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Confusing parenting with public health
Posted By katie allison granju
Experts told Congress yesterday that an increasing body of research indicates that “abstinence only” sexual health instruction doesn’t seem to prevent pregnancy or STDs among targeted audiences, like teenagers.
Our own Rep. Jimmy Duncan expressed skepticism.
Rep. John Duncan, a Tennessee Republican, said that it seems “rather elitist” that people with academic degrees in health think they know better than parents what type of sex education is appropriate. “I don’t think it’s something we should abandon,” he said of abstinence-only funding.
I think Rep. Duncan is confusing public health strategy with parenting. They are two different things. Public health strategy - meaning what we spend tax dollars on to decrease disease in our populace - should be based on hard science. It’s epidemiological in nature. Does this way of teaching groups of people how to prevent disease work effectively in preventing that disease among groups of people? Yes or no?
Parenting is about more than that. It’s more nuanced. It’s about imparting the cultural or religious values that matter to an individual to his or her individual children. Parenting doesn’t belong in public health campaigns.
But we need both. Children need effective, engaged parenting to learn values, and they need exposure to effective, engaged public health programming to make sure they are able to grow up and live out those values in a physically healthy society.
Apr 25th, 2008
