teaching abstinence only

[golden_buns]

Originally Posted by relus

I think educating on self pleasure(masturbation) is a viable alternative, you will also need to teach about the consequences of sex and that teens/young adults are not ready emotionally or physically for it, stds, pregnancies, abortion, birth control etc :p

But nothing beats the real deal

[Arex]

Originally Posted by Kuchana

I have to disagree with you. I think if you're sexually active, then naturally you'd have a greater tendency towards the promiscious path. I mean face it. Sex is tempting and a lot of people can't resist the temptation.

Huh? Just because you have sex doesn't mean you have any tendency towards or against promiscuity. Granted, by definition one necessarily has to be sexually active to be promiscuous. But by definition, one also needs to be sexually active to be in a sexually monogamous relationship. I suppose sex at a younger age, and/or before marriage may be correlated with having more sexual partners in one's lifetime, but that doesn't make one promiscuous. Having sex doesn't make one any more promiscuous than eating a carrot makes one vegetarian.

Why do people think abstinence is a value that belongs to Christians? Whatever happened to monogamy?

Look at who's trying to push through the abstinence only curriculum. I agree that the desire for abstinence doesn't belong exclusively to Christians, but I'm not aware of any other groups that are against comprehensive sex ed.

And what does abstinence have to do with monogamy? Just because you're sexually active doesn't mean you can't be monogamous.

RX

[etcj]

Meh, I've written so many research papers for classes about this issue. In most cases, sex education curricula often do not show young people the truth about sex: sex feels good. By denying that fact, folks are only fooling their children about the physiological responses derived from sexual pleasure. This is what abstinence-based approaches fail to address; they demonize sex as something evil and sinful for unmarried teens...but somehow that's magically reversed for couples who are living in matrimonial bliss.

Okay, I do believe that abstinence can be an effective tool for preventing STD's and pregenancies, but it shouldn't be the only message given to young people. Moreover, misleading information about the ineffectiveness of condoms needs to be eliminated from these abstinence-only curricula. Some protection is better than no protection at all, right?

[BigLew]

I think I've turned out a chick who had one of those bracelets.

[nonamerasian]

Speaking to some parents about the issue, I think the main error some pro-abstinence-only peoples make is assume that if the teachers talk about sex, they will be opening the students to the concept and thus be encouraging sex. As if if the teachers don't mention it, their children won't have sex because they don't know what it is.

Ironically, the parents I was talking to had children between 9th grade and 3rd and I know for a fact that all of them knew more than their parents think. Yet, none of these children had sex ed at the time that we spoke. One of the parents didn't let her child take the class when the school offered.

Honestly, for those who have gone through sex ed, did you not know what oral, anal, and most of the stuff covered was before it was first mentioned in class?

If these parents really think just knowing about sex is encouraging it, they should have thrown out the TVs and locked their children away from their peers years ago because their kids know.

People are going to learn about sex. Whether it is in school or not.

But, what do these kids know?

Do they know about STDs, safe sex, and the other issues covered by the comprehensive sex ed curriculium?

I was trying to egg these parents into starting discussions with their kids because they probably didn't learn those parts from TV and their friends, but these parents are scared to talk.

This is why I advocate complete sex ed. What comprehensive sex ed does is give these people the information they need to make educated decisions. The info that their parents should be teaching, but won't.

[Mr.Lum]

Kids know all about sex before the sex ed classes. I think forcing kids to take health class (like at my school) is useless. Its the same as health in 8th grade and the same in 6th. Only know they stress abstainance. W/e everyone knows about that shit before. People make too big a deal over it.