Should The Childfree Option be a part of High School Sex Ed Classes?

Written by Katherine Tuesday, 01 June 2010 19:38

I went to high school back when dinosaurs roamed the earth (late 1970s). My cohort benefited from the feminists who armed with the pill and other forms of birth control could at last take up the issue of child bearing as an option. With this said I cannot remember the discussion ever coming up in our education classes about considering a life without children. There were no discussions about childfree relationships and if there were it was looked at as pathological instead of healthy.

Contraception was taught but it was suggested more in terms of choosing when and how many children to plan for. This was a time before AIDS and sex talk was more open but still not as open as it is today. The magazine covers were not constantly showing which celebrities have a baby bump and the world was not as child centered and narcissistic.

Is it time for the childfree option to be presented at the high school level? Along with the responsibilities of sex, having children, and getting ready for a job market that is constantly in flux perhaps the pros and cons of delaying or skipping procreating should be discussed.

Some home economic classes provide the teens with the role playing experience of being parents for a short time. They take home babies and are responsible for feeding, changing and taking care of them. I do not know if these experiences help but I imagine they at least start a dialog about what it involves to take care of an infant. Do the classes go on to discuss the issues with the following stages of development? Do they discuss the responsibilities of raising a child with a disability? Or are only the best case scenarios presented?

The classes also teach cooking, home finance and other issues to prepare teens for what comes with life after high school. Different types of relationships are talked about now as the definition of family has changed over the years. Why not include families of two as part of the example?

What were your experiences in high school? Was a childfree option discussed in your classes or with your friends? Does this conversation belong in high school sex education classes? How did you learn that living childfree was an option? This subject is still rather controversial. Looking at issues such as child abuse, foster care and bringing children into the world that are not cared for seems to be the controversy that should be in the spotlight. What are your thoughts?

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