You have to follow this link: NARAL Quiz. I knew abstinence-only sex education was pointless; there's not a responsibly-done study that supports its efficacy. (Check out this article from a group that supports abstinence-only education: SIECUS. ) They argue for abstinence education, but strongly against this deceptive and fear-based program that we have now. Somehow I couldn't let myself believe that these programs were out-and-out lying to the kids. Well, get with the program, Andrea. It's pretty amazing.
I followed only a few of the references to see if possibly NARAL was skewing the facts as deliberately as the authors of the abstinence-only program. I'm sad to say that they were not exaggerating. In Choosing the Best Soul-Mate (since when is that the goal of middle school and high school dating???), it really does say that girls should never appear to be too smart if they want to keep their guy. Why KNOW refers to "male and female sperm." What the HECK? It's not hard to know what they meant to say, but that's because... oh, wait...I had sex education classes. The poor children who only learn from these programs won't have a reference point for evaluating the information.
Just to state the obvious... I don't think that middle school and even high school kids should be having sex. They're too young. They can get into too much trouble, and they jump into bed for reasons that aren't psychologically healthy. Or so it seems to me. That's my mother's perspective, not a research perspective. But for heaven's sake, knowledge is power. It's an even more important principle to me that we shouldn't lie to kids. With accurate information and a little guidance, they can learn to make their own healthy decisions.
Here's what I'm going to track down today. What is happening in this community regarding sex education? We certainly have no shortage of local religious evangelists on these pro-life issues. And our school board has a few people who, shall we say, could be replaced by door knobs, for a net gain in brain cells. I'll go from there, once I have the information.
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