Perhaps Abstinence Education Should be Called "Smart Sex"
Last week I wrote a post titled "Progressives and Sex Education." Take a look a this from World Net Daily:
The National Abstinence Education Association has noted, "A survey from Zogby International showing that when parents become aware of what abstinence education vs. comprehensive sex education actually teaches, support for abstinence programs jumps from 40 percent to 60 percent, while support for comprehensive programs drops from 50 percent to 30 percent. And 59 percent of parents said more funding should go to abstinence education; 22 percent said more should go to comprehensive sex education."
"Many groups and individuals up until yesterday had relentlessly railed against abstinence programs as totally ineffective, even counterproductive," Stevens said. "They had used their own studies to convince many legislators, including President Obama, to eliminate federal funding for abstinence programs altogether, in the process depriving teens and their parents from a potent resource that can mean a lifesaving difference.
In other words, people shy away from the notion of abstinence education because they think it translates to a bunch of teachers imposing their morality on kids. That's not what abstinence education is. In fact in my opinion they need a whole new name for it.
Maybe "Smart Sex."
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Please tell me what is wrong with encouraging our children to wait until marriage to have sex . Why is that bad?
School isn't a place where teachers or government should dictate moral values, that's called indoctrination. The point of school is to educate. Regardless, nobody waits till marriage for sex anyway so it's going to be an ineffective suggestion.
I think both of you have an interesting point. If we presume that delaying having sex is a "moral" value... your response makes sense. I believe that one of our country's principles is that individuals have the right to make their own moral judgements, and to teach their children their moral value system.
On the other hand , we have the statutory rape law , which would imply that there is a general agreement about the rightness or wrongness of the activity of sex based on age and our desire to protect children from a damaging activity. If sex is merely a moral decision, should this law exist? If the law should exist... then perhaps the decision about when tohave sex isn't just a moral one?
I may have to ask this question as a follow up...
And, just in case you were sick it the day they taught it at your school , school is a place where teachers and government dictate moral values, or, in most cases, the lack there of. And, yes, schools do indoctrinate.
Says you. I know many people who have and are waiting until marriage to have sex . My point is that there are two options, have sex or don't. So, again, tell me what is wrong with encouraging our youth to wait until they get married to have sex?
This may or may not have anything to do with morality, how about just making sure you don't get pregnant or catch a STD? Is that really wrong in your mind? Or do you just subscribe to the notion that humans are no better than any other animal and we can't control our sexual desires any more than we can stop breathing on our own?
The problem with AO education is not that it teaches waiting until marriage , but that it does not teach STD prevention techniques or birth control techniques.
By ignoring those two vital parts of sex education it puts children at risk.
STD prevention techniques are always useful in case people decide to have sex (remember that we are hard wired to want to have sex). Birth control is even more important, because it is of use to everyone (those who chose to have sex outside of a marriage and those who chose to wait).
Further Abstinence only education has a record of failing at preventing both unwanted births and the spread of STDs.
The reality is, typically " abstinence education " does incorporate religious overtones and moralistic preaching . The Bush administration's abstinence education funding required programs to teach that it was society 's standard to wait for marriage to have sex , rather than teaching that it was a maturity issue and not some arbitrary moral standard imposed by a President's world view. Abstinence-only programs also don't even discuss alternative methods of " safe sex" if you choose to not to wait till marriage - as almost nobody does.
Abstinence education , as it currently exists, is nothing more than moral preaching coupled.
coupled with bad education on " safe sex ."
Somehow forgot to type the rest of my thought ...