Abstinence Education vs. Actual Education

I think the school systems main goal is to keep kinds from sexual activity until like you stated "they are married" or older. I also, do believe they are leaving the rest up to the parent to teach, because, to me, my opnion, that is the parents responsibility to teach their child about sexual activity and all that good stuff. You never know a parent may have a different opnion on certain things about sex. From all the classes and programs that I have been in the main goal was to teach children to really think about what they are getting into and to consider "safe sex" along with the safest sex in abstinence until marriage. This is just my opnion

are you nuts? texas teaches girls about their periods. not that its really the schools job to teach a girl about that anyways.

and where is the proof that teaching abstinence sex ed leads to higher rates of teenage pregnency? just because the facts sit next to each other doesn't mean one caused the other. Texas gets stinkin hot and houston and other coastal cities get really humid, perhaps our high rates of teenage pregnency has something to do wtih the fact that the heat makes us so warm that we take our clothes of readily? you might as well say that.
besides its not like we don't have tv's and don't know about every available form of birth control, not to mention condoms.

so what i think is rather contradictory is the fact that you start off advocating parent responsibility then place so much emphasis on the responsibility of sex- ed resting on the school system.

i did the sex ed class. it was hm... i dont know not really that important. and you can teach abstinence without teaching it from a moral perspective, there are plenty of advantages to abstaining from sex besides the moral reasons.

one thing i did learn in my sex ed class though was that condoms don't prevent disease.

have you ever taken an abstinence only sex ed class? i did, when i was in ninth grade, and they talked about contraceptives too. its a perfectly fine stance on education

Teens are going to have sex so the best thing to do is to explain to them the consequences it carries. Teachers usually get more involved in their own opinions and tend to not focus on the subject-sex EDUCATION.

Anyone who doesn't see the influence that religion has on our schools' sex ed. classes needs to get corrective lenses. About a third of the nation's public schools are required to teach abstinence only programs in order to receive the funding they need. This is clearly due to a Christian conservative bias in Washington. Religions all over the world, especially the Abrahamic religions have restrictions on sexual practices. Of course, the intention is good--I mean, we don't want our communities to become rampant with disease and teen pregnancies and children with no homes or parents to care for them. Yet, our technology has improved since the last couple thousand years . . . particularly in the area of contraception. Not only are there male and female condoms, there is the pill, a cream, and even a seasonal injection that is, by all accounts, 100% effective.

Sure, the abstinence only programs can tell you about differnent forms of contraception, but they can't tell you how to use them. Also, they will present a biased, misleading idea of their effectiveness. They'll tell you that condoms generally have about a 15% failure rate, when in actuality it's more like 2%, if that. Their numbers are derived from all cases, including those where the device was not properly used. Maybe if they taught us how to use them in school, we might not have as many "mistakes."

Now, a lot of you will say, "Well, kids don't need to learn that stuff in school. They can learn it on their own or from their parents." While this may be true, it is fairly unlikely--sex (again, because of religion =/) is usually a rather uncomfortable subject, and young children probably don't want to talk about it at all, much less with their parents. The parents then make the mistake of not talking about it with their children in hopes that if they don't know about it, they won't do it . . . ha . . . ha. So when the kids finally do end up in that situation, carnality takes over and they pay little attention to safety. Therefore, we need to teach our children the do's and don'ts of sex in school, from someone who knows what they are talking about, and who is comfortable talking about it.

Another aspect of the abstinence only programs is how the teacher will talk about the idea that sex makes the person feel bad or naughty or emotionally depressed and regretful. Then other kids will say the same thing, relating an experience. But these feelings are fed to them by their society. I've never felt bad after sex . . .

It's a fact that humans naturally have sexual desires. Sex, in this sense, becomes a primary need--just like hunger, etc. Ever heard of the Silver Ring Thing? 89% of the students who swear the oath and wear the ring will break it. Kids are going to have sex, whether parents like it or not. So the best thing to do would be to teach our children what to do when they're feeling horny, how to go about getting tested, and the myriad different contraceptive devices out there. Besides, teaching kids to not do something when they are at an age of rebellion naturally produces the opposite effect.

I think that the kids should be encouraged to thoroughly understand a given situation before they take action. This goes for anything, not just for sex, even though it can be applied here. Many kids are unaware about the consequences of actions, even though the information is out there. I believe that if there was a strong foundation of understanding the situation before taking action, many problems will be avoided, and every decision would be a conscious one.

I'm not a parent yet (though that might be in the works sooner than later) and I do agree that parents need to take a MUCH deeper and more proactive open role with their children about sex. They get it from a teacher that we don't know personally, we don't knwo what their values are or how they interact with our children, I mean who TRULY knows and it makes me so sad to learn that our society is failing our children!

I was raised by my grandparents and that's a totally different aspect. what about those kids that get no direction, who's mom works too much for them even to SEE what a real family looks like. I was raised a portion by my mom too and I got to see what an abusive relationship looked like and I was never talked to about sex. My mom tried but I was entirely way too young, and I really didn't understand. Then getting married I ahd to litteraly figure it out on my own! I don't like the feeling that some day a child hears abotu sex from their peers without factual information and that it's such a tabboo conversation/topic that nobody wants it to be open and relevant. Gosh I want to make sure my children are educated and not be embaressed by the topic, even tv shows portray it being "a really hard and not often" talked about subject..

lets break the cycle

Safe sex must be taught in conjunction with abstinence. There are benefits of both. I believe we should also make the pill available to younger women. But I also believe we should teach kids the consequences of truly doing what feels good. That a 30 second orgasm can lead to a life time of unwanted responsibilities.