This is 2016, a generation of culturally diverse teenagers all living side by side as one. They are friends with every race and religion freely, no one contemplates the social image they would receive being their companion as they would in the 1950s. They are many social structures that America has grown out of since the recent century, but also many they have not. You would like to think that schools would move out of the past and accept what going on, but unfortunately, you're wrong.
Going into high school, many schools force a sexual education class on their students. They are taught about drug use and what it can do to you, how you can get a sexually transmitted disease and how it will affect your life, how and what will happen if you get pregnant, and other things along that line. What students aren't being taught is how they can prevent themselves from getting STDs and getting pregnant. Schools do not allow their health teachers to teach students about contraceptives, and in some cases, if the teacher chooses to speak about them, they can be fined or even lose their job. School health curriculum's are outdated and uninformative.
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A large portion of school in the United States have an abstinence-based policy in which they teach students the only way to protect themselves from STDs and pregnancy is through abstinence. Obviously this isn't true but since parents have a say in what their kids learn, they are taught solely on abstinence. There are two sides to the argument of the curriculum. Some parents say they wouldn't want their children learning about contraceptives because it could influence them to have sex. On the other hand, other parents understand that their child may not be comfortable talking to them about such things and in fact, would want their child's teacher informing them. Conservative parents will refuse to say that their child will or has had sex in high school while other parents understand how common it is.
Students who are taught abstinence will still have sex either way, but they will not have the proper education they need so it can be harmful. If students were taught about contraceptives they would be less likely to contract an STD or become pregnant. High school students often aren't comfortable talking to their parents about these types of things so having a teacher at school that they could talk to would be beneficial to them.
Abstinence based, health curriculums do nothing for students but leave them curious. They are going to have sex and there is nothing anyone can do to change that. Health curriculum's are outdated even for the 1950s and the fact that that isn't being talked about is ridiculous. Whether you're in high school or not, you can probably remember being a teenager. This needs to be addressed in schools and changed.
