dangers of intercourse, but they are also teaching safe ways to avoid those dangers. Although this seems like it would be positive, it allows students to believe they can practice safe sex before marriage.

Although there are many cons of sex education in schools, premarital intercourse among teens is almost inevitable. Therefore, receiving sex education in the adolescent years is very beneficial but not always effective. Sex education should not be removed from schools curriculum, but there should be another approach as to how it is taught.