I remember sex ed in middle school. The instructor used a Snickers bar to demonstrate casual sex. She had one person take a bite of one end and another bit the other end. She then told someone else to take a bite. He chose the middle, which defeated the purpose of the exercise. Supposedly, this was supposed to teach us that when you have sex with one person, you’ve had sex with everyone they slept with.
The instructor proceeded to tell us to follow abstinence. Abstinence is a great lesson, but it’s impossible to stop teenagers from having sex. While abstinence should be talked about, birth control options must be explained.
Most teens know what a condom is from locker room talk and television. Other birth control methods are, more often than not, a mystery. I learned about sponges, pills, IUDs and spermacide through independent research. Schools can teach facts about birth control methods without delving into whether teens should have sex or not.
By withholding birth control facts from teens, they are left uninformed. We live in a sex-fueled society. Instead of putting our teens at risk for pregnancy and STDS, we should inform them of their options. If more teens used birth control, there would be less teen pregnancies.
