Sex and condoms in schools
A new ad on the CW network goes something like this: A guy rubs up on a girl in a club. She hands him the number for an AIDS hotline. Why? She has AIDS.
A co-worker told me about the ad this morning when we were discussing sex education in schools, or lack thereof. The ad is part of a campaign kicked off by Emory University this month about safe sex and abstinence for teens. The campaign is part of a national prevention study the university is conducting in Macon to see if intervention strategies impact teens' attitudes and behaviors toward sex. During the study, 400 Macon teens, ages 12-16, considered at high risk for contracting HIV or sexually transmitted diseases will learn safer sex practices, such as how to use condoms, and abstinence. Here's the whole story.
The study should be interesting, considering the lack of sex education in Bibb County schools. Forget about passing out condoms; county schools still probably teach that babies are delivered via stork. Some people believe that if you don't tell kids about it, they won't do it. I'm not so sure that works.
I went to middle school in North Carolina and high school in a metro-Atlanta county, and in both schools, I experienced sex education (the schools called it "family life," but it's really the same thing). I had to label parts of the male and female anatomies and read about different types of sexual diseases. We even watched the famed "Miracle of Life" video. Mostly we learned about abstinence education. We may have talked about condoms once in passing, but I know we never talked about other forms of birth control, like the pill or diaphram.
The education worked for me (there is no better way to prevent pregnancies than to show girls the "Miracle of Life" in all its glory), but I know it doesn't work for everyone. Schools should teach kids about condom use and methods of birth control. Believe it or not, I never had a class that actually demonstrated condom and birth control use until I took health my senior year in college. Schools shouldn't take for granted that everyone chooses abstinence because not everyone does. If you show someone how to use a condom, it doesn't mean they're going to start having sex. It does mean that if they do have sex, they'll know how to take the proper precautions. And with all those scary diseases out there now, who wants to take the risk on our children?
Should sex education be taught in public schools? Should we take it a step further and hand out condoms, or at least make them available somewhere for free? Is abstinence education the way to go? Or is no education at all?
A co-worker told me about the ad this morning when we were discussing sex education in schools, or lack thereof. The ad is part of a campaign kicked off by Emory University this month about safe sex and abstinence for teens. The campaign is part of a national prevention study the university is conducting in Macon to see if intervention strategies impact teens' attitudes and behaviors toward sex. During the study, 400 Macon teens, ages 12-16, considered at high risk for contracting HIV or sexually transmitted diseases will learn safer sex practices, such as how to use condoms, and abstinence. Here's the whole story.
The study should be interesting, considering the lack of sex education in Bibb County schools. Forget about passing out condoms; county schools still probably teach that babies are delivered via stork. Some people believe that if you don't tell kids about it, they won't do it. I'm not so sure that works.
I went to middle school in North Carolina and high school in a metro-Atlanta county, and in both schools, I experienced sex education (the schools called it "family life," but it's really the same thing). I had to label parts of the male and female anatomies and read about different types of sexual diseases. We even watched the famed "Miracle of Life" video. Mostly we learned about abstinence education. We may have talked about condoms once in passing, but I know we never talked about other forms of birth control, like the pill or diaphram.
The education worked for me (there is no better way to prevent pregnancies than to show girls the "Miracle of Life" in all its glory), but I know it doesn't work for everyone. Schools should teach kids about condom use and methods of birth control. Believe it or not, I never had a class that actually demonstrated condom and birth control use until I took health my senior year in college. Schools shouldn't take for granted that everyone chooses abstinence because not everyone does. If you show someone how to use a condom, it doesn't mean they're going to start having sex. It does mean that if they do have sex, they'll know how to take the proper precautions. And with all those scary diseases out there now, who wants to take the risk on our children?
Should sex education be taught in public schools? Should we take it a step further and hand out condoms, or at least make them available somewhere for free? Is abstinence education the way to go? Or is no education at all?
posted by Anonymous at 11:06 AM
4 Comments:
Well, the government will only fund abstinence only programs, so that's what we all get in most schools. (At least this was the case when I studied this stuff about a year ago...) I personally think there needs to be MUCH more extensive sex education... whether it be in the home or at school. It is a tough call really. School may not be the place for that. I mean hell, we're cutting physical and music education right and left, why leave something else "fun" to be learned at school? But being more serious, sex education should start with more facts far earlier if it is to be taught in school. I can remember a vague lesson around 5th grade that meant nothing to some, was groundbreaking to others, and was simply a review for those with parents who were forward with things or had older siblings. A little bit more with the middle school health classes, but nothing ever very educational even if they say it is. I think a lack of information is one of the things that leads kids to experiment... I mean, if no one can explain it, lets figure it out for ourselves! I was ALWAYS taught trial and error as a method in math and science, why not use it for more personal education?
Ok so I really just have too much to say on this topic. I could go on for hours and rant about 5,000 different things. I just think more basic education is needed. Abstinence is NOT the only acceptable method of birth control anymore and while I don't necessarily think condoms should be given out along with pencils and paper in school, maybe at least the notion of them can be explained without brushing it off as "just another option." I'm a big advocate of parents taking a bigger role in kids life in many respects, sex education being one. So "the talk" is something no kid wants but really, it is a necessary evil. Present it well. Maybe an outside sex ed course is necessary. They took drivers ed out of the school and now you can pay a bit of cash to learn it from some old dude in a parking lot. I'm not saying we should learn sex ed from some old dude in a parking lot, for the record. That could be taken completely wrong. But a quick google search finds drivers ed DVDs... maybe something more all-encompassing in a much less technical format would teach youth something important.
Sorry for the rant, I know that made no single point well there... but I'll quit while I'm ahead.
I had parents that were open and discussed these things with me before I ever needed to know. As a result, I waited a lot longer than most of the girls I knew to have sex. I don't think it is the schools' responsibility to teach kids about sex. I think that is the responsibility of the parents. Unfortunately, our society doesn't seem to have any sense of responsibility anymore, and we expect the teachers and the schools to teach our children everything they need to know in life. Looking at the test performance of our schools, they are having enough difficulty just teaching our kids math and reading. How are they supposed to teach them about anything else?
"Family Planning" or "Health" classes in school have more often than not included the topic of sex. As sex and its prevalence in society changes, so should the lesson plans. If the schools are going to broach the subject at all, they should be prepared for all that entails.
If schools aren't prepared to mature in their teachings, then they should make condoms available. No, it is not going to help kids become more sexually active — that happens without condoms being in classrooms. It will, however, promote being safe and somewhat curbing the exchange of diseases.
The fact that some parents don't teach their kids anything about "the birds and the bees" is the reason why sex education is needed in schools. It only takes two uneducated young people to get together and make a baby. Education is the simple solution to that.
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