Abstinence totally works guys, no matter what the pregnancy rate say...
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Here's where I think the disconnect might be: Abstinence CLEARLY prevents unwanted pregnancies and the transmission of STDs. If you don't have sex those things won't happen. Abstinence education is about trying to control other people so that they won't engage in sex. Perhaps "control" is too strong of a word, but the point is that abstinence education does not equal abstinence. Abstinence will obviously work. Getting horny homo sapiens to commit to abstinence is something else entirely.
Not having been dropped on my head repeatedly as a child i actually got that the first time i watched the video...
He was dodging the question at first, and then made some weak excuses about it not being taught right... which showed he did understand the difference, unless he was thinking they're not teaching them how to not put the penis into the vagina the right way...
He was dodging the question at first, and then made some weak excuses about it not being taught right... which showed he did understand the difference, unless he was thinking they're not teaching them how to not put the penis into the vagina the right way...
C
Chibibar
You can teach anyone anything, but will they do or understand it is a whole different ball game.
If parents decide to let other people teach their own children about sex, and don't address the topic with their own children themselves, they may have sub-optimal results.
I laugh at people that complain about abstinence only education. They aren't your children, and if they are, surely you're having discussions with them about your expectations for them regarding sex, right? The other parents who also disagree with this form of education will also address the problem with their own children.
The school merely builds a foundation on which anyone's belief's can be added. The school should not be putting a building on that foundation, though. In the same way that they build a foundation of math, but let the kids decide if they are going to go into engineering, science, or leave that foundation empty and go into a non-math career, they should be teaching reproductive health in a way that allows children to build on it according to their own and their family's beliefs.
Abstinence only education is merely the beginning of one's sexual health.
I imagine it could be taught better in many places. But those specific concerns should be addressed - there is little point in attacking the whole idea of abstinence.
I laugh at people that complain about abstinence only education. They aren't your children, and if they are, surely you're having discussions with them about your expectations for them regarding sex, right? The other parents who also disagree with this form of education will also address the problem with their own children.
The school merely builds a foundation on which anyone's belief's can be added. The school should not be putting a building on that foundation, though. In the same way that they build a foundation of math, but let the kids decide if they are going to go into engineering, science, or leave that foundation empty and go into a non-math career, they should be teaching reproductive health in a way that allows children to build on it according to their own and their family's beliefs.
Abstinence only education is merely the beginning of one's sexual health.
I imagine it could be taught better in many places. But those specific concerns should be addressed - there is little point in attacking the whole idea of abstinence.
I don't think most people against it are against it because of abstinence. Abstinence really is the only certain way to avoid pregnancy and stds. Rather, it's the "only" part of abstinence only. It's teaching important health information and leaving out a significant portion of the material on the idea that such information will lead children down an immoral path.
Teen pregnancy also has a social impact, so allowing the absence of such education on the idea that it's not your kid isn't really valid. Who cares if they're not teaching kids how to read, you can read to your child and ignore the rest.
Hm. I guess it's only a problem in certain states? We were taught contraceptive methods. Whether you wait until you're married, or you have sex early, you should still understand these things. What do they expect, people who chose to wait for marraige are going to go to some sort of sex finishing school where they'll learn the rest of the story?
Our society is buyilt on information and information technology.
Hiding information is almost never the correct answer.
I didn't realize that some places still taught, "This is how sex works, how babies are made, and how diseases are transmitted. There's nothing you can do except wait until you're married - if you have sex before then you're going to get pregnant and die of aids. Good luck!"
There's no palm large enough for that face.
Our society is buyilt on information and information technology.
Hiding information is almost never the correct answer.
I didn't realize that some places still taught, "This is how sex works, how babies are made, and how diseases are transmitted. There's nothing you can do except wait until you're married - if you have sex before then you're going to get pregnant and die of aids. Good luck!"
There's no palm large enough for that face.
That's essentially how they taught it back when I had Sex Ed for the first time, but then again my area of Ohio was fairly Red back then. I literally didn't know what a condom was until Trojan started showing commercials for them back in late 90's and even then I had to look online to find out. It's just not the sort of things conservative Catholic parents tell their kids about I guess...
Seems we agree then, you just assumed people were being rational human beings. Always a dangerous assumption.
Unfortunately, when people (read: politicians) talk about abstinence education, they're taking about abstinence ONLY education. Because if you teach kids about safe sex practices, they're all going to have sex with each other, all the time, usually while blaspheming the Lord.
Gay only sex education, IT WORKS!Being gay works better for avoiding unwanted pregnancies.
Teaching abstinence is to sex education like teaching that numbers are magic is to math education... "don't do it" doesn't teach you anything about teh subject.
Including the advantages of abstinence while teaching sex education is a whole different thing, and i don't think anyone (well maybe NAMBLA) is against that...
Re-used needles and blood transfusions say hi on the STD front, and infertility on the pregnancy part... (what can i say, i'm a pedant).
This always seem so foreign to me. Learnt about human reproduction in elementary school, put condoms on dildos when I was 12-13, and my school had no unwanted pregnancies that were acknowledged (for all I know, someone might've gotten an abortion, but no idea).
Then I come to the states and my best friend regales me with stories of constant pregnancies in his high school, in the county with the highest teen pregnancy rate in Georgia. Then he talked about the sex-ed he recieved, and I was all "wait wut."
Then I come to the states and my best friend regales me with stories of constant pregnancies in his high school, in the county with the highest teen pregnancy rate in Georgia. Then he talked about the sex-ed he recieved, and I was all "wait wut."
Having a sex drive is a choice...
GasBandit
Staff member
See, and when I make the argument that human beings are little better than impulsive beasts, and that eons of evolutionary programming trumps a couple thousand years of so-called "civilization" when it comes to behavior, people usually call me names.
Pedantically speaking, an STD is an infection that has a negligible probability of transmission by means other than sexual contact. It just so happens that the mechanism for infection for blood is similar enough to the mechanism for semen and vaginal fluids that the two get confused.
NOTHING IS LESS IMPORTANT WITH PEDANTICS!
Did I even use that word correctly? Fuck it. Post!
That's because we're stupid as fuck here and aim to keep it that way. If we don't tell kids that sex exists, they'll never do it. See?
But i'm assuming none of the other ppl i'm talking to are pedants...
you must be new here
Abstinence by definition works. Abstinence Education and Pledges fail.
Nah, i'm just comparing you guys to me... and you all fail at it...
I studied in a catholic nun school and, while I never put condoms on dildos, even my backwards sex education was better than just "don't do it". Of course, it depended on the year, but we even got solid advice once or twice...
But it seems it got worse as time passed: my younger brother didn't learn in class about the physical differences in men and women's genitalia until much later than I did... And my little sister is getting teached all kinds of stuff about ecology and some organs, but no reproduction.
Cajungal
Staff member
My sex education was extremely lacking. It was pretty much all abstinence and "freshness" talk. We talked a lot about families and the role of people in that family. To be fair, the P.E. teacher who taught it opened the floor for questions, and we all clammed up. I learned a lot with books... and my awesome mom bought us a Mayo Clinic CD-Rom tutorial thing when I was a kid, and she took me on a computer tour of my lady parts. That was actually fun... we made jokes about how our insides look like an inside-out deer.
That's a damn lie and you know it!Being gay works better for avoiding unwanted pregnancies.
Everybody knows gay babies are totally why we've having an overpopulation problem!
Wait, hang on...
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