Sexuality in Youth Programming

Since we will be working with adolescents in the community center, we have to think about sexual education. I would like to get more information about what the center offers in regards to sex ed, for we cannot depend on public education to properly educate adolescents on sexual health. From my internet-research (sources scholarly credibility questioned), I found that Texas law provides students with an education focusing “more attention to abstinence from sexual activity than to any other behavior” (http://www.days.org/texaslaw.html). Personally and what research studies have found, abstinence only approach is not the way to properly educate adolescents about their sexual health. Critics of comprehensive sexual education (contraceptive use) claim that providing teenagers information with options of protecting themselves will increase the number of teenagers engaging in sexual intercourse and in turn the number of abortions. I believe both of these claims to be false. Personally I was fortunate enough to receive comprehensive sexual health education (teacher mentioned both abstinence and safe sex practices) my sophomore year of high school. Let me just say frankly that after I received all that information on STDS (pictures of infected genitals) sex did not look so “clean and fun” like it is portrayed in the media. Talking about safe sex practices does not increase the desire for teens to have sex. If they have the desire to engage in sexual activity, they are probably already doing so- then why is it so bad even taboo to educate them about protecting themselves?

McKay, Alexander. "Sexual health education in the schools: Questions & answers (3^rd edition)." Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality 18.1/2 (2009): 47-60. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 2 Sept. 2010.

This is an interesting article about the approach to sexual education in Canada. The article stresses the importance of educating teens to broader sexual education, which includes “the development of a positive self-image and the integration of sexuality into rewarding and equitable interpersonal relationships” (Public Health Agency of Canada). The positive self-image (confidence) and interpersonal relationships (connections) are 2 of the Cs mentioned in Hamilton’s introduction. This shows the importance of incorporating sexual health in youth programming.