Sex Ed.

1. Despite my opponent's assertions, puberty is directly characterized as the coming of maturity of human sex organs, which is accompanied by hormones which create human sex drive. Bottom line: we even want to have sex until puberty. All of the sudden, we are presented with an entirely new human sensation. My opponent seems to think that this plays no role in the sexuality of teenagers, which is clearly not the case. Though I didn't think I'd actually have to argue about the scientific realities of puberty, I'll go ahead and cite a few sources to back myself up, and prove that my opponent has no clue what puberty is or how it affects youth. This was basic biology, health, and psychology knowledge in both high school and college… . http://www.scienceclarified.com... . http://www.puberty101.com... . http://kidshealth.org... You can't control puberty. It isn't something you can stop. I never removed the agency of decision-making from teens. However, my opponent refuses to consider the fact that kids WILL learn about sexuality somehow at the time of puberty. Mother nature sees to that. Either they can learn the facts and harms of sex in schools, or we can "blanket the problem," as it were, but ignoring sexual education, which will inevitably lead to more unsafe, young sex. This harm has been completely ignored throughout the round. If you vote for the con, you vote for more unsafe sex. 2. Why might kids seek out pornography or seek out experimentation? This is entirely due to the new urges that they have. They wouldn't have these urges if it wasn't for puberty. 3. Despite what my opponent would have you believe, not all teenagers, not even a majority of teenagers are "sleeping around, cheating, raping," etc. This is completely hyperbolic. Kids naturally experiment with sex because their bodies tell them to, and because opportunities arise. Sex education is the only interference between safe treatment of sex and unfettered, uneducated sexual experimentation. I remind you that 1 in 4 adults in the US have an STI right now. May I also remind everyone of Rockdale and Africa, which my opponent still has yet to mention. These are clear cut cases, one locality, and one continent, that show the extreme detriment of a lack of sexual education. 4. My opponent has also not addressed the fact that sex education is not linked to increased sexual activity. He can offer no curriculums, no teachers, and no circumstances in which a teacher has seriously preached the joys of sex in front of a class of 9th graders. Sex education curriculum doesn't do that. I've helped design sex education curriculum. I have a degree in education, and am a highly qualified, certified HS educator. My opponent offers nothing but groundless assertions that sex education leads to more sex in teens, whereas I am a highly qualified expert on the subject of education. 5. I'm not saying sex should be a part of their lives. I'm saying it is a part of their lives, whether we want it to be or not. Sexual urges are out of our control. It's instinct. I cannot be clearer on this point. And though I feel that introducing parents into the debate at this point is slightly abusive, I'll address it anyway. First of all, parents are already included closely in the curriculum forming process for both health and sex education. Children can easily be opted out of sex education or pieces of it, which fits parents' ideologies very well. Second of all, parents are not always trained or capable of educating their children about sex. Besides absentee parents, you have irresponsible parents, or parents who are simply too embarrassed to do anything but tell their child not to have sex. This is a sure-fire way to cheat children of valuable information, and is the same as school-sanctioned abstinence-only education, which I addressed in round 1. School is the only way to reach as many children as possible.