What is sex education, "Planned Parenthood of America defines sex education as a learning responsibility and the ethical behavior stressing the importance of understanding sexuality in all its aspects, humane growth, sexual development, social development, and decision making, as well as information on the biology of the reproduction system." (1.p.24) Do our children today need to be aware of what sex education is and how teen pregnancy can affect their lives and others?

Supporters of formal sex education believe that sex is too compound to be taught by parents. Most parents are in denial that there children are not sexually active, when it is just the opposite where kids today are beginning at ages as low as fourteen, and possibly even younger. So if today's parents do not begin to teach there children where babies come from and how they are made and even more important how to prevent them,

Schools who offer sex education sometimes generally focus on the parts of the body and its function. These issues are important, however on a more complex issue is pregnancy and contraception and where these kids can get there hands on it if they are being sexually active. Today's chil

Today's teens need to have more sex education in early adolescence. As young children they are becoming more sexually active at an early age then ever before. Education should begin at home and continue also within school curriculums. Discussing sex and pregnancy and what it involves can give a young girl the courage to say no, to sex. Our teens need to be aware of the damage that becoming pregnant can do not only to their lives but their parents, and their babies. "If you become a pregnant teen you are faced with issues like your baby having low birth weight, which can lead to mental retardation, childhood diseases or even death." (1) Teens are faced with more decision then they're able to handle when they become pregnant,

The facts state that less then half of teen parents graduate, there income is half of what it is if they would have waited until at least the age of twenty, teen mother are more likely to have a second child within a year of having the first, Teen fathers are more likely to pay only $1500 a year in child support, most don't pay any at all, teen mothers are more likely to abuse there children because of restricted social networks, Baby boys which are born to single teen mothers are more likely to end up in prison when they get older and baby girls born to single teen mothers are more likely to become pregnant themselves as a teen.(2)

In becoming a teen parent, you are faced with many more responsibilities then any one person that age could imagine. Your choices are abortion, adoption, single parenthood and in some cases marriage. These decisions begin roaming your mind from the day the test appears positive. Then the actuality of this problem begin to set in and you start to cry daily almost every hour the tears begin to fall. You're confused. Questions fill your mind, who do you ask. You tell your best friend, she has no advice for

Some common words found in the essay are:
Foster Jr, Parenthood America, sex education, Teenage Pregnancy, sexually active, teen pregnancy, teens pregnant, teen mothers, becoming sexually active, single teen mothers, born single teen, baby born, sexual experience, tell parents, becoming sexually, teen parent,
Approximate Word count = 1259
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)