There have been a number of reports recently about how ineffective abstinence-only sex education is. There is a letter, here, by a number of scientists, that was sent to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, in congress which addresses just that issue. Some of the points made against abstinence-only sex education are:

• The lessons contain false information
• Those who push the policy are in denial about sexual activity rates among adolescents and young adults (especially regarding sex before marriage).
• The abstinence only sex-ed prevents adolescents from receiving information vital to their health and safety.
• Abstinence-only programs have been studied, and have been shown not to work.
• The policy has been criticized by "all of the mainstream organizations of health professionals that focus on the health of young people" in the United States
• The policy disrupts foreign aid efforts

I myself am against abstinence only sex ed. Sure, we can be optimistic and hope that teens aren't having sex, but they are going to nonetheless, and they should know how to protect themselves when they do. Studies have shown (referenced in the letter above) that when adolescents who were only taught abstinence do have sex, that they are less likely to protect themselves from STI's. When sex ed is presented in schools, not giving teens all the facts is doing them a grave disservice, and is setting them up for health problems down the road. Problems that they and society are going to have to pay for.

Any thoughts?

buttsecks is the only safe sex

Abstinence only sex ed is stupid. I don't have a problem if it's part of a bigger program, but there needs to be a whole program.

My high school was big on abstinence only sex education...

The town I graduated from had the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the state with the highest national rate of teen pregnancy. One of the things they did teach us if we must be sinners and have premarital sex: "If you must have sex, wear two condoms! Lyke, omgz!" Again...it's no wonder that people are shocked I graduated without having a kid.

Yeah...I think this should sum up my feelings on this program. >_<

Yeah, didn't we already know this in the seventies?

We did, but Bush administration policies on this issue seem to be dragging us back into the past. Apparently abstinence-only education is up for more/expanded funding now, so there is gonna be a vote in congress about it.

my sex ed was funny. we didnt talk about condoms, or abstinence. we talked about sex in advertising.

My primary school gave us this sort of stuff, back when I was 11. Then we got it again when I was 14.

As far as I can remember, it was "this is basically what happens. This is how it works, this is all the puberty crap" at 11, and at 14 it was all "this is a condom, put one on this pink dildo thing while the rest of the class laughs at you for putting a condom on a dildo". And as far as I know, no parents were all OMGZ MY SONS IS LEARNINGS THE WICKED WAYS OF THE WORLDS OMG H8.

But that might be because I live in England.

...disrupts foreign aid efforts...?


(I never had sex ed, and I seem to have dodged some sort of bullet because I never got the information that was "vital to my health and safety" but still survived.)

I'm going to assume you've also never been laid.

They promote abstinence over condom use, which does nothing to prevent the spread of HIV in third world nations.


In 5th grade we all got the basic "this is where babies come from" presentation. Seriously, it was only for one day and most of it was charts.

Then in 7th grade it was part of the physical education class and we got the usual, "These are STDs and it would be best to not get them. Here's how you put a condom on."
I think that lesson was a cruel joke. They made us all pair up but without telling us what we were going to do. So naturally everyone goes with their friend, so it was girls-girls and guys-guys. Then they hand out condoms and lubricant and tell us we're going to practice puting condoms on our partners fingers. D:

Abstinence-only sex education is the classic example of making policy based on how we think the world ought to be, rather than how the world actually is.

Most kids these days are pretty much sluts.

I'm still not seeing a strong connection between a U.S. 7th grade class on sex, and HIV in a third world country...

It's sort of like the say no to drugs campaign. In fact it's exactly like it.

Tomorrow is AIDS Awareness Day.

The concern is about funding for human aid organisations prioritising abstinence-only programs over condoms. Abstinence does nothing to prevent the spread of HIV. The connection here isn't between US schools and HIV.

I'm not particularly involved with the whole situation, so I don't know what other information to give, but http://www.pepfarwatch.org/ probably has some information on it.

Sex is not sacred and virginity is not some innocence that needs to be protected.

The more ****ing, the better, as long as its safe.

Send the children to the slaughter.

Click the link in the first post, look at the third paragraph from the bottom.

Abstinence only is the product of Christian fundies and it should be abolished forthwith.

Humans are horny lil' bastards.

JediGandalf is wiser than the bible.

You should start your own scriptures, man.

Haha! I should.

If only the American populace would just call out how much ridiculous **** is brought about fundie Christian doctrine, we'd be better off. You want to lower teen pregnancies, you point out what exactly those parts do and don't do down there. You tell young people to use their heads (the one ON the shoulders) and be sensible about what their about to partake. Be smart and safe and know the risks.

What you DON'T do is throw a damned Bible at them and tell them if they pork someone they are going to spend their afterlife in eternal damnation and the proceed to excommunicate them from your lives. You will only further the problem not help to curtail it.

Here's how you properly address this as a true Christian: "Hey <family member>. I would just like to point some things out to you. In my faith I was told that you should wait until marriage. I feel you might be able to benefit from that. But should you choose not to follow, I will still show the same love to you for that is also what my religion teaches. All I say is that I implore you to becareful and think about what you are doing."

Seriously. It's like talking to a person on the edge of a roof about to commit suicide. "You know, if you jump, you'll go to hell for killing yourself."

It furthers the believe, that Americans are stupid, thus other countries won't take no help from them. :downs:


But seriously, when I read this I thought, damn you Americans are nuts. Is this statewide or just in some states and schools?

Exact same thing. I still can't figure out why sex and drugs are blamed for all of the world's problems. Sex and drugs are only a problem when violence gets involved.

Well, unexpected teen pregnancies and STDs aren't good things too.

I went to a Catholic high school, and I'm pretty sure we still learned about contraceptives. They didn't, like, pass out condoms like I've heard of them doing at other schools, but I'm pretty sure they warned us about everything out there and taught us how to prevent it. Of course, I'm Canadian, so maybe it's a lot worse in the US.

It is a lot worse. You'd be told that only abstinance is the way to go. There would be Christian groups screaming that they are teaching "the Devil's Way" in sex ed classes.

You all probably think I have some sort of vendetta against Christianity/Christians. I don't really it's just that I've had it up to here *lifts hand high* with them trying to pass their judgments as policy.

Man, since when did parents get let off the hook for this sort of thing? If a parent objects to the teaching of abstinence, or finds that the research that it is in ineffective is true; TAKE CARE OF IT YOURSELF!!! You are a parent, that is your child, sit them down and explain thing. I realize that not everyone parent is going to want to have that conversation, but guess what, that's part of having a child.

That's fine, and the children of responsible parents will gain the knowledge that they need. But what about the children of irresponsible parents, or the children of parents who don't believe in contraceptives because of religious reasons?

Massassians, in general, should not be discussing sex. Too few of us actually have much knowledge on the subject. Then again, I guess that isn't much different than many of the topics on the site.

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oh its a joke lol

I'll give you props on that.

Regardless of whether or not we've had sex, most of us have had sex ed in schools. The topic is about the lessons we got in school and their effects on behavior, not the ins and outs act itself.

heh, ins and outs.


anywhos, yeah, i had like 4 sex ed courses throughout my pre-college schooling. one in 6th grade, saying all the puberty stuff. then the same stuff again from a differetn school system in 8th grade, that briefly also introduced teh concept of contraception and STDs.

then in 9th grade we had a class called "life skills", where we saw pictures of people with stds, learned about different types of contraception etc etc.

then again in 11th grade, in a general health class. same crap. we were never taught how to put on condoms though.

really all the sex ed courses were done in general health classes. the "life skills" class was sort of a physical and mental health class more than actually learning skills to be useful.


that said, i am not infected with anythign, and havet got anyone preggers, so i think i learned something from the classes, which proves that at least in this case, the courses that teach contraception actually work.

If you can't figure out how to put a condom on, you have no business doing the business where a condom is necessary.

I could make alot of jokes about servicemen and asians, but I don't.

You're really giving parents way too much credit here. This is another "how we think the world ought to be, rather than how the world actually is" thing.

There are just too many circumstances where parents either can't, don't care, or don't know how to teach their children. I'll use myself as an example. I grew up with just my mother and my sister. The only thing I ever got taught directly by her was stuff related to cooking. One time a doorknob broke and mum told me to fix it. When I couldn't I got yelled at because "you're a boy, you should be able to do those kinds of things." I suppose it was my own fault for not taking that Doorknobs 101 class.

Regardless of how the parents are, most kids have one thing in common and that's school. When schools start teaching wrong ideas, you can't rely on all the parents to jump in and fix it. A lot of the time they'll simply be expecting the school to be doing all the teaching, and doing it right.

+1
How stupid are you if you can't figure that one out?