Abstinence Programs

As many high schoolers, and some younger, may already know Abstinence is taught at school. Why? because Bush and conservatives say this must be taught. They spend a billion dollars a year, but is it effective?

Some actually lie! They say AIDS from sweat and toilet seats, pregnacy from kissing, and that condoms don't work. Is this a good thing to teach? Out right lies to our children? And why is an obvious Religous thing being funded by the Government? How can the Government spend a billion dollars to have people go around beating teens to death with the cross?(not literally, but figured I should avoid "shoving things down a persons throat" in a conversation about sex)

Even worse they teach that masturbation is also the devil. That's right, no sex, no kissing, no masturbation, funded by our Government. Why? Some things wrong with these programs...

Among the misconceptions cited by Waxman's investigators:

• A 43-day-old fetus is a "thinking person."

• HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can be spread via sweat and tears.

• Condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse.

One curriculum, called "Me, My World, My Future," teaches that women who have an abortion "are more prone to suicide" and that as many as 10 percent of them become sterile. This contradicts the 2001 edition of a standard obstetrics textbook that says fertility is not affected by elective abortion, the Waxman report said.
www.washingtonpost.com...

And more and more studies show these programs don't work.
www.msnbc.msn.com...

In fact, it is shown that these programs cause more STD spread then prevent. Why? They teach condom use is the devil!

Centre Daily Times | 05/06/2006 | Abstinence debate roils talk on ...... which focused on the failure of abstinence-until-marriage programs. ... was going to talk about how abstinence programs were tied to rising STD rates. ...
www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/local/14518329.htm

www.advocatesforyouth.org...
www.sfgate.com.../chronicle/archive/2004/12/02/MNGPQA4QFJ1.DTL

There is no conclusive evidence that abstinence-only sex education, which teaches students to abstain from sex until married and generally only teaches about contraceptive failure, reduces the rate of unintended pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Moreover, research indicates that many of these programs do not help teens delay having sex. Yet the federal government has funneled well over half a billion dollars since 1997 into abstinence-only programs, steadily increasing funding in recent years to more than $165 million annually.
www.aclu.org...


But still, even though all reports show these programs don't work they continue teaching them in schools all across the nation.
www.stcynic.com...
eudoxus.usc.edu...

Originally posted by Theory Man
As many high schoolers, and some younger, may already know Abstinence is taught at school. Why? because Bush and conservatives say this must be taught. They spend a billion dollars a year, but is it effective?

Note true. They spend roughly 1 billon over a fiver year period.

President Bush has enthusiastically backed the movement, proposing to spend $270 million on abstinence projects in 2005. Congress reduced that to about $168 million, bringing total abstinence funding to nearly $900 million over five years. It does not appear that the abstinence-only curricula are being taught in the Washington area.
www.washingtonpost.com...

Not picking, just do not want to allow people to be mislead by accident.

I definitely think abstinance should be taught but not with the lies. How are kids going to trust adults if adults lie to them? I think abstinance should be taught along with birth control and all other aspects of sexual relations. But I think the best place to learn about it is in the home.

I don't have children, but if I did, they'd know all about it before they even started teaching it in school. If I had kids, they wouldn't even GO to public school. I don't trust the government with anything, much less my children.

And of course, the government funded lies are ridiculous.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
But I think the best place to learn about it is in the home.

I totally agree, however most parents never take the time to explain the facts of life. Little joey walks up to Mom and asks her why are girls different and mom says ask your dad. The same if Sally asks Dad he puts it off on mom and neither want to explain it.


What do you do when that is the case?



[edit on 8/13/2006 by shots]

Well, it's certainly not the public education's responsibility to teach children about ALL of life. Sex doesn't fall under the heading of Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, or even art, phys ed, music or history.

If parents want the responsibility of having children, then they should step up to the plate. But if sexual education is part of public education, it should be done with facts and ALL the facts, not lies and withholding of information.

If schools are going to teach about sex, then it should be the truth. Duh.

Base on my experiences as a mother, I agree that sex education and awareness starts at home.

At least it work in my personal case, both my children were told my me the beauty, ugliness and results of having sex too early in life.

That gave them an edge on life that many of their peers never got at home because of their believes.

I agree 100% it does starts at home and the earlier the better, school, church and the streets are not place for such personal matters in a young persons life so vulnerable to outside influences.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
If schools are going to teach about sex, then it should be the truth. Duh.

Again I agree and all I can say is perhaps the report may have ben slanted bye those that oppose sex education in schools. I am not saying that is the case but it could be a possibility.

My solution would be to set up strict guidelines for all teachers that both sides can agree on to avoid the problem you noted.

I applaud you.

I remember the high school programs which explained to me how Marijuana would be surely addicting, and that 3/4 teens who smoke Marijuana more than once in their lifetime will die because of it. Considering everyone tried it, and there were no deaths because of it... well lets just say I wasn't surprised.

Personally I believe that the government is heading in the wrong direction. Most tend to forget that if you tell a teenager don't do something they will, or perhaps it is more of a ploy to get the youth of america to try something to increase the budget? In anycase I do know my first sex education came from PBS of all places. I remember that they had a program on called, "My mom is having a baby." It was tastefully done to explain human sexuality and the functions of reproductive system. My parents did not believe in hiding such from me, rather waiting till I asked questions and then patiently told me about such. I believe that they need to teach about safe sex in schools. Rather than harp don't do it, make no big deal about it, saying if you are going to do such, here is how to do it safely, and if you don't then these are the consequences that you could end up with. And then show pictures.

I'd like for one person to provide evidence that sex education in the schools has done anything to decrease either STD transmission or unwanted pregnancies.


[edit on 2006/8/13 by GradyPhilpott]

How do I do external links?

Also GP I can't show you any because the Government forbids sex education. The Government makes schools teach abstinence only programs.

So, I would like a study that shows that not castrating 13 year old boys prevents them from catching STD's. What, they've never done that to kids so there are no studies? Well, then it must mean that not castrating people doesn't work so we should castrate 13 year old boys!

I was just reading a news link talking about the sex in highschool and how the teens are not as much going to have sex, around 43% compared to the 46% rate.

There has been a significant drop in sexual activities and so on, but still there is no safe sex.

Good Job

Originally posted by Theory Man
How do I do external links?

Also GP I can't show you any because the Government forbids sex education. The Government makes schools teach abstinence only programs.

Your answer on how to post links can be found in the ATS Handbook.

You are also wrong when you state the government forbids sex education. Here are some figures from just last month.



As you can clearly see teaching Sex ED. is not forbidden bye the government.



[edit on 8/14/2006 by shots]

Hmm. Shots, that link is about gender specific classrooms.

Of course, Theory Man is wrong about schools teaching only abstainance and he also forgets that sex education in school has been around since at least the early seventies.

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
Hmm. Shots, that link is about gender specific classrooms.

I realize that Grady. I used that link because I found it to be the most current I could find just to show that Sex Ed. is being taught.

Single gender or co-ed Sex Education is still sex education is it not?

I tried to find statistics and found some that claimed around 14 percent are being taught sex ed but those sites were message boards therefore suspect to me, that is why I did not link to it.

I also found out that in Colorado they have an Opt out law in schools that teach sex ed so that parents can ask to have children taken out of the class if they want and in one case a
Teacher was Dismissed After Ignoring Opt-Out Request from Parents


It is also interesting to note that Some European Countries have laws that mandate a specified number of hours be taught per year.

Sex education programs that are integrated into formal education
are scarce in the region. In the seven East Central European
countries analyzed herein, there are three in which sex
education programs are mandated by law.However, this statement
needs to be qualified. Since 1994 in Albania there has
been a program consisting of nine hours of sex education per
school year for children 14 years and older. In Hungary the
National Public Education Program requires that all 16-yearolds
have health education, which includes family planning.
But there seems to be little uniformity in what is taught.Until
1998 Poland had a law requiring sex education to be taught in
the schools.The legislature recently amended that provision of
the law, and amalgamated sex education into part of a “profamily”
curricula endorsed by the Catholic Church. For any
sex education course to be introduced into schools, local school
authorities must organize a meeting for all parents where
the goals and content of the course are reviewed, and parents
must approve.

In Lithuania there is no unified national program for sex
education, although some information is conveyed in biology
classes. A similar approach is taken in Croatia. A ministerial
order in Russia requires sex education to be taught in all
children’s health clinics to 17-year-olds; however, this is no
substitute for sex education in the schools. An experimental
program had been launched in 1995 and withdrawn two years
later as a result of parental objections. Romanian laws neither
restrict nor permit the teaching of sex education in schools;
generally the secondary school biology course is the only
exposure to reproduction and reproductive health information
adolescents receive. There appears to be overwhelming support
for the development of sex education in Romania, and a
number of NGOs have begun developing materials.

Source

The above goes to show you how far behind the US is from other countries in Europe.