Introduction
I stared at my high-pony-tailed-teacher as she repeated, “Nebo School District policy is abstinence, and that will be the base of our sexual education,” I thought Abstinence, what a big word and then the rollercoaster formally called sexual education began. My mind would never have fathomed that the material presented to me while I sat in my orange plastic chair had been debated across that nation for decades. The purpose of this paper is critique and analyze the article School-Based Health Clinics and Sex Education written by Kerby Anderson. In the article the sources were cited in the text but the article used outdated studies, overgeneralized results, and dismissed alternate explanations of findings; after taking the article in to consideration abstinence should be taught in schools to protect teachers, and to personalize the timing of an adolescent’s comprehensive sexual education.
Summary
The Article School-Based Health Clinics and Sex Education advocates for an abstinent-only sexual education program versus a comprehensive sexual education program. The author Kerby Anderson starts by defaming a study correlating the introduction of a student-based health clinic into a High school with the sudden decline in the number of student pregnancies. Then comprehensive sex education is defined as the philosophy that: children are sexual and sexually mis-educated, and that if mis-education is the problem sex education is the solution (Anderson, 1998, p. 352). Anderson goes on to address the unreliability of condoms against preventing Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Pregnancy. The article finishes with four reasons-complemented by various studies- that conclude implementing an abstinence sexual education program is the solution to the teenage pregnancy problem in the United States.
Critical Analysis
Cited in Text
Kerby Anderson cited his sources through out the text. The article mentioned what studies were, and who was responsible for the studies. It was convenient to be read the article and have so much information readily available about the presented information.
Outdated Studies
Many of the studies used in the School-Based Health Clinics and Sex Education article were out dated. The most recent study mentioned in the article was from the early 90s and there was a studies from the 70s. Thirty years is a enough time to introduce cell phones, the internet, and change the statistics of teenage pregnancy. The two studies prevalently outdated were the students in DuSable High School and the study from Science Medicine journal.
Michael Schwartz Study
Michael Schwartz conducted a study from 1977 to 1979 to report the number of births in DuSable High School after the student clinic was opened (Anderson, 1998, p. 352). It was the first major study done on a school-based health clinic, and received national attention. Today the comprehensive sexual education program may no longer even supports school-based-clinks. The specific curriculum may also have been modified over the past thirty years to better teach the material. The outdated information used in the article does not inform the reader about the current comprehension sexual program and if it has any correlation to teenage pregnancy.
Social Science Medicine Condom Study
The study taken from Social Science Medicine mentioned in the article states that all research published prior to 1990 indicated condoms were 87 percent effective in preventing pregnancy and 69 percent effective in reducing the risk of contracting Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection (Anderson, 1998, p. 354). The outdated information assumes the brands and styles of condoms used today are comparable to condoms used 20 years ago; some of the brands and styles commonly used today could not have even been invented in the 90s. Also, the study stated it had compiled research published prior to 1990. The article left me wondering if the research compiled was taken from studies done eighty years or only two years prior to 1990. Because the article did not specify how far back the prior research went from 1990 I had no idea how much research was actually compiled in the study.
Overgeneralized Results
The author overgeneralized throughout the article by implying that cultural and area specific studies represent all teenagers, all Americans, or all girls. It would be impossible to question everyone so scientists use samples to represent the general population. Consequently scientist use randomly samples that can more accurately depict the general population than a biased sample. Kerby Anderson biased sample of the Southern Baptist convention pledging to be abstinent does not accurately depict the entire American population.
Southern Baptist Convention
It is an overgeneralization to assume that because in Washington Mall on July 1993 approximately 200,000 students signed “True Love Waits” pledge cards during the Southern Baptist Convention campaign for abstinence that Americans today want to learn about abstinence (Anderson, 1998, p. 357). Three things that made this claim an overgeneralization. First, it can not be assumed that because Americans wanted abstinence in the early 1990s Americans want to hear about abstinence now. Second, the author does not clarify were the student who signed the cards are from. The reader is unaware if students were from the United States or students attending Brigham Young University. Third, the campaign was done by the Southern Baptist Convention. Many of the “I pledge cards” were logically filled out and collected by members of the Southern Baptist Convention. The possibility that the Southern Baptist community had a biased sample selection needs to be considered while examining the data. Anderson ignores time, area, and culture biased in the sample selection and then makes an overgenerlization that because members of the Southern Baptist Convention campaign support abstinance all Americans support abstinence.
Dismissal of Explanations
The most prevalent flaw through out the article was lack of consideration to possible alternate explanations in a studies findings. Ironically, Kerby Anderson criticizes the media for assuming at DuSable High School the decline in students giving birth was due to the introduction of the new student-health-clinic without considering the possibility that the decline in the number of students giving birth was due to the decrease in overall student enrollment (Anderson, 1998, p. 352). The same critiques Anderson used against the DuSable High School articles could also be used against the San Marcos California Junior High, the Washington, D.C., and the Nathan Hale Middle School studies Anderson used later in School-Based Health Clinics and Sex Education to imply that the decline in student births was due to the introduction of the abstinence program in the above mentioned schools. The article fails to look at the studies that suggest a correlation between abstinence-only programs and a decrease in teenage pregnancy with the same magnifying glass that found problems (decline in student enrolment, abortions, and unrecorded data prior to applying the program) in the study that suggested a correlation between comprehensive sexual education and a decrease in students giving birth.
Opinion
Although I agreed with and started to analyze School-Based Health Clinics and Sex Education criticizing the data caused me to question my impulsive opinion: abstinence is good, and anything that says sex before marriage is bad. I came to the distinct realization that when it comes to comprehensive or abstinent sexual education programs I know nothing except for what questions I want to ask. I formulated my opinion on the idea that the abstinence program protects teachers, and a set curriculum should determine if an adolescent is prepared for the responsibility of sexual knowledge, but I would like to further explore both perspectives before I concrete my opinion.
Teacher Responsibility
Considering the two extreme sexual education programs an abstinence sexual education appears to be a safe program for teachers. By teaching abstinence the teacher has only taught their students one way (a guarantied way) to decrease the likelihood of pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Diseases. If a student does become pregnant the student did not listen to their teacher, and no one can blame the teacher for misinforming the student on how to avoid pregnancy. The focus topic of sexual education is on the students, but the teacher is also important. The teacher must have confidence in their ability to teach fourteen-year-olds how to use a condom. A teacher is required to take on an unreasonable amount of responsibilities while teaching students a comprehensive sexual education system.
Curriculum Confinements
To teach sexual education within the confidents of a curriculum is also making the assumptions that every student in the classroom is responsible enough to handle the information. Briefly, the Information Processing Theory is the idea that the human brain works like a computer; once information is presented it is stored and when that information is needed it is pulled from the memory. If the input learned during adolescents is that when sexual desires are presented the correct out put is to remain abstinent until marriage then the out put will be abstinence until marriage. The principle is the same for comprehensive sexual education. If the input is that there are multiple ways to act on sexual desires including condoms, abstinence, positioning, or pills the adolescent has to make the choice as to what the out put will be. A set curriculum may not be the appropriate method for determining when to teach adolescents the multiple out puts to sexual desires there are. Parents, or guardians (even the adolescent themselves) should be responsible for determining the time and place to take on the responsibility that comes with sexual knowledge, not the settled school board curriculum.
Conclusion
In the article School-Based Health Clinics and Sex Education written by Kerby Anderson the sources were cited in the text but the article used outdated studies, overgeneralized results, and dismissed alternate explanations; abstinence-only curriculums are still supported to protect teachers, and to personalize the timing of an adolescent’s sexual education. There does not seem to be nearly this extensive of a debate concerning the math curriculum, because deciding on sexual education feels like a moral choice. It is important when analyzing a situation to sort out the moral dilemma from evidence by critically thinking through articles, data, and studies.