Although 29 teenage girls seem like a high number of pregnancies, it is much better than the past amount of 61. 16 and Pregnant decreased teen pregnancy by showing the true ordeal of having a child, and the struggles that follow (Goldstein).
Although the controversy over teaching sexual education in schools (rather than abstinence) has been a controversial topic for the last couple decades, sexual education has been around since the early 1900s. In 1912 The National Education Association demanded teachers to undergo training to be fit to teach sexual education to the youth. The issue of sexual education was just beginning at this point. It did not progress until 1940 when the U.S Public Health Service further encouraged schools across the nation to add sexual education to their curriculum. This all led up to the production of the "sex education series" pamphlets by the American Medical Association that are still found in schools today("Facts on American Teens' Sources of Information About Sex").
While many public health officials supported sexual education in schools, there were many people who did not agree. Conservatives argued ferociously against having any sex related subject in schools. The Christian Crusade stated that any sexual education taught in schools was "smut" and "raw sex." A conservative leader, Phyllis Schlafly, began that argument that sexual education in schools instead of the teaching of abstinence encouraged teenage sexual activity (Pardini). Eventually the conservatives agreed that the youth needed to be taught, but what was being taught was the new controversy. The format of sexual education in schools eventually became the argument, and is still a huge issue today. By the mid-1980s, teaching sexual education rather than abstinence was beginning to become the norm. The ideas of self-worth were included in the classes as well as parenting skills.
