When you are in about fourth or fifth grade, you get separated from the other sex to learn about our bodies and how they are going to develop. After that, you never hear about anything involving our bodies or development from the school again. Most students are happy about this. They never have to have that awkward conversation in school again. However, this is a problem as students reach their teenage years. 

After bringing this situation to light, I determined that many students had learned about how conception works from either other students or their individual research. This is concerning because there is a small chance of a student not learning this until it’s very late in their life. They could also receive false information which could cause an even greater problem like accidental pregnancies. 

The reason most students don’t learn this as quickly is that it is not taught in schools. Schools assume that parents teach their children about the birds and the bees while parents assume the school teaches them. 

I asked my mom about this and she said, “I assumed all the permission slips I signed were for that reason. I learned from school and I assumed you would too.”

Another shocking thing we never learn about is the development of the other sex. Some may say that this is not necessary and there is no point in learning it. Let me explain how there are many reasons to teach it. 

For example, there could be a single father to a daughter who never had these lessons. The daughter reaches the age where she starts to mature and develop. This single father, who has no female help, has to figure all of it out by himself. He has to do his own research and we all know that the internet may not always be reliable. Not having these lessons implemented in this school can cause extra stress and problems that are not needed. 

So what are we learning in these required health classes? The same thing we have been learning since elementary school. Not to do drugs and to try to eat healthily. That’s all the semester-long class teaches us. Those required presentations we had to have permission forms for were about bullying and other very important topics, but not what the parents were thinking they were for. 

“Sexual health is also not always discussed in health classes due to a confusion of ‘I thought you taught that’ happening in some elementary buildings,” health teacher Molly Kleiber said. “Some buildings are having classroom teachers and nurses give presentations on sexual health. Some buildings are using their PE teachers. Regardless, the information presented is not consist

ent, which leaves room for errors and misconceptions.”

The issue is no one knows when these lessons are taking place and assumed the students have had them or will have them. However, some students will end up like me, who hasn’t had a single lesson at the age of 16.

After looking through the High School Health Curriculum for the Wentzville School District, I noticed the only lessons required individually is about STDs and STIs. Nothing about what sex is.

“Many are unaware that oral sex is SEX, and students are transmitting diseases and infections orally,” Kleiber said. “Students also think sex is only between a male and a female. While this may seem like basic knowledge, those being sexually abused can be told differently by their attackers.”

I also looked through the Missouri laws over sexual health which state “Schools are not required to teach sex ed – this decision is left with local school boards.”

We do have that one required lesson in health about STDs and STIs. They tell us what they are and what the symptoms are. However, the only thing they tell us to do to prevent them is to use protection. But not what using protection means. 

The STD rate has even risen to its all-time high in years. Why is this?

According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one reason is “the decreasing use of condoms by sexually active high school students.”

When I found that out, I immediately thought back to how we have never had a sex-ed lesson in school and have never learned about protection and how to use it. Most students are not going to ask their parents about how to use a condom.

“Our state has made it an uncomfortable and taboo topic for people to discuss,” Kleiber explained. “Due to Missouri not making sexual health a part of the K-12 curriculum in all school districts, Missouri is statistically the highest in the United States for Sexually Transmitted Diseases/Infections.”

So if these lessons are so important, why did they get removed from schools?

Many say it’s because it actually encourages sexual activity and is too much too soon. However, if kids never learn this from school, how will they? How will they know what prevents pregnancy? How will they prevent STDs? 

The school has put things most of us will never use again above things that are very important and that almost everyone will use. This is an issue.

“There are no benefits to not having it in schools. It is a disservice to students,” Kleiber said. 

The health curriculum needs to change. Our students need to be well-educated on how the human body works.