Tribune Editorial: Let Parents Decide the Sex Education Track for Their Kids
The results of a Salt Lake Tribune poll support the idea of offering two sex education tracks in Utah secondary schools.
Surprisingly, the percentage of those polled who said Utah public school teachers should be required to teach about contraception using state-approved instructional materials is exactly the same as the percentage — 43 percent — who said teachers should not teach about contraception.
What better way to meet the preferences of Utahns in both camps than to let parents decide whether their children should receive comprehensive sex education at school, or lessons that steer clear of explicit instruction regarding birth control and intercourse and focus primarily on abstinence?
The Tribune is right on here. We should be offering more sex education, not hiding it. Unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases are tragedies that should not happen. Ignorance is the source of those troubles. If the glory of God is intelligence then let’s not be afraid of it.
If we have to continue to live in the dark ages in the public school system then as parents we need to become informed and learn how to educate our own children and grand children about the role sex plays in their lives. Most of us won’t get it done and the next generation will make the same mistakes as our generation and the school system and poor parenting will continue to fail our children in that regard.
Legislation that would require schools to offer both options has been abandoned in favor of modifying current law just a bit to let teachers talk about the limitations and benefits of contraceptives, while prohibiting instruction in condom use and requiring teachers to send students to their parents for further guidance.
That’s hardly different from the prohibition against teachers encouraging or advocating the use of contraceptives that’s currently on the books. That law has kept teachers from talking about condoms and other contraceptives at all for fear they might step over the line.
Sen. Stephen Urquhart, R-St. George, is sponsoring the latest proposal because he’s worried about escalating rates of sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy and he recognizes that better education could help. But his bill isn’t enough of a change.
Parents are worried, too, and that may be why a growing number want comprehensive sex education taught in school. Some parents understand that the subject is getting short shrift in homes, although conservative legislators and Gayle Ruzicka, president of the influential lobby group, the Eagle Forum, believe that’s where children should learn about sex. They don’t trust the intelligence or values of Utah youth. In fact, they believe that giving teens the hard facts about the dangers of unprotected sex is just asking for trouble.
“When you teach them about sex, that just encourages sexual activity,” Ruzicka said the other day.
That belief is not borne out by research, which consistently shows that comprehensive sex education, along with an emphasis on abstinence, can reduce STDs and teen pregnancy. A two-track program in Utah schools should emphasize abstinence in both courses.
By failing to recognize that correct information is the best weapon against disease, we’re failing our youth.