Just an idea here, but perhaps if parents don't want their kids having sex, they should teach them about safe sex practices and the like.

Since when is it a schools responsibility to raise our children?

People need to start taking more responsibility for their own lives and blaming everything on someone else.

Originally posted by spines
perhaps teaching teenagers about it is a good idea.

Abstinence is a safe sex practice. Although I don't agree it's the schools job to do so.

Parents are free to teach their children about safe sex practices, but do not do so in many cases.

Then perhaps we should focus on teaching them about safe sex at work, so they can go home and teach their children.

If parents aren't teaching their children about safe-sex, and the schools aren't either...then who is left? Movies and television?

Absolutely not. I think the problem needs to be addressed at the parental level, not the child's level.

That's why I advocate more personal responsibility here. It's also why I'm a big proponent of home school.



[edit on 24-9-2008 by nyk537]

Originally posted by sos37
I think the key to understanding where she stands here is understanding what the meaning of an "explicit sex education program" opposed to a regular one.

There is a difference of opinion here so I am not going to attempt to argue. However, my opinion is that not teaching a child about masturbation or sexual fantasies is just as irresponsible.

Puberty is probably the scariest thing a kid has to deal with up to that point in their life. Masturbation and sexual fantasy are very real, very common parts of this process.

To simply not teach it is solving nothing and failing to adress confusion that many kids have and do not know how to explain or even how to ask about.

I am not even going to touch what is wrong with saying that teaching about homosexuality is 'explicit' (no, I am not saying you said it).

Originally posted by sos37
The difference in the two interviews is the media asked Obama to clarify his statement, whereas in Palin's case the media took her statement, didn't ask her to clarify it, and ran with it.

I am simply going off what I have to work with. I couldn't find any other sources for her stance on the issue and haven't seen it discussed at all in the news.

If her stance is not one of abstinence first I would be very surprised. And I don't think anyone would assume her stance is otherwise.

What needs to happen is to remove any trace of morality issues from school sex ed. Then, just like grammar, math or any other subject, the scientific reality of sexual activity, and the consequences, should be taught in school.

It seems clear that 'abstinance only' type education is not working. It is not effective, so should be modified to something that is effective.

Just as a btw, where I went to school, at one point 1/3 of Junior High girls were pregnant... they eventually quit making them leave school. This began to turn around when real sex ed came online, with no morality lessons involved.

It can be done.

Originally posted by spines

If her stance is not one of abstinence first I would be very surprised. And I don't think anyone would assume her stance is otherwise.

I'm a parent. My daughter is 2 now. I wholeheartedly believe in abstinence first, THEN sex education. I would much rather my daughter didn't have sex until she was married, though I do understand that's not how popular society operates nowadays. I certainly don't want her being taught explicit sex education in school, such as masturbation, use of condoms, gay sex or other crap like that. The school can teach her the medical side of sexual reproduction, but when she has questions about love and sexuality, I would prefer that my wife and I take the responsibility to tell her about those things. I sure as heck don't want her hearing about it from a stranger first.

[edit on 24-9-2008 by sos37]

Amen sos37. Amen.

Those are my feelings exactly. Let them teach the science of it, but nothing more.

The rest is up to parents.

Originally posted by spines
I shouldn't have had to learn about all this from my older sister.

But you should have had to learn about it from some strange person teaching a class at school?

Forgive me if that doesn't make sense to me.

I also attended a Catholic High School. The Health Classes mainly focused on "Abstience is the only safe sex" as being the only message.

We also had a required class, CALM (Carreer and life Management) I dont know if anyone else had that, but in CALM Class - that is where we learned about STD's - being a result of HAVING SEX. Because, as the Catholic Cirriculum in our District stated: Abtinence was the ONLY form of Safe Sex.

We never learned about Condoms.
We never leared about Birth Control.
We never learned about Morning After Pills.

We learned about reproduction - sperm & eggs. We learned about Pregnancy - from the Scientific Point of View. The symantics of Reproduction. We watched a Pregnancy Video once, where it followed the woman around for 9 months, and showed the changes her body went through etc. (Watching the birth, was scary enough).

My parents, talked to me about Sex....and perhaps (if you knew my mother you would understand) some people would be uncomfortable. My mother is FAR from uncomfortable. It boarders on embarrassing sometimes, because she is just so OPEN about everything.

My parents taught me about Birth Control, Condoms, Pregnancy - from the emotional point of view. From the "Do you think you are ready for a baby?" Point of View. My parents talked to me about body parts, and hormones, and attraction, and "You might think you're ready but...."

The line my father used was "When you think your ready, you'll come and talk to me about it. And if you don't want to tell me - then you're not ready." And he was right. When I thought I was ready to start having sex, I went and I talked to him about it. The next week, i was on Birth Control. Not many people can talk to their parents like this. My friend Sharlotte was TERRIFIED to tell her parents she wanted to go on Birth Control.

I think, that Parents are ultimately responsible for teaching their children about sex, and the emotional ties that come with it. A parent, probably knows best too, when the child is ready to have the discussion. Better than the teacher, who doesn't KNOW the child in the same way that a parent knows their own child.

However, I concede that there are parents who simply are NOT comfortable in talking with their kids. I had friends who never "had the talk," because their parents simply wanted to avoid it and leave it in the hands of the school.

I know it is NOT the Schools responsibilty to raise children, however, I think it should be incorporated into Education, as a Back-up Method. I think that Schools should touch upon these issues: STD's, Condoms, Contraceptives, and Pregnancy. I know its not the school's responsibility, but too many children are misinformed. And in the event of a Parent not being comfortable having the discussion - shouldn't the information be available to the child anyway?

And, in the event of a child NOT being educated at home about Sex, do you think that child is going to go to the Health Nurse and ask questions? Probably not, well I don't think so. I know that I would be scared to go in and ask questions... So wouldn't it be easier to offer it to ALL students? As a required class, it doesn't have to be gorey. It doesn't have to be extreme. I'm not saying they should learn the KamaSutra. I am saying, that they should receive basic Education about sex, just in case they aren't being educated at home.

Just Thoughts..

- Carrot

Originally posted by nyk537
But you should have had to learn about it from some strange person teaching a class at school?

A classroom full of peers is one of the more comfortable settings I would assume. I honestly wouldn't know, I wasn't given the opputunity to have a decent sex ed class.

Just an observation from teaching and counseling young women: Those who are taught abstince-only sex education are somewhat more likely to get pregnant than those taught more explicitly.

The reason they get pregnant is because they don't use birth control. They don't use birth control (even when their parents have "the discussion" with them) because they think "good girls" don't have sex before marriage. Birth control implies the woman has thought about sex ahead of time and may even have planned it, and is therefore not a "good girl". When the inevitable temptation happens they are unprepared. You can't always count on the young man to have the necessary foresight.

Similarly, young men who are taught abstinence-only are also likely to see a sexually active young woman as a "bad girl" and shun her except when she is the object of desire and nothing else.

The double standard--which my generation thought we got rid of-- is alive and well, as early as elementary school. Abstinence-only classes tend to reinforce it.

Originally posted by nyk537
Just an idea here, but perhaps if parents don't want their kids having sex, they should teach them about safe sex practices and the like.

Since when is it a schools responsibility to raise our children?

People need to start taking more responsibility for their own lives and blaming everything on someone else.

I have to agree with nyk here in regards to parents teaching their children. However, if the school is contradicting the parent stating the only way to have safe sex is to not have sex at all. This will confuse a kid, and make things even harder for them. However, again, the parents are the first teacher a kid has.