Sex education is something every student has to learn during high school. Students are taught abstinence and about the risk of pregnancy and STD’s. To an adult’s surprise, these “tips” and teachings don’t stop adolescents from engaging in sexual activity.

Sex education classes focus their teachings around abstinence. They drill into the minds of teens that sex after marriage is the expected standard and the only socially acceptable time to engage in sex, but times have changed; people aren’t getting married at 18 years old anymore. Some wait to get married after college, somewhere in their late 20’s, when they can support themselves and a family. That leaves at least 10 years from the time they hit puberty and start their hormonal changes to the time they get married and are “allowed” to have sex.

High school is a time of experimenting and unfortunately, teens become exposed to drugs, alcohol and sex. As adults probably know, alcohol and drugs can enhance a person’s sex drive as well as blur the lines between good and bad decisions.

According to the Journal of Policy Analysis & Management, in 1994, 90 percent of high school students were offered a sex ed class. In the same time period, the pregnancy rate of 15 to 17-year-olds increased by five percent. This increase leads many people to believe that sexual education generally gets students thinking about sex and increases sexual behaviors in teens.

So since abstinence doesn’t appear to make a positive difference in teens, maybe schools should focus their attention on teaching students other ways to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Condoms are an excellent way of avoiding both pregnancy and STD’s. Schools should educate students about what types of condoms are cheap and should be avoided, how to know if a condom is broken before sex and after and what back up plans are available if a condom does break.

Birth control, although extremely controversial, should be explained in detail to girls during high school: What birth control can be used for, the different forms of birth control, how to bring it up in a conversation with parents, the side effects and what questions to ask doctors when being subscribed to a certain dosage.

What if none of these choices (including abstinence) work, students should know what steps to take if one does get pregnant: what decisions a girl has (abortion, adoption, etc.), how to tell family and friends and how to properly take care of one’s self and the fetus.

Many people will argue that these teaching promote kids to have sex, but they’re really just being oblivious to the fact that teens are gonna do what they want and they’re gonna make mistakes. Believing that abstinence is going to stop anyone from having sex is like expecting a child to not eat the cookies from the jar when the parent isn’t looking.

Luckily, Kaneland high school students are taught about these different preventions, but majority of high schools aren’t, especially private schools.