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Each week, I bring you a current news article, along with my commentary, to raise your voice about. Share your thoughts on topic in the comments section below. Agreeing to disagree is always great, but please be sure to keep it respectful. Nicole Clark Consulting reserves the right to remove disrespectful, off-topic, and threatening comments.
A new study reported by Georgetown University Institute for Reproductive Health recommends that children should start receiving comprehensive sex education as early as age 10.
The study, called “Investing in Very Young Adolescents’ Sexual and Reproductive Health”, gives this recommendation from a global health perspective, highlighting the need for a more global view of harm reduction and prevention that not only benefits health professionals and researchers conducting research that will lead to better health guidelines, but can encourage more effective policies and more community involvement.
Think Progress reports that one of the fears in mandating a national standard for sex education as been in large part due to the support around “abstinence-only until marriage” programs. Coupled with the belief that teaching young people about sex and sexuality outside of the confides of marriage is wrong, there is the fear that teaching children about sex will encourage them to become sexually active sooner.
In discussion about this latest research and the fears mentioned above, Victoria Jennings, director of Georgetown’s Institute for Reproductive Health told the Chicago Tribune: “[Teaching children about sex] has to be done in the context of helping them develop healthy self-esteem and the ability to negotiate their way in the world and develop expectations for themselves and their lives that will cause them to make decisions that will lead to positive outcomes.”
Nicole’s take: Have you heard of the Real Education for Healthy Youth Act? This bill, co-authored by Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) and the late Senator Frank Launtenberg (D-NJ), was re-introduced in the 2013 congressional legislature. This bill, if passed, will set the vision for comprehensive sex education in the United States. Originally named the “Responsible Education About Life Act”, this bill has been introduced to Congress since 2001. While it receives support from other Congress leaders, families, and organizations that support comprehensive sex education, it never gets enough votes to pass both the House of Representatives or the Senate.
The REAL Act is important because, despite the latest findings from Georgetown and countless other research that proceeds it, the United States government only gives federal funding to abstinence-based sex education programs. The REAL Act can ensure that federal funding is allocated to comprehensive sexual health education programs that provide young people with the skills and information they need to make informed, responsible, and healthy decisions. Studies such as the one presented by Georgetown have the potential to revitalize the advocacy around the REAL Act, and can bring it one step closer to becoming a reality.
Also, according to the Centers for Disease Control, most American teens don’t receive formal sexual health instruction until after they’ve already become sexually active, in part due to the United States not having set national standards for comprehensive sex ed in public schools. (There are some states (18 to be exact along with Washington, DC) that require some form of sex health course in public schools.)
While the United States prides itself on being one of the most advanced countries in the world, we still continue to miss the mark when it comes to making sure that young people have the knowledge and tools needed to make healthy lie decisions. Need more proof? Here are 5 countries that get it right.
