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Renee Kimberly Root ⁽³⁷⁶⁾ Unverified Account

Sex Education

Posted Sunday, November 15, 2009 (7 days ago.) Viewed 2 times.

"Sex education is the stuff of situation comedies. Almost every television sit-com about young people at some time features some version of the following scene: The boys sit behind desks in a classroom or in ill-fitting shorts in a school gymnasium. An uncomfortable middle-aged man--the coach--usually stands at the front of the room, whistle around his neck, before a chalkboard on which someone has drawn a representation of female reproductive organs. The boys stare aghast at the complexity and size of the organs--this is what women look like? They whisper, giggle, and shift in their seats as the coach tries, with euphemisms and mutterings, to explain the birds and the bees. Or in another version of this scene, girls sit in a classroom watching an antiquated filmstrip. A lilting melody accompanies the filmstrip in which the narrator waxes lyrically about the wonders of growing up--menstrual cycles, growing body hair and breasts, and new and confusing feelings for boys. The girls squirm as the laugh track roars with manufactured pleasure at the reminder of yet another moment in a painful but ultimately amusing process of growing up. In the depictions, sex education is uncomfortable and irrelevant, and the best anyone can do is to shake their head at the silliness of it all" (Fields, 2008, p. 164). This example of how sex education was taught is a perfect example of the sex education that was taught in the school system I attended in the 1960s. The sex education consisted of the girls watching a film about sexual changes in girls and boys. The boys were taught by a fifth-grade male teacher and the girls were shown the film by a fifth-grade woman teacher--in separate rooms of course. I don't believe the boys had a film, just verbal instruction and diagrams. There was no discussion about having sex outside of marriage because in that time only married people had sex and then the goal was to have children. There was no information about birth control or sexually transmitted diseases. So I think the program was not effective at all because it gave such limited information that I think most girls walked away confused and scared about their body changing in the future. I would assume the boys felt the same way, but that is just my opinion because none of them ever shared their thoughts with me. This period of time was when the boys played on one side of the playground and the girls on the other side. There was really no chance to exchange information.

"Few changes accompanying puberty are as contentious in many families as the sexuality that attends physical maturity. Anthropological research indicates that the majority of cultures are likely to permit or at least tolerate some sexual activity during the teen years. But Western societies have generally been more restrictive in its expression. Many mothers in the United States tend to underestimate the extent of sexual activity among their offspring; their children, in turn, tend to underestimate the degree to which their mothers disapprove of this activity" (Bukatko, 2008, p. 503). The fact is that many teenagers in today's society are sexually active at a young age. "Although teen sexual activity has declined from 1993 to 2003, 47% of ninth through twelfth graders still state they have engaged in sexual intercourse" (Bukatko, 2008, p. 503). The factors that may influence a teenager not having sex are if the parents are warm and supportive of the teenager, close parental supervision and monitoring of the teenager's behavior, and the values the parents hold concerning the appropriateness of sexual activity among teenagers. Children who live in poverty-related neighborhoods where there is high poverty, high crime rates, and less stability tend to engage in sexual activity early. This is also true of children growing up in family situations that are abusive or who have older teenage siblings who have children.

The health and social consequences of adolescent sexual behavior are sexually transmitted diseases, teenage pregnancies, and teenage parents who drop out of school. "Adolescents appear to be more susceptible than adults to STD's, an estimated 3 million are infected each year by one of these diseases-a number that has spread considerable alarm among members of the medical profession. In the 1980's approximately 20% of unmarried American women of European heritage 18 years or younger and 40% of African heritage became pregnant during their adolescent years" (Bukatko, 2008, p. 504). Teen pregnancies have declined throughout the 1990s and early 2000s but is still higher in the United States than in other countries that are technologically advanced. "Moreover, approximately 300,000 of the nearly half million teenage women delivering their first child and 75% of all adolescents giving birth to a child each year will remain unmarried, a substantial increase from 40 years ago, when only 15% who gave birth were unmarried. Only about one half of these women will finish high school. Moreover, their children will often have difficulty when they begin school" (Bukatko, 2008, p. 504). This was interesting because in the 1960s if someone got pregnant, they were married immediately or the girl was sent away and the baby placed for adoption. The one case I knew of in a local high school in the 1970s, the girl was forced to marry immediately and was forced to finish high school. She was treated as a social outcast, and I am sure this served as an example to other teens not to make the same mistake.

Sex education programs are needed in schools today because of the risks associated with sexual activity--such as pregnancy, aids, and other sexually transmitted diseases. Sex education should begin in the early years at home by parents and then be continued in the schools. "Most adults in the United States believe that sex education is appropriate, and when given the opportunity, only a small portion of parents ask to have their children excused from sex education classes" (Bukatko, 2008, p. 504). Today, sex education is required or recommended in all states and in other countries where formal education is offered. There are many ideas of what sex education curriculum should contain. For example, some believe the only safe sex for teenagers is to abstain from sex. They should be warned of the consequences of having sex as a teenager. "Moreover, to promote anything other than abstinence in sex education classes sends a mixed message that communicates a double standard: avoid sexual relationships, but in case you can't here is what you should know" (Bukatko, 2008, p. 505). The other view of what sex education should contain is information on how to deal with peer pressure to have sex, on how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, and how to prevent pregnancy. This plan takes into consideration that many teenagers are engaging in sex. "In fact, somewhere between 800,000 and 900,000 adolescent girls less than 19 years of age will become pregnant each year in the US alone and about half of them can be expected to deliver babies. The number who are sexually active is substantially higher" (Bukatko, 2008, p. 505). "Working under the restrictions of abstinence-only policies and sensibilities, teachers present their students with formal lessons about sexual abstinence, prevention, and risk. Lessons about power, safety, homophobia, sexism, and the complexity of consent and agency remain evaded. Sex education remains a not-so-funny sit-com joke and fails to achieve its potential as a fully articulated sexual education instruction that insists on the value of young people gathering with their peers to ask questions, to share information, and to learn about and claim their capacities as agentic sexual beings" (Fields, 2008, p. 169). I think sex education in the classroom should offer the choices of information about abstinence, information about sexually transmitted diseases, how to prevent disease and pregnancy, and also provide accurate information about sex and the changes that come with puberty. I think it should also require parental consent and be reflective of the cultural views of the society that it is serving. This should also be an atmosphere where questions can be answered honestly and without shame. "Adopting an expansive definition of sexual activity compels educators, researchers and students to acknowledge young people as sexual subjects, right now. The lessons that teachers offer on, for example, sexual communication do not simply prepare students for some later conversation they will have once they become sexually active with a sexual partner. Instead, those lessons are opportunities for students to claim their subjectivity as they practice sexual communication, in the classroom, with adults and their peers. Once we approach young people as already engaged sexual subjects, regardless of whether they meet conventional definitions of sexually active, we can begin to support them as they navigate the risk, vulnerability, and pleasure in their sexual lives. We can offer sexuality education that recognizes and supports young people's experiences of sexuality" (Bukatko, 2008, p. 170).

"They found no evidence of sex education leading to earlier or increased sexual activity. In fact, sex education led to either a delay in the onset of sexual activity or to a decrease in overall sexual activity. In addition, access to counseling and contraceptive services did not encourage earlier or increased sexual activity. Sex education increased adoption of safer sex practices by sexually active youth. These researchers concluded that school programs which promoted both postponement and protected sex to sexually active students were more effective than those promoting abstinence alone" (Ridini & Willie, 1998, p. 16). I believe this is a completely different society than the one I grew up in the 60s and 70s, so I believe the sex education in the time I grew up could have been improved upon by allowing the participants to freely ask questions without fear of being punished or ridiculed. I don't think information about birth control or sexually transmitted diseases was necessary because it was a taboo to have sex outside of marriage and at that time parents kept a tighter reign on where the teens went and the activities they participated in, so there was little chance for sex to occur. Also, the media did not show sexually explicit scenes. There may have been a bedroom scene, but there was not usually sexual activity shown. Today, teens are bombarded with true and untrue information from television ads and other sources like magazines. So, because information and encouragement to have sex is everywhere, having sex education in the schools where the truth is told is very important.

References Bukato, D. (2008) Child and Adolescent Development. Masonott: Cengage Learning.

Fields, J. (2008) Risky Lessons: Sex Education and Social Inequality. New Brunswick , NJ : Rutgers University Press.

Ridini, S. P., & Willie, C. V. (1998). Health and Sexuality Education in Schools: The Process of Social Change. Westport , CN: Bergin & Garvey.

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Suicide in Youth

Posted Sunday, November 15, 2009 (7 days ago.) Viewed 1 times.

The most extensive description of the content in which development proceeds has been put forth in the ecological systems theory produced by Urie Bronfenbrenner. Ecological theories in general stress the need to understand development in terms of the everyday environment in which children are reared, a concern that is seldom the focus of many other theories. Commenting on the state of development psychology several decades ago, Bronfenbrenner claimed that much of contemporary developmental psychology is the science of the strange behavior of children in strange situations with strange adults for the briefest possible periods of time. Development, Bronfenbrenner believes, must be studied not only in the laboratory as it has been, but also in the homes, schools, neighborhoods, and communities in which it takes place" (Bukatko, 2008, p.28). Bronfenbrenner made a major contribution with his comprehensive portrait of the environment, the ecological forces and systems that exist at several different levels, and the bidirectional and reciprocal relationships that are existent among them. The core of the child's biological and psychological makeup, which includes a child's cognitive capacities and socioemotional and motivational properties, which include things like temperament and personality for responding to and acting on the environment. The microsystem is made up of the settings with the most immediate and direct impact on an individual's biological and psychological qualities. These would include the home, household members, social and educational circumstances which include classmates, teachers, and resources in the classroom and neighborhoods. This would also include the physical layout, friends and acquaintances. The mesosystem is made up of many interrelationships among the various settings within the microsystem. The family has opportunities and expectations, such as access to books, learning to read, emphasis on acquiring basic academic skills and socialization skills, and these may have influence on the child's experiences and successes in another microsystem, which would be the school. So a child with divorced parents living in different neighborhoods may face frequent moves between different homes. The problems of the living arrangement would be the range and kinds of friendships that the child could establish with other children. Development can be influenced by social, economic, political, religious and other settings either directly or indirectly by the impact through those who care for the child. The exosystem is made up of these types of factors. "In many countries today, for example, the child is seldom part of either parent's work environment. Nevertheless, the parent who encounters a difficult problem at work may bring frustrations home and express them through angry exchanges with members of the family. Urban renewal planned at city hall may have dramatic consequences for children and their interactions with peers, hopefully for the better, but perhaps not always with that effect. Skirmishes between rival villages or countries may bring poverty if the family breadwinner is killed in fighting" (Bukatko, 2008, p.29).

"The chronosystem is Bronfenbrenner's term for this temporal dimension of influence. Change is always taking place, and these time-linked shifts and transitions may have greater or less impact depending on when they occur during the child's development. Thus, temporal events, too, have far-reaching consequences for each individual's psychological development" (Bukatko, 2008, p.30).

Suicide is a serious problem for youth. Suicide is the third leading cause of death in teens, and approximately 4,500 lives are lost each year. The three methods most used by teens in suicide are firearms, suffocation and poisoning. Some young people survive suicide, and a survey done on youth in grades 9 through 12 who attended private and public schools in the United States found that 15% of students seriously considered suicide, 11% reported creating a plan, and 7% reported they tried to take their life in the 12 months preceding the survey. The groups that are most at risk are the boys because they are more likely to succeed, and girls are more likely to attempt it without success. The culture is also a factor in suicide, such as Native American, Alaskan native, and Hispanic youth have the highest rates of suicide-related deaths. The survey also found Hispanic youths are more likely to attempt suicide than their Black and White, non-Hispanic peers. Bronfenbrenner's theory suggests the home environment, household members, and social and educational circumstances have an impact on the child's development and so this would be in the case of suicide. Some of the factors that may trigger suicide are loss of a loved one, parents' separation or divorce, breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend, serious illness, a serious accident, chronic physical pain, loss of hope, being a victim of domestic violence, physical or verbal abuse, sexual abuse, feelings of being trapped or feelings that things will never get better, and inability to deal with a perceived experience that was humiliating. These possible causes could be found in the teenage years of development.

The first transition from the home environment is usually kindergarten as this is the start of formal education for most children. The second greatest transition, the change from grade school to a middle school, may cause the teen stress and could be a factor contributing to teen suicide. So, in the United States this transition is the visible sign of an end to childhood and the beginning of adolescence.

The cultural influences in the childhood years of elementary age children are the child's parents, school and such things as choice of religion. But, as a child becomes a teenager, the cultural influences are peers and outside influences such as rock bands and alternative religions, etc. A good example would be the influence of Hamas-affiliated mosques and how they recruit teenagers for suicide missions. Here is an example: "After a 13 year old boy failed to come home at his usual time one day, his mother asked neighborhood children if they had seen him. Several replied they saw him get into someone's car after school. When he returned that evening, he acknowledged that someone had picked him up after school and taken him to the Jamal Abdul-Nassar mosque and the future did not matter because it was his future to become a martyr and to go to heaven" (Levitt, 2006, p.137).

Suicide in teenagers has many causes, but I believe the experience a child has in the elementary years of life directly influences how problems will be addressed in the teen years. A teenager who has not had a positive elementary age experience will not deal with problems as a teenager and may see suicide as the only answer or a way to die as a martyr.

References Caruso, Kevin. (n.d.). Suicide causes. Retrieved October 11, 2009, from http://www.suicide.org/suicide-causes.html Joiner T., & Rudd, D. (2002). Suicide science: Expanding the boundaries. New York : Kluver Academic Publishers.

Levitt, M. (2006). Hamas: Politics, charity and terrorism in the service of Jihad. New Haven : Yale University Press.

Osborne, M. (2008). Inner world of a suicidal youth: What every parent and health professional should know. Westport , CT : Greenwood Publishing Group.

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