During the teenage years every boy and girl undergo major changes in the body that most of the time need explaining. This underscores one of the most evident reasons for sexual education being taught to students. Sex education can help children to cope with the many changes caused by the onset of puberty. One such example is a female's first menstruation and the uneasiness they feel. If this girl had been informed of this change prior to its onset, then her ability to accept and understand it would be

as adults and carry out what they were taught. Teenagers appreciate when adults treat them as

Schools." Online. Netscape. 28 March 1998.

"Board refuses restriction on sex education in schools." Associated Press. February 1996:

Euchner, Charlie. "The Vatican Endorses Sex Education in Schools." Teacher Magazine.

Much of the typical family structure in the United States and many other places in the world have deteriorated over the last century. A good portion of parents today are divorced and many of the families that haven't experienced divorce live with both parents working full time jobs. Families today aren't like the family on "Leave It to Beaver," a sitcom that aired in the sixties; the mother isn't home all day baking and making sure that the house is clean. Since family structure has changed, so have the way children are being raised. Society cannot count on all parents to instill morals into their children and teach them the facts of life or even the difference between right and wrong these days. Parents just don't have the time for it. Recently the Vatican released a document stating that " parents alone cannot give children the positive sex education they need to develop healthy attitudes towards sex" (Euchner). Another view on the subject taken by the Nebraska Public School system is that sex education in today's society is to complicated to be left to "the varying influences of parental attitudes and haphazard environmental exposure" (Chaumont et al.). Besides, even if the parent were around more often then not, the chances of a child approaching their parent about the "bird and the bees" is very unlikely. These children need to have a place were the information on this touchy subject is provided to them without them needing to ask. "Kids don't go asking their parents, this is the only way for them to find out answers because they are to embarrassed to ask anyone else," says Pallodino, and eighteen-year-old from Virginia. (O'Hanlon B8). In order for children to grow up with the correct information regarding sex, it is necessary to have sex education provided to them in schools.

Teenage sexual activity has been raising steadily for more than two decades until now. A recent survey shows the first drop since the nineteen seventies. In 1990 girls that had engaged in sexual intercourse was at fifty-five percent, until 1995 when it dropped to fifty percent. The percentage of boys engaging in sexual intercourse also dropped by five percent. The use of condoms have tripled since the 1970's showing people are being safer about sex (Vobejda et al. A1). A poll done by Reuter's show that eighty-two percent of the people who participated in the survey supported sex education in schools (Yahoo). Studies obviously show that sex education courses are helping today's teenagers t

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Approximate Word count = 1910
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)