Sex Education: A Necessity in Public Schools TodayAlice was a normal sixteen-year-old; she loved school, her family and her boyfriend. He was having a great time his junior year, until the day he learned about the "accident." Alice and her boyfriend, Brad, had been together for more than two years and were planning to get married. They both felt ready to have sex. However, neither of them knew anything about birth control or the dangers of having unprotected sex. What they knew about sex they learned from watching television and from what their friends told them. So one night they decided to try it. Then, about six weeks later, Alice noticed that she wasn't feeling well and that she hadn't had her period in a long time. Of course, Alice had no idea what was happening to her, so she told her mother that she wasn't feeling well and that she hadn't had her period. Alice's mother asked Alice if she and Brad had slept together, and Alice had to tell her the truth. His mother immediately knew exactly what was wrong. Alice was pregnant. Alice's mother, Gertrude, immediately called Brad's parents. The teenagers and their parents met and discussed the "incident". Later that year Alice dropped out of school and gave birth to twin girls. By this time, Brad had graduated and found a job, where he could work enough to support Alice and the twins. This "accident" changed Alice and Brad's lives forever. Alice never made it to sex education class her senior year. Alice got pregnant at a time when most teenagers weren't having sex. However, a recent survey conducted by Health Initiatives for Youth showed that more than two-thirds of high school students in the United States have had sex before they become seniors ("Sex education..."). The history of sex education dates back to the end of the 19th century. Sex education then consisted of medical and biological information about venereal diseases and reproduction. Subsequently, after the Second World War, the mass media played an important role in making information about sex available to children. Many people felt that this caused the need for sex education in public schools ("Sex Education", Encarta.). Half-heartedly, public schools began teaching minimal sex education, until the late 1960s, when educational and government organizations created more developed sex education programs in schools...