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Debate Info

16
8
For Against
Debate Score:24
Arguments:21
Total Votes:24
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 For (13)
 
 Against (8)

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Darkhan290(34) pic



Safe sex education in schools

For

Side Score: 16
VS.

Against

Side Score: 8
1 point

Parents don’t have absolute rights over their children, society has an important stake in their upbringing and this is primarily carried out through the school system. The costs and social impact of unsafe sexual practices that result in STDs and teen pregnancy are carried by society as a whole, not just the parents of those involved. So education about safe sex is entirely justifiable. In any case, many parents do not feel able to talk to their children about sex, leaving them in a dangerous state of ignorance.

Side: For
1 point

Safe sex should be promoted in all schools; the more teens who are informed the better. Not all schools promote safe sex and a few schools don’t even give sexual education, so is it right to say that the amount of STDs amongst teenagers and pregnant teens is due to the promotion of safe sex? It might also be good to consider that the amount of pregnant teens and teens with STDs are due to lack of information given to all teenagers in the whole nation. After all, the Netherlands, famous for its very frank sex education, has both a higher age of first sexual experience, and much lower rates of teenage pregnancy and STD infection than countries such as the USA and the UK. And research shows that abstinence education often fails – inevitably many teens who sign chastity pledges do end up having sex, and because they have not been taught about safe sex methods, they are much more likely to become pregnant or infected as a result.

Side: For
1 point

We have to accept that for a wide variety of social reasons teens are now more sexually active than ever – a development which preceded widespread sex education and which cannot therefore be blamed on it. Keeping children in ignorance about sex will not stop them having sex, but it will mean that the sex they have is riskier, resulting in unplanned pregnancies, abortions and STD infections. Condoms, while not perfect, are widely recommended for the prevention of STDs. They have been shown to be effective in reducing infection rates in both men and women. So it is important to make the idea of safe sex more attractive to these teenagers to prevent STDs and for teens to get pregnant. This is why at schools teenagers should be told and encouraged to use condoms if they are going to have sex.

Side: For

There are too many pregnancies and diseases spreading among teens, so, safe sex education is needed.

Side: For
1 point

It isn’t the place of schools to sexualize our children in this way. Many people believe that sex education should be left to parents, who are best placed to decide what information their children need and when the best time to tell them is. Even if human reproduction has a place in the biology classroom, that is very different from courses of “safe sex” education that promote promiscuity in a way that often undermines the values parents are seeking to impart at home.

Side: Against
Phreekshow(246) Disputed
2 points

one problem with this theory. It seems these days parents are NOT capable of properly teaching their children about sex. Schools are for education and preparing our children for life out in the real World as adults! Many parents are too embarrassed or not knowledgable enough to teach their children about sex or relationships with the oppostie sex period!

Side: For
2 points

Beware ye the fury of Socratic irony!

It isn’t the place of schools to sexualize our children in this way.

Are pubescent children innately asexual?

Many people believe

What many people believe is utterly irrelevant unless it is supported by reasonable argument.

sex education should be left to parents

Why?

who are best placed to decide what information their children need

If parents incontrovertibly know best, why does debate exist amongst persons with children?

Even if human reproduction has a place in the biology classroom

There is no if about it!

that is very different from courses of “safe sex” education that promote promiscuity

It is your duty to provide demonstration to support your wild imaginings.

Can it be demonstrated that sexual education, including the use of contraceptives, promotes promiscuity?

Is promiscuity a bad thing?

If sex is safe, why is it to be avoided?

Is it not better to have safe sex twenty times than to have unprotected sex even once?

in a way that often undermines the values parents are seeking to impart at home.

If parents in different families have different values, how can any particular set be best for all children?

Side: For
1 point

Instead of continuing with the promotion of safe sex, why don’t schools just give teenagers sexual education and tell them about the options like condoms and pills, instead of actively promoting them and making them every time more and more attractive to use? Shouldn’t they be promoting the best and most secure options? The best way to prevent STDs and pregnant teens is ABSTINENCE. So why don’t schools start by promoting that? Not strictly abstinence until marriage, but just abstinence. If students wait at least until their bodies are done developing fully and until they are not in puberty, the amount of STDs will be reduced dramatically, not only because the human body is better developed for sex at an older age, but also because we are more mature when we are in any kind of relationship.

Side: Against
casper3912(1556) Disputed
2 points

strict Abstinence education doesn't work, nor does just knowledge about options.

What citizen of a developed country doesn't know and have access to such options? Pretty much none, and yet many don't use them.

Safe sex practices Should be made more and more attractive, because then unsafe sex becomes less attractive.

Certainly abstinence should be promoted as the ideal, but that doesn't mean other safe-sex options should be neglected.

To neglect teaching these other safe sex options, is to neglect our children.

They simply have a need to know them.

Side: For

The truth is parents are the biggest influence on a child's sex choices. Whether the parent teaches it or not, weather the parent is comfortable with sex or not, even if they learn about it in school later. The first, best and main teacher about sex in a persons life is what they observe from their parents.

I think that we as a society are perfectly capable of informing our children about sex . The school system should spend its money on other things and stop worrying about what the "common people" are teaching or not teaching their offspring.

Side: Against
casper3912(1556) Disputed
1 point

For most people, their peers are the biggest influence.

For example, most men would gladly have multiple girlfriends if the women in their lives would make it easy.

This is irregardless of parenting and actually results from finally tuned biological drives.

Sex is natural, so far society and parents have, more or less, attempted to teach that it is something else.

Simply put, you can't beat nature. Sex is a science, especially safe sex; it needs to be studied the same as basic math.

Like basic math, it permeates though most activities of your life and it is something in need of conscious, intellectual understanding due to it being so wide spread.

Side: For
1 point

For most people, their peers are the biggest influence.

Is this demonstrable?

For example, most men would gladly have multiple girlfriends if the women in their lives would make it easy.

Is that demonstrable? It is interesting that you contrive to divorce yourself from the statement with the phrase "most".

This is irregardless of parenting and actually results from finally tuned biological drives.

If biology drives sexual compulsion, is not biology the greatest influence, and not peers or parents?

Sex is a science

Nay.

Science is by definition impartial.

Human sex is affected by emotions.

Ergo sex is not a science.

Though it may be said that one can employ science in the study of the mechanics of sexual reproduction.

Side: For
1 point

I go to a high school where safe sex education is not taught, and there hasn't been a single pregnancy in the 50 year history of the school. Yes, sex should be expected during pubescent years, however it has practically become common knowledge even at a younger age that condoms should be used when having sex. Those completely ignorant of this are probably much less likely to have pubescent sex anyway. Schools simply should not need to teach this. Use this 'extra' time on math, science, and other useful subjects.

Side: Against
casper3912(1556) Disputed
1 point

It is entirely possible that pregnancies are kept secret, especially in the 1960s.

Also, how do you know there has never been a pregnancy; the 46+ years of pregnancy free years may actually just be years with unrecorded pregnancies.

"Those completely ignorant of this are probably much less likely to have pubescent sex anyway."- why would this be the case?

Wouldn't knowledge of how risky sex can be, even with mitigating factors, make people less likely to take such risks?

Consider this: knowledge of how likely you are to win in a lottery isn't going to encourage you to buy a lottery ticket.

Side: For
Troy8(2417) Disputed
1 point

Well, the character of the school would easily prevent such secrets, let alone unsafe sex in the first place.

why would this be the case?

Because most people interested in sex probably know more about than people not interested in it.

Side: Against