PassionFile

Sex and Sexuality Education or Ignorance?

While the United States has some of the highest birth control awareness (and no, I'm not getting into the no-win conversation about abortion), we also have a much higher rate of unwanted or unplanned (that would be whoops!) pregnancies, which is at 48%.

In the United States, there is also a misconception that sex education promotes sex among teenagers, when research and studies are definitive in their assessment that the lack of knowledge about intimacy promotes ignorance and false beliefs that are often supported by extreme and orthodox religious beliefs. In fact, a recent research report in the United States had found that over 50% of teenagers believed you can't get pregnant the first time you have sex. Responsible sexual behavior is not easy especially when parents, or those who object to or are uneasy with discussing sex with their children, let the ignorance build up in their children.The kind of responses and responsible behavior, is reflected by the answer teenagers gave and there are plenty of other shockingly juvenile responses to basic sexual function as in surveys and reports as well.

Our Worlds Population Explosion Demands Sexual Intelligence

The Population division at the United Nations  in concert with Dr. Joel E. Cohen the author of "How Many People The World Can Support" is dealing with many of the misconceptions about "conception" (flour and water is a good replacement for mother's milk for example) and what giving birth really means. The decline of fertility in the Western world has a variety of impacts including government intervention, education, world food supply, survivability rates, etc...In the developing world, it seems to rely on the ancient farming principle of the more farm hands the merrier, with a goal of more children fueling the worlds population growth.

The family values that US politicians run on is a farce since family isn't even part of it, rather than top down imposition of certain theological tenets. Even though over 50 countries have a negative birth rate like Japan and most European countries, most people rather like the longer life-expectancy as opposed to low fertility. Countries with high fertility rates unfortunately have women who don't have viable alternatives to child bearing and homemaking. Alternatively, countries with low-fertility offer women more options, which is seen as a success by many pundits. Education, of course plays a role in what women choose and can decide on, the women in the latter circumstance opting for smaller families, careers and other interests. These facts and figures all come from the UN and various other related agencies.

The UN also suggested that in 70 years a decline in fertility is absolutely necessary, since the world will have 14 billion people on the earth leaving so many people starving. The emphasis is to value children for quality not for quantity. Opinion in high fertility countries suggest men always tend to want more children than women. In European and other Western countries the results are right around 2 children per couple.Is it because there is more sex and sexuality education, or because these countries have more formal education and contraceptive choices. It appears both reasons come into play and that is key for the planets survival, not only for individuals mental and physical health.

The weight of populations will continue to shift from younger oriented cultures and countries like Japan that have a greater percentage of older people will be models to the younger countries and those that are less developed. So provisions and changes will have to consider including older people in work, entertainment and other areas, while younger people will have to consider why they are having children and the consequences and responsibilities they will have if they don't practice safe and respectful intimacy.