With unwanted pregnancies a big problem in this day and age, studies are showing that communicating with teens is the key to informing and educating them on the importance of all those things you learn about in health class. With a growing population, many of the pregnancies in America are unwanted; and as this article states, education is the key to preventing unwanted conceptions. While the article deals with the idea of teens needing to be educated, there is also the untouched matter of preteens and adults. There are many aspects of being uninformed about sex-many of which may have serious repercussions later, as well as not so later in life.

Teenagers are well aware of the word 'sex' and all of the terms, meanings, slang, and general talk which is associated with it. But when parents stay silent about sex, teens learn from friends, they learn 'facts of life', which are sometimes wrong. One of the most absurd things I've heard from a friends was if you eat a raw onion you won't get pregnant. Any one who's passed even the most basic health class knows better, but when all you know is what you hear from friends, what do you have to prove the statement false?

A doctor once told me the youngest girl he'd ever known of who gave birth to a child was 10. Young children who are not even old enough to baby-sit are having children of they're own! What's to stop an uneducated elementary school child from doing something they don't know is wrong? By educating kids early, tragic events can be avoided.

"If you are the child of a teenage mother you are 70% more likely be to become a teen parent yourself." While this is a stunning statistic, it is not to say if your mother was a teenager when she had her children that you would defiantly become a teen parent. This often-discouraging statistic draws the teenager to say "It's my fate, I have no control over what will happen." Once they read this statistic. But with education and simply talking to the child, the knowledge that it's possible for the child to become the other 30% is a good way to reinforce simple sex ed.

While this article seemed to prove the need for education in high schools for teenagers, it neglected to inform the reader of the other types of people out in the world, kids and adults. It is to assume that adults are fully educated? It's a solid fact that children don't have any inkling what sex is? I think not.

Author's Note: This paper was responding to an article from the newspaper which basically stated parents should talk to TEENS about sex, but what about other kids...and young adults? This was the first writing I did for English 22, the teacher wanted to 'get a feel' for our writing, it was not an important paper