Shelby Hickman post

Sex. Just seeing the word is enough to make timid parents shiver in discomfort and fill conservative PTA board rooms with flurried fits of rage. Amidst the shoe stomping, nose lifting, and fist flying, however, I believe an important question is forgotten. What is wrong with sex? Why the hush, the hype, the books on how to have "the talk" as though its an unnatural dreaded proccess that parents and teens will never come to terms together on without a series of literature to perpetuate a societally taboo subject.Why, when the population reached a record high was abstinence only education approved?
As teenagers begin sexual development and the realization of new bodies they are in a period that can best be described as painfully awkward and they are not embraced but pushed away. New feelings of lust, desire, romance, and mood swings are not only hushed and negatively reinforced but written off as juvenile and insignificant. At a time when the most emphasis should be paleced on these physiological and psychological changes, teens are essentially ignored because "adults" don't know how to go about dealing with them. This creates a sentiment of distrust and disconnect between teens and the more experienced influences in their lives who could be positive influences. There is little chance for education outside of TV ads, health class, and hearsay from friends, which leaves them unprepared for sexual activity at whatever age they decide to begin.