When the truth is the truth, she speaks it loud and clear folks! "Vanessa Speaks the Truth" once again on her blog "Give me Texas or Give Me Death!" The great Vanessa brings up another very good point, and another very important topic that I feel like we should all discuss. She writes about sex education and how the parents in Texas are fighting for public schools to STOP teaching their kids about sex education. Many parents claim that their children "are too young to be learning about [sex]," and if anyone should be teaching children about sex, it should be taught by the parents themselves.
And I'm all for parents talking to their children about sex; I believe it will allow for a strong trust to develop between juvenile and parent. But a lot of the times it just seems awkward for parents to talk to their children about sex, and vice versa. So it seems that the subject matter appears to be left untouched by either participant. That right there brings up a question.... Have the parents in Texas seen the statistical analysis of Teenage Birth Rates in our State?
I feel it safe for me to assume a big fat NO because in 2013, Texas On The Brink (An official Caucus of the Texas House of Representatives) released information on how Texas ranks among the 50 states in the U.S. Statistics shows that here in Texas the "Teenage Birth Rate" ranks 3rd in the country. Which implies that the parents in Texas are very limited to sex education, the parents are too embarrassed to talk to their kids about sex, or perhaps it's the school system that lack the funds to teach Texas children. Either way, I don't believe the correct way to go about sex education for kids is to shelter them from the truth or be told to practice abstinence (which a lot of parents feel like it's the best course of action instead of making sure they are prepared for the inevitable).
Like Vanessa stated in her blog, "teens have a higher probability in getting peer pressured into doing something." So how are they to make the correct choice if they aren’t correctly informed? Telling a kid, teenager, or even an adult to not do something because they shouldn't without any information as to why, is only going to influence them to pursue the thing they were asked not to do in the first place. That is just how kids work in general; the curiosity is overwhelming and learning it first hand sometimes just seems like the right thing to do, especially if they are informed very little.
It never ceases to amaze me that I find myself agreeing with Vanessa yet again on another very important topic. It's best to teach people about sex education at adolescents, that way they grow up to understand that sexual intercourse is no laughing matter and that it should be taken very seriously. I feel that the government of Texas should invest a little more of its resources into public schools, that way they can afford to bring in professionals that are well informed about sex education to teach kids about contraceptives, diseases, ect. If that were to happen, "the rate in teen pregnancy would drop, [adolescents] would be [better] informed... [and] it would reduce spreading STD’s."
It's better to have them scared, prepared, and cautious now, instead of being scared and unprepared when a baby comes.
