Sex happens. Sex can happen a lot. It happens among all races. It can happen at strange places and times.

People lose their virginity at different times in their lives. Some people save themselves until their wedding night. Others are experiencing sex with several different partners in their teens.

Sex has been happening since the beginning of humankind. Even Eve was probably worried if she could truly please Adam. Sex is a very natural aspect of our lives. It was the way each of us was created, even though we would rather not see our parents as sexual beings.

We live in a society obsessed with sex and everything that surrounds it. At times, it seems like everyone is having sex. I have always wondered why characters in the afternoon soap operas get to have sex all day while I have to go to work and class. Cosmopolitan tries to give women advice about it, while the Playboy channel gives men an odd view of it.

We are beyond the years when sex was evil and sinful. Sex is no longer an activity surrounded with mystery and myths. We know the dangers and joys of sex; we have survived the stereotypes of AIDS. Our generation is more educated about sexually transmitted diseases than our parents ever were.

Despite all this openness on the television and movies, many educational health programs seem to be in serious denial of this fact.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention released a report Tuesday which said teenagers were less likely to become pregnant in 1997 than at any other time. So after a short decline, teen pregnancies are on a steady rise again.

And the United States continues to have the highest teen pregnancy rate of any industrialized country.

So what are the numbers telling us? The reports are saying we need to change the sexual education programs in our high schools.

Teens learn about sex on shows such as “Dawson’s Creek” instead of in conversations between their parents or health educators. I know too many smart girls who aren’t in college because they got pregnant. They didn’t know where to go for birth control.

They believed their boyfriend’s lies that they couldn’t get pregnant. And they were afraid to ask their parents for help. As we become educators and parents, we need to work together to eliminate this problem.

Our generation needs to be the one to give students a better sexual education. I believe high school health courses are too conservative for today’s young people. A health course needs to give students honest and useful information. I believe that if you give these students the proper tools they will make better decisions.

Besides talking about teen pregnancies, we need to teach the students about sex in an up-close and personal way.

If I was a health instructor, I’d want a teenage mother to come in and talk to the class about her experiences. She could explain to the class how, in nine short months, her life was changed. She could explain how hard it is staying at home with her baby while her friends are watching football games. And I have always believed that showing a video of a woman giving birth would be the best form of birth control for high school girls.

Critics of expanded sexual education in high schools believe that more sex talk will encourage students to engage in the activity.

But a study conducted by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy found sex education programs do not speed up teenager’s experimentation with sex. In some cases, the more graphic information, the less likely students were to have sex.

The report examined eight programs which used a combination of abstinence and safe sex educational programs.

This research should encourage schools to look at altering their sex education class.

Schools are taking the first steps to giving students the proper education. Let’s have every Iowa high school take the next step.

We all know sex is going to happen among high school teens. Let’s give them the information they can use the next time they think about hopping into bed with their partner.

Michelle Kann is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Garnavillo. She is editor in chief of the Daily.