Spring Awakening: The Problem with Censoring

Spring Awakening is undoubtedly one of the most powerful musicals ever written. It's pretty heavy stuff, and for some people that can be too much, especially because it's performed by teenagers. For those of you who don't know, Spring Awakening is a musical that centers around a young group of teens in the 1890's who are struggling with rape, abuse, sexuality, puberty, depression, suicide, teen pregnancy, abortion, and their sexual orientation, among other things. All but one of the characters lack an honest, guiding adult figure to help them through the difficulty of teenage years. The rest of the teens' parents just try and brush it under the rug, leaving the teens confused and at a loss for what is happening with their body and minds. The teens are without any truthful information about these tough topics, left to figure out sex and sexuality on their own. 

As I stated earlier, Spring Awakening is one of the most powerful musicals ever written. Why? Because this is a problem that we experience every day. It may not be the 1890's, but kids and teens are still growing up with misguided ideas about themselves and sexuality in general; And many adults are still 'solving' this problem by sweeping it under the rug.

Educating teens on the truth 
about sex and their bodies is the first step in solving this problem. Yes, there are sexual education programs in schools, but so many of these give wrong and useless information to the students. My high school's sexual education program consisted of scaring us into absitenence by showing us all the different STD's we could catch, without any real information on what sex is and how it works; A friend of mine was taught in her seventh grade sexual education class that if women have sex before marriage they are "spoiled" and won't be able to find a husband; while another friend of mine, who attended private school, did not receive sexual education at all. 

Upon further research, there are some really frightening statistics about sexual education in the United States. Less than half of the states in the U.S mandate Sexual Education, and only 10 of those states require the material to be medically accurate. According to a study done by PBS in 2008, America has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the developed world. In addition, 41% of teens aged 18-19 said they knew little or nothing about condoms or other contreceptives. 64% said they had used the internet to try and find information about sex, and upon further investigation, PBS found that over 1 in 2 of these commonly used sexual information websites were innaccurate. For those kids who receive wrong information, or no information at all, they often turn to movies, television, and the internet to try and learn about sex. Do we really want our kids learning about sex from 50 Shades Of Grey? Yeah, I didn't think so. 


I whole heartedly understand that parents want to preserve their children's innocence, and are worrried about them experimenting with sex too soon; But if we just give them real, useful, and honest information about sexuality, gender, and puberty then they will have the right tools to make educated decisions about sex throughout the entirety of their lives. Sheltering kids from the truth about sex may seem 'easier' than talking to them about it, but the result is really damaging. The fact of the matter is, if parents and schools don't educate teens on sex, they will get the information elsewhere; And that information is going to be tainted. 
Spring Awakening has a tragic ending. This 'censoring' leads to one teen commiting suicide, one dying of a botched abortion, two others damaged victims of sexual abuse, and one (the one who educated by his parents about sex) alive and in disbelief of what censoring has done to his friends. 
The lessons learned from Spring Awakening are of the upmost importance. Sex and sexuality need to be discussed truthfully, fully, and honestly with kids and teens. Let's make real life have a different ending, and stop censoring youth from the from the facts of life.