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| M. Johnson This blog is a course practice exercise for an educational media class at the University of South Alabama. |
Teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases are continually on the rise with teenagers. Having a child or contracting a sexually transmitted disease can effect your life dramatically. Therefore, should teachers teach abstinence or contraception to decrease teen pregnancy and STDs?
I do not believe it is up to the teacher to teach about abstinence or contraception within a classroom. I think the best possible way to teach this is by bringing in an outside source that can give a presentation and leave a powerful message with the students. Also, at the same time if a student comes up to you and wants to talk about it personally, I feel like it is the right thing to do to give them a straight forward answer and refer them to a guidance counselor or a expert.
ReplyDeleteThat is a good point Ryne. In my Health Education class, I have an outside agency come in to talk to the students about sexually transmitted diseases. Neither the guest speaker, nor myself actually talk about abstinence or contraception. However, most of the time some how we do have to address the idea of STD prevention topics. Therefore, I tell students they should practice abstinence, but if they do decide they need to use protection. Furthermore, I then tell them that condoms do not protect against, herpes, genital warts, crabs, etc. Also, condoms do break and then they can become pregnant and contract and STD as well.
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ReplyDeleteI believe it is up to the school on which way the focus should be in the Health Education class. Depends as a whole on the culture background of the school community. Because they might believe more in abstinence or contraception. If I had a student come to me and ask about the subject I would focus the importance on abstinence still marriage. Because it just eliminates all the chances of getting a sexual disease. Something to try to get the point across is have a guest speaker that has been affected and has video or pictures that show the disease at work. To get the point across to the student, but i would also say movies today are making a major influence to what students think might be alright or cool.
ReplyDeleteYes, the guidance counselor would be a great person to concern that issue. However, I believe teachers bring guest speakers into the class to talk about this subject. Then if a student still have questions about the topic, the student should be directed to someone who is going to give them the best answers/information. Sometime the guidance counselor will be reluctant to talk about certain issues or situations and try to refer student to someone a student is not comfortable to share personal information/questions.
DeleteI think that this is a very touchy subject. It is important that children know the implications that could happen if they engage in sexual activity. There are so many teen pregnancies out there that I think it's important to teach children safe sex. I would like to implement abstinence but this day and age most children are having sex and we need to teach them to do so safely. The community and the teacher need to work together to come with a curriculum to teach this to appease all sides of the situation. The teacher could have people come talk to them about safe sex and the best purpose is abstinence but if they choose the other route this is how you can be safe.
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