One Comment to '“Don’t do it” isn’t keeping kids from doing it'
Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to '“Don’t do it” isn’t keeping kids from doing it'.
:: Trackbacks/Pingbacks ::
No Trackbacks/Pingbacks
“Don’t do it” isn’t keeping kids from doing it
Posted By katie allison granju
Leslie Snow says our culture’s approach to teaching adolescents about sex is getting us nowhere:
Earlier this month at a conference on preventing sexually transmitted diseases, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the results of a new study that showed at least one in four teenage American girls has a sexually transmitted disease. That translates into 3 million girls nationwide carrying a disease that can cause sterility or cancer, one that often has few noticeable symptoms and is easily spread. “Shocking” was the word printed in headlines across the country.
But why should we be shocked?
For years, sex education in the United States has consisted of only one message: “Don’t do it.” Students in schools across the country, including Tennessee, are asked to sign abstinence pledge cards that are meant to guarantee chastity until marriage. But abstinence-only programs ignore a basic fact: Some students are going to have sex anyway. Even after they sign their pledge cards. Even after they pinky-promise to wait until marriage.
If schools are going to tackle sex and health education, they are morally obligated to teach students how to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies. That doesn’t mean abstinence education should be ignored. Abstinence needs to be part of the curriculum, but it shouldn’t be the whole curriculum.
Knowledge is protection. Only half of the girls in the CDC study admitted having sex; others defined sex as only intercourse, even though they were engaging in sexual behaviors that could lead to sexually transmitted diseases. They didn’t have the information they needed to guard their health, and they didn’t even know it.
Mar 28th, 2008
I think that was the point I attempted to make unsuccessfully some time back. People just don’t get it, do they? I would actually go so far as to say that if they came out with vaccines for STDs I would advocate those for all my nieces and nephew. No, this would not be an incentive for them to have sex. This is about protecting their health. Education is knowledge, knowledge is power. Why do we insist on taking that away from children? 18 is nothing but a number. If they can know about it then, why not before. Is it the fact that parents will have to get involved in something they aren’t comfortable with if it’s before 18? Don’t misunderstand, Abstinence is great, and we talk that talk all the time, but there needs to be more than just that. Please understand, if you talked to your children about this subject, you would quickly learn that kids are getting information anyway. However, the sources are their peer group, the info isn’t accurate and sometimes the facts are being distorted in order to fit another agenda that is being put forth by a boyfriend/girlfriend/hookup. Is that where you want your child to get information? From a third party with an agenda? Well, good luck with that.