They say in the Spring a young man's fancy turns to love.

Of course, when they said that, it was 1842. Nowadays "love" is "sex", it's not just in Spring, not just men, and "young" can mean kids barely into their teens.

You might think it a sacrilege to bastardize Alfred Lord Tennyson's famous poetic line in such a manner. But the fact is, many of us parents would prefer to parse 165-year-old poetry than discuss our children's sexuality.

Talking about our kids having sex is far from poetic. In fact, it can be downright mind boggling, especially when you consider:

By age 18, 60% of girls and more than 50% of boys will have had sex

Although teens account for only 25% of the sexually active public, they represent nearly 50% of sexually transmitted disease (STD) cases

There are 25 different STDs

One in four sexually active kids younger than 25 will contract an STD

There are 9 million new cases of STDs among teens and young adults each year

Genital herpes affects one in six teens and adults

There were 71,806 cases of Chlamydia, the most common STD, in Texas in 2005 (the last year for which statistics are available)

There were 21,110 cases of gonorrhea in Texas in 2005

There were 4,287 cases of syphilis in Texas in 2005

Texas has one of the highest STD rates in the country. In fact, we rank #2 for both Chlamydia and gonorrhea infection rates and #4 for syphilis and HIV, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

This is a public health epidemic just as certainly as, say, polio was in the last century. In fact, at the height of the polio epidemic in 1952, just 21,000 cases were reported nationwide—compare that with the 41,993 AIDS cases in 2005 (or the 976,445 Chlamydia cases that same year).

Given this, it is stunning that we—parents, educators, religious leaders, lawmakers—aren't up-in-arms about honestly and frankly discussing sex with kids.

Indeed, we Texans go out of our way not to discuss sex with kids. Our state mandates abstinence-only sex education in public schools; condoms and other ways to prevent STDs may be discussed only in biology (or similar) classes and often only their failure rates may be highlighted. (Some schools do attempt comprehensive sex education, but they are few and far between and run the risk of incurring parental and legal wrath.)

This is insanity in a state where 36,257 people have died of AIDS—the fourth highest AIDS death rate in the country. Or where tens of thousands contract Chlamydia and gonorrhea, which can cause infertility, each year.

The recent hullabaloo over the governor's mandate to vaccinate every sixth grade girl with Gardasil highlighted this state's unwillingness to address our kids' sexual health. The vaccine prevents four strains of the human papillomavirus—an STD also known as genital warts. Many lawmakers believe the vaccine will encourage girls to have sex.

We need to get a grip.

If our lawmakers don't want to talk about sex, we parents better make sure we're doing it.

That means starting the sexual conversation early—as in, no later than early elementary school—and having it often. It means being open, honest, factual, blunt, consistent. It means developing close relationships with our children so that we can express our opinions as well facts. And yes, our opinion does matter: 45% of teens say their parents are the biggest influence when it comes to their sexual decisions (that number jumps to 53% of kids ages 12-to14), according to a report by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. What's more, 88% of teens say it would be much easier to postpone sexual activity "if they were able to have more open, honest conversations about these topics with their parents," according to the report.

If you aren't comfortable talking about sex, you need to get comfortable—now. This is your child's life we're talking about here.

No, it's not poetic. Yes, it's mind-boggling.

But unlike Spring, ignorance is not bliss. It is deadly.