The Chicago Controversy: Sex Education In The United States

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The discussion of sexual matters has always been considered taboo, where teaching about sex and reproduction is still mostly avoided, or most of the information we obtain is from friends and the media. Sex Education in the United States has become more of a political issue effecting the population on both a local and national level. The United State’s high rates of pregnancy in teenagers and the increasing rates of STD’s and STI’s has reinforced the idea of sex education being medically practical, and socially necessary. The religious right has always focused heavily on the moral weight of sex education, as well as other progressive medical research. Since the 80’s, the question of who should be teaching sex education has been more rigorously …show more content…
When Chicago became the first large city to implement sex ed for high schoolers in 1913, the Catholic Church led a campaign to attack the program. It was called The Chicago Controversy, and it played a major role in influencing the politics surrounding sex education for the next century. It resulted in a high ranking school board official resigning as well. Both sides of the argument agreed that youthful sexuality was indeed a problem, but continued to debate the possible negative effects of this knowledge rather than discuss the certain positive effects. When discussing possibilities over something, there can be a large number of outcomes. Yes, you could consider that in some cases if the knowledge provided to a youth is inappropriate for their age, this misinformation could possibly corrupt the child's mind or outlook of sex. But this is a “what if” that relies on poor sex education. It ignores the fact that any implementation of a subject in a lesson plan has to be age appropriate. The benefits of sex education would outweigh the small probability of youth corruption. One should always look at past behavior as an indicator of future behavior as well. If children are left to their own devices, they will more often than not end up making mistakes if they don't know anything about the consequences of their actions. Often …show more content…
We should heavily focus on the facts, and stick to discussing the areas that we all actually agree on regarding sex. The more we normalize the discussion of sex and the less we debate over trivial possibilities, the easier progress will occur. People are already reading “50 Shades of Grey” in public, it's high time we started talking about sex in public without the gossipy undertones. Sex is a biological inevitability in life, and we all should be entitled to express our thoughts and feelings over the subject no different than we would a fart joke. Or at least no differently than we would about 50 Shades of Grey coming out on the silver screen. The public school system should require these lessons on sex education as part of the curriculum to enlighten todays youth. It should be a new sexual revolution, but this time having the maturity it needs to make a positive difference in society. If children are the future, it's best to start with them in the hopes of
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