Yesterday, when I finished reading Emily Michels’s viewpoint in the Daily about sexual education (The opposite of sex, 09/04/2008), I set down my newspaper and picked up my laptop. Michels argued that the abstinence-only sexual education program now taught in public schools is the root cause of rising teen pregnancy rates in the United States. She condemned the Bush administration for backing a program that “puts an entire generations of teens at high risk for disease and unwanted pregnancies.”

And you know what? She was right. Abstinence-only education isn’t working. We’ve got the numbers to prove it.

But that’s not the only problem, and blaming everything unfortunate that happens on the government — Bush administration or otherwise — is a bad habit to get into. We need to take some of the blame, too. We need to start making some changes.

Rather than a naïve teen populous caused by poor government policies, the root cause of teen pregnancy is a culture in which casual sex has become a way of life. Our society teaches young people that having sex at a young age is perfectly acceptable. The media glamorizes celebrity teen pregnancy. Mainstream music and television has transformed sex from a private act between two people committed to each other into a cheap thrill. Bombarded from every direction, young people think free love is just another part of the American way.

Somewhere along the way, giving youths a realistic impression of the consequences of their actions got lost. On television, the pretty, popular girl never gets pregnant with a baby for which she can’t care. In the songs, the one-night stand doesn’t end with an innocent child in an impoverished, single-parent home. Pop culture teaches young people to forget about the consequences of their actions. Young girls are taught that having sex is a choice they can make, an action to prove how mature they are.

But sex is not a form of self-expression. It is, to be completely frank, a reproductive function. Thinking about sex outside of biological terms fights against nature. That’s why even the most advanced birth control techniques are never 100 percent effective. No amount of education can change that.

But people can change their thinking and their habits. We’re the ones allowing this misinformation and these irresponsible attitudes to reach young minds. If the people want to lower teen pregnancy rates, we need to be the ones making the change, not waiting around for the government to do so. Parents should give their children the facts and teach them family values. Movements to insert reality into the messages sent over our airways need to form.

If John McCain takes office in January, it is a good bet that the abstinence-only sexual education program won’t be changing. Barack Obama, on the other hand, co-sponsored the Prevention First Act, a bill that supports our the teaching of both abstinence and safe sex in public schools.

But neither of these policies is good enough. We shouldn’t be waiting around for the government to make a move. If America wants its young people to be making truly responsible decisions, it needs to step up and start taking truly responsible action.

Rachel Van Gilder is an LSA sophomore.