<p>There's a difference between knowing that condoms and birth control exist, and knowing how to use them, and where to get them. Most high school kids also "know" things that make perfect sense to them, but have no basis in reality.</p>
<p>My high school gives out condoms and birth control. All you need is a signature from your parent at the beginning of the year saying that you can receive "any applicable services" from the health center. But I mean, it's a signature. Anyone who wants it can get protection at my school.</p>
<p>It's like 90% democrat or something though.</p>
<p>Are you saying teen pregnancy was lower back in "the good ol' days"?</p>
<p>Ah yes, the good ol' days. The days when women who slept around were shunned from society and uppity minorities didn't pester us with things like "rights" and "equality."</p>
<p>(sarcasm - in case it isn't obvious)</p>
<p>I still think people politicize the issue. Kids know about condoms and birth control, they just don't care. The issue isn't, "oh they just don't know how to put on a condom; they don't know where to get birth control pills." There's the Internet...I know Myspace isn't hurting for teenagers to get online. There's friends. There's health class. It's not that hard.</p>
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It seems like liberals are always about "more education", when it's not "education" that will help these kids.
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<p>Nice generalization.</p>
<p>There's more to a comprehensive sex-ed class than knowledge of condoms and birth control--they know what those are, so that isn't the problem.</p>
<p>Heh, I remember in my 8th-grade sex-ed class, my teacher showed us a slideshow of STD-infected genitals. It was quite effective, I think.</p>
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There's more to a comprehensive sex-ed class than knowledge of condoms and birth control--they know what those are, so that isn't the problem.
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<p>Isn't that what I and many others in this thread have been arguing? It has more to do with lack of foresight, a comfy life regardless of choices, etc than bad/no sex ed.</p>
<p>Then why is teen pregnancy on the rise since abstinence-only education has come back into vogue?</p>
<p>I don't know. But one thing you must keep in mind is that you must keep variables constant to make an empirical test valid. In an environment as dynamic as a whole country, you cannot make many (or possibly any) conclusions from the data.</p>
<p>Shortened: correlation!=causation</p>
<p>Just because you give the sole explanation for an occurrence, does not make that explanation correct. If I propose that the Earth has magnetic poles because there is a huge bar magnet at the center of the Earth, that does not mean I am correct. On the other hand, the rigid empiricist who claims ignorance about why the Earth has magnetic poles would be correct in saying "I don't know".</p>
<p>Personally, I don't care what the curricula teaches so long as people have a choice just as a drunk has a choice to stupefy himself with liquor.</p>
<p>Let's not overestimate how informed young people are. If my parents tell me that I should not have sex until marriage and condoms don't work, then I might stay abstinent until marriage or I might have sex without condoms, because hey, condoms don't work! Comprehensive sex-ed helps counter these myths and provides teens with medically accurate information with which to make their own decisions.</p>
<p>Also, sex ed is not only about birth control and STIs. There's a huge culture and values component. Its about healthy relationships, communication, gender roles, sexual orientation and generally acknowledging sexuality as a normal part of human existence. In contrast, abstinence-only programming (not education in any way), is about denying the validity of any sexual relationship that is not between two married people, reaffirming sexist and homophobic beliefs, and causing people to feel shame about their sexual practices.</p>
<p>In any case, more information is almost always better than less information.</p>
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There's a difference between knowing that condoms and birth control exist, and knowing how to use them, and where to get them.
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<p>Word up.</p>
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Kids know about condoms and birth control, they just don't care.
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<p>Well, then abstinence-only sex ed clearly isn't effective. Comprehensive sex ed would at least open them up to the risks they're taking and teach them how to reduce them and act responsibly.</p>
<p>Well said, helloworld!.</p>
<p>I just realized this: Has anyone on this thread argued that comprehensive sex education is bad? The argument appears to be one side saying "abstinence only is bad" and the other side saying "now hold on, there may be other factors at play." Regardless, there appears to be a consensus that comprehensive education is good.</p>
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I just realized this: Has anyone on this thread argued that comprehensive sex education is bad? The argument appears to be one side saying "abstinence only is bad" and the other side saying "now hold on, there may be other factors at play." Regardless, there appears to be a consensus that comprehensive education is good.
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<p>I can't speak for others, but I think comp education is good. But at the same time, I am opposed to curricula forced upon students and parents (see: drunks can choose to get drunk and stupid and so should students and parents). That's not to say I think abstinence-only education has truth to it, just that I don't think it's my decision to make for someone else's child.</p>
<p>so then parents have the right to have their kids excused from sex ed, but the school shouldn't offer abstinence-only. Schools should then try to convince parents that initially want their kids to sit out that they should have them in there because it's better for them.</p>
<p>I completely agree with helloworld!. I'd also like to input my own experience.
I went to a small rural high school in Alabama with, you guessed it! abstinence-only "sex ed". What did we talk about? Hmm. Well there were all the people on the video who were so upset that they didn't wait til they got married and had all these emotional problems now because of it. Then there were the 10 million slides showing all ranges of STDs. Did we ever once talk about condoms? Nope. The lady WASNT EVEN ALLOWED TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT THEM. By the time I was in 11th grade (got stuck in a consumer science elective I didn't want to be in) and was forced to take the program again that we'd all taken in like 8th grade as part of of the class requirements, I was fed up. I was not as liberal then as I am now, but I thought it was so freaking ridiculous that the lady could sit there and be so calm and collected as she said, "I prefer not to talk about that. here, let's talk about 'feelings'." Obviously, we did not talk about birth control options such as the pill either. Additionally, as a gay rights supporter, I thought it was blatantly homophobic not to address what happens if you CANT get married under the law. Just never have sex ever, then?
Results from this: my county has (or had, when I was in hs) the highest teen pregnancy rate in my state. I didn't know how to put on a condom till I started having sex. Fortunately I knew about birth control because I was on it for other reasons, and I was smart enough to look up rates of protection by condoms from pregnancy and STDs for myself. I didn't even know that there was such a thing as a diaphragm or female condom, until probably my freshman year of college when I found a website about alternative birth control methods, and I didn't know what they looked like until my dorm had a safe sex seminar my sophomore year and brought samples.</p>