Letters to the Editor
-
As well they should
"The mills of justice grind slow but they grind exceeding fine". I want to see some seriously fine grinding carried out on the abstinence-only crowd.
The best part of the AP article is a quote from pro-abstinence-only Valerie Huber who avers that these programs provide '"medically accurate discussions of sexually transmitted diseases and contraception". Right... The article also stated that Ohio and Washington were effectively rejecting the funds by stating that they would be used to support comprehensive sexual education. The fund rejection puts them into a category with such bastions of liberal thinking as the state Virginia.
-
Gee, and it only took seven years for them to figure it out!
I wonder how many teen pregnancies could have been avoided in that time? The "Pro-life" crowd must be so proud! Oh, well, what do they care? After the child is born, it's not their problem anymore, is it?
-
Serious question
I am ambivalent about sex ed, but is it the contention of the those in the pro column that without sex ed, today's teens and (gulp) tweens would have no clue about condoms, the pill, STD's, etc.? I know what the data suggest, but that makes no sense to me. We've got MTV, movies, the Internet, and kids can't learn about birth control and safe sex on their own? I don't get it.
-
Abstinence-only Education instead of Healthcare for Children?
Bush wants to increase funding for abstinence-only education by 28 million, but twice vetoed that amount for children's healthcare???
Just once, I wish a conservative would explain to me their logical reasoning for wanting people to not use birth control or have abortions, and then not wanting to provide healthcare and education to the children that are born as a result. Argh.
-
NO public school should ever teach "abstinence only"
A public school is supposed to be a welcoming environment for all students, not a place where the integrity of their own families is called into question. Every class has some kids in it whose parents needed to get married because of an unplanned pregnancy or birth, and the kids know it. They can do the math. And when you consider the fact that so many of them are at a very sensitive age, there is no telling how much deeply painful embarrassment and resentment this misguided program is causing. The kids aren't likely to tell their teacher, after all.
This is such a sensitive issue that even Patti Davis (the daughter of Ronald and Nancy Reagan) wrote about how much she resented being told by her parents that she was a premature baby. This was important enough for her to write about it as an adult.
School is no place to make millions of kids feel as though there is something wrong with them or their family life. Nor is it a place to train them to accept such obvious and flagrant hypocrisy. Good grief, this should have been evident from the start, and these idiotic programs should have been scrapped before they were ever adopted.
-
It's about time. But, birth control for my daughter is still too expensive.
Even with our insurance, the co-pay is $30.00 a month. She's in college so this really cuts into her month budget of $100.00.
-
Hooray!
Finally someone is actually thinking about the children!
-
Whatever schools teach, your precious snowflake will tune out
It doesn't matter what schools 'teach'.
-
Tuning Out
I guess the conservative argument is that schools shouldn't teach the real facts of sex education because the kids will trune it out. The same people then make the argument that the schools should teach religion, should teach abstinence, should teach basic military skills in JROTC, should make the kids chant the Pledge o' Allegiance and should make the kids chant some prayers too.
-
Lights are on...someone might be home
Is this because "abstinence-only" doesn't work? Did it ever work? Isn't it just more Bush bon-bons to the base? Wasn't it always just Bush bon-bons to his base?
If only Bush senior and Barbara hadn't practiced abstinence only...which they obviously did.
-
Wow, a REAL opt-out revolution!
I am so pleased to see states saying no to federal funds on principle. Even my teen-pregnancy-mired home state of Ohio is (sort of) saying no!
To the person who wonders if kids will really not know about contraception, etc., I think there are two issues here. School-based sex ed is a thorough curriculum. It fills in the gaps of street knowledge. A lot of kids think they know more than they really do about a lot of things, and contraception isn't exactly something most of them want to ask their parents about, even if they're 'close'. i.e., 'Mom, might I get pregnant even if I use a condom if my boyfriend's penis is still in my vagina after it is flaccid? And could you please pass the butter?"
Also, as discussed after the last Broadsheet post on the dangers of abstinence-only education, the main problem is that many in the target audience manage to convince themselves that they just won't have sex. So they are not on pills or carrying condoms in their pockets and purses. Then they have sex anyway. So the real scourge of abstinence-only education is the underlying assumption that it is not only possible, but also likely, that kids will actually not have sex if you tell them all the great reasons that they should abstain. Comprehensive sex ed generally assumes that abstinence is the ideal for teenagers, but also teaches you what to do if you find it's not working out as you planned when you took your abstinence pledge.
And if you, Anonymouse, think kids are tuning out sex ed, I think you are probably wrong. It's probably the only subject they really pay attention to from beginning to end. Because, besides being inherently interesting, it is about THEM and it is applicable to everyday life. Unlike, say, geometry.
-
But which States?
The Washington Post article names (and I might have miscounted) 8 states plus the District of Columbia, but neither it or this Broadsheet post provide a listing, or even a link to a list, of which states are rejecting the funds.
-
By the way, a suggestion to any reporters reading this:
Next time you run into a politician or activist foaming at the mouth about abstinence education, ask if he or she was a virgin on his or her wedding night. You might even work up to it by chatting up the person, say, by asking him about his days at the university, membership in some fraternity, and their great parties with such-and-such sorority, and the little sisters, and THEN ask.
The answer you get, of course, will probably be something along the lines of "Say, is that my phone ringing?"