News & Articles
Teachers owe teens naked truth of sex
January 18, 2008
By: Monique Cunin
Posted: 1/17/08
Jamie Lynn Spears is sixteen and pregnant.
On one end of the spectrum you have parents concerned about the message it sends to their young children who idolize her. On the other end you have people wondering what happened to Britney's cute kid sister.
To the latter, her getting knocked up is a test case for why abstinence-only education doesn't work. She is a result of what happens when school districts and religious groups only teach what they believe is the right way to live. She is what happens when people choose not to deal with reality.
Generally, every human will make a major error in judgment between the ages of 13 and 19. They will or have done things that they are not proud of. They have done things that in some instances have the potential to change their lives. Sex is one of those things. The only difference between the average sexually active teen and Spears is that the vast majority of teens do not face the same public scrutiny that Jamie Lynn and her family will face for the rest of their lives.
Jamie Lynn is like the movie character Juno. She is sixteen, has a supportive family and an expanding lump under her shirt. The difference is at the end of the day Juno is a movie character, who gives her baby up for adoption and gets the boy.
Life outside of the lights, cameras and costume changes is not that simple.
At the end of nine months, Jamie Lynn will have a squirming, screaming, pooping human being on her hands. In nine months her childhood is over.
Abstinence-only education is robbing children of their right to be children. Sex education should be just that, an education. No teacher should be allowed to just say keep it in your pants because Jesus wants you to. They should also be saying, "if you choose to have sex, be safe." They should be educating teenagers about STIs, pregnancy and pregnancy prevention. They should educate students about what a condom is and how to use one.
Teachers should not be the only line of defense. Parents who are wondering what to tell their Zoey 101-loving children about Jamie Lynn should tell them what to do so that they don't end up like her. They should be telling them what sex is and the responsibilities that go along with it.
They need to use this opportunity to point out that some choices can have lifelong consequences.
If someone doesn't tell these teenagers where kids come from, we'll end up with a lot more Jamie Lynn Spears look-a-likes running around.
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