Presentation

I really enjoyed listening other's presentations. I thought poeple prepared really well and they did good job. I haven't done mine yet but it would be fun to present it.
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Stop Teen Pregnancy and STDs Spreading

The U.S.A has the highest teen pregnancy and STD rates in the industrialized world and this is going to keep increasing unless we do something about it. This is mostly caused by a lack of sex education for teens and ignorance about contraception. According to Advocate for Youth, every hour of every day, two American young people contract HIV, 96 become pregnant, and nearly 350 more contract an STD, or a sexually transmitted disease (Llana). This means by the end of today, almost 50 young Americans will contract HIV, almost 2500 will have become pregnant, and nearly 8500 more will contract a sexually transmitted disease. In addition, USA Today says, “One of every two young Americans will get a sexually transmitted disease by age 25. Nearly 90% of young adults already had been infected with three diseases: human papillomavirus (HIP), Chlamydia and trichomonas (Sternberg). This issue can influence the economy in the United States. More than two-thirds of teens who have babies before the age of 18 do not finish high school; they drop out from schools (Strasburger). These are not just numbers. These are your sons and daughters, perhaps your students, who are at a high risk of being a part of them, even yourself. Teen pregnancy costs the United States is at least $7 billion annually (“Teen”). The lifetime medical cost for the 9 million infections at $6.5 billion. Costs range from a low of $18 per case for Trichomonas vaginalis, a parasitic infection, to $200,000 for HIV (Sternberg). As you can see by looking at Picture 1, the spreading of STDs is very easy and it can be spread fast without people noticing. I believe that making all parents agree with sex education and starting to teach sex education at home from students’ parents before children are teens would solve the problem.
There are two problems relate to this issue. First, some parents do not agree with sex education and they make it difficult for schools to teach in classes (“Education”). Sex education is effective and helps teens to prevent unwanted pregnancy and STDs (William R). Some parents believe that sex education is not appropriate for their children to discuss in schools or they think that their children are too young to discuss sex education (“Education”).
Second, younger children are having more sex than before (Picture 2). Twenty-three percent of all 14 year-olds and 30% of all 15 year-olds have had sexual intercourse (Feldman). Teaching sex education at home is an effective way to teach it to their children (“Sex Education that”). However, it is not easy for parents to do.
Keys to solving these issues are making all parents agree with sex education and starting to learn about sex education at home from parents before children are teens. I came up with the ideas of sending emails or sending letters to parents and having meetings at schools. These works should be lead by teachers and principals of schools, perhaps the U.S. Department of Education.
First, to make all parents agree with sex education, we have to have them understand what sex education is and we need to tell them how effective it is to children by using facts from research such as this fact: according to William Finger R, “Many studies have shown that educating youth adults about sex does not cause them to have sexual relations earlier or increase their sexual activities. Sex education has caused the number of teen pregnancies to drop and reduced teens’ risk of sexually transmitted diseases.”
Second, parents need to start teaching sex education early to children before puberty: normally 12 years old for girls and 14 years for boys (“Earlier”). Parents are the most effective people for their children. At home, young people can easily have one-to-one discussions with parents which focus on specific issues, questions or concerns (“Sex education that”). Providing parents with information about how to teach sex education at home is necessary (“Sex education: Start”).
According to U.S. census bureau, there are about 51 million students in elementary schools to high schools (The Official Website of the United States Census). To send emails to their parents is free of cost but not all parents have an email address. If the letters were sent by mail, it would cost $6.44 million with using discounts (The Official Website of the United States Postal). This budget should come from U.S. Department of Education. Perhaps, each school can pay for their own students. Meetings for parents to understand about sex education and how to teach sex education to their children at home should be discussed with teachers. To be able to do that, principles need to allow them to have the meetings and give them opportunities to have the meetings. All of this is expected to take about half a year including one month for making the letter for parents, one month for sending the letters and having parents read the letter, two months for planning for meetings, two months for having the meetings.
There would still be people who do not agree with sex education. It is important to convince them by meeting with them in person and talking about it. Another possibility of rebuttal is the cost. This $6.44 million may be refused by the U.S. Department of Education or principals of schools may refuse to pay the letter bills for their own students. If so, all the teachers can give these letters to their students at school and they can deliver it to their parents. If possible, teachers can go to parents’ houses and deliver it to them and talk about it which will be more effective.
If this proposal is accepted or is executed, the spreading of STDs and teen pregnancy would reduce in the United States and U.S.A. could save medical costs. In addition, children would be more responsible for having intercourse (“Sex Education that”). If not, the spreading of STDs and teen pregnancy would increase and costs to the United States would increase as well. Moreover, United States birth rates would decline because of undetected STDs. We need to start acting on this big problem and I believe my proposal would help to solve the issue.











Work Cited
“Earlier Sex Education could Avert Later Social Problems.” Academic Search Premier. 20 Oct 2006.Gateway Community College (AZ). 30 Mar 2007.
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“Education in the United States.” Wikimedia Foundation Inc. 29 Mar 2007. 30 Mar 2007

Feldman, Robert, Ed. “Social and Personality Development in Adolescence.” Child Development. 4th Ed. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc, 2007. 439 – 469.
Finger, William R. "Sex Education Has Succeeded." Sex Education. Ed. Kristen Bailey. At Issue Series. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Thomson Gale. Maricopa CountyCommunity　College. 20 Apr. 2007 =retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010023214&source
=gale&srcprod=OVRC&userGroupName=mcc_main&version=1.0>.
Llana, Nossel. “Pregnancy and Childbearing Among Younger Teens” Advocate for Youth. 28 Mar 2007
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The Official Website of the United States Postal Service. The United States Postal Service. 1 April.2007
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The Official Website of the United States Census Bureau. United States Census Bureau. Mar.2007. 18 Apr.2007
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“Sex Education: Start Discussions Early.” CNN.com. 7 Jun 2005. 30 Mar 2007 .
“Sex Education that Works.” 15 Mar. 2007. AVERT Organization. 25 Mar. 2007 .
Sternberg, Steve. “USA's Youth at High Risk for Venereal Diseases.”
USATODAY.com 24 Feb 2004. 20 Mar 2007
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“Teen Sexual Activity, Contraceptive Use, Pregnancy and Childbearing: General Facts and Stats.” Teenpregnancy.org Nov 2006. 21 Apr 2007
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Strasburger, C Victor. “Teen Pregnancy Rates in the USA” CoolNurse.com 21 Apr 2007 .
Wagoner, James. “Teens Need Information, Not Censorship.” Advocate for Youth. 12 June 2001. 28 Mar 2007
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