Abstinence-only fails

Sexploration at IU was a week-long, sex-positive educational event that promoted open discourse about a topic that is unfortunately quite taboo in Indiana schools.

A sex-positive approach to education teaches young people to respect, celebrate and understand sex, rather than fear or misuse it. Indiana fails dismally to provide appropriate sex education in our schools – “abstinence-only” is only ever an effective method for denial, never for education.  

Open discourse in the classroom about sex should occur long before the university level; freshman year of college is a bewildering and disquieting 10 years too late.

Sexual development begins in childhood.

Why don’t we protect our children’s sexual health just as we protect their physical and mental well-being? Waiting until adolescence to teach sex education is like waiting until after your son or daughter turns 21 to talk to them about responsible drinking.

Abstinence-only sexual education is not only morally reprehensible by denying the basic human right to accurate information, but also a major contributing factor to the state’s high teenage pregnancy rate and the spread of STDs.

In Sweden, where young people have greater access to birth control and information about sex, the teen pregnancy rate in 2005 was not quite 1/6th of the U.S. at the same time.  

The governing institutions of our society have an openly recognized opposition to open discourse about sexuality. However, I would argue that setting sex aside as a silent or taboo topic simply endows it with an air of mystery and exoticism.

There is no better way to make something appealing than to keep it a secret or off-limits. Ignorance about sex by no means prevents sex from occurring – it only means that it will occur under circumstances made dangerous by ignorance.

Education and life-saving information should never be withheld under any circumstances – that is a violation of our basic human rights.  
 
Burke Denning
IU senior