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Abstinence-only education creates a petri dish for bullying in schools. There is always a lot of back and forth about the efficacy of these programs, and I fall on the side that they demonstrably fail to reduce teen pregnancy, the rate of incidence of teen sex, or the transmission of sexutally transmitted infections (STIs) (all you have to do is look at Texas). In addition, however, I believe that the heyday of our federal investment in abstinence-only programs had a terrible collateral effect -- namely, kids who were "educated" in this way were more likely to bully and harass because they learned, in ways integral to abstinence provisions, outdated "traditional" ideas about gender and sexuality. Even kids whose parents talked to them at home, about contraception or healthy sex, were taught gendered rules and more and more of them appear to have enforced those rules to great harm.
Did Abstinence-Only Ideology Create a Bully Generation?
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Sex education should not be bound by social conventions in any way shape or form. When taught, it should be taught without regard for religious sensibilities and only be viewed from a biological perspective. I received sex education when I was in school, but from a bloody nun that did her best, but in reality just didn’t know enough of the facts to be passing them on outside of “don’t do it, but if you have to use protection”. Homosexuality wasn’t even acknowledged as existing so you wouldn’t believe the stupid @!$%# I believed and didn’t even know existed by the time I came out!
Lack of sexual education leaves not just the children at risk when they grow up, but their prospective partners also. As such, it should NOT be just a parents right to leave their child in ignorance when that ignorance could endanger others. Regardless of faith, the basic biology of sex and how to avoid unwanted children and even more unwanted diseases should be mandatory for the safety of everyone instead of blindly ignoring reality and pretending that your teenager is the exception to the rule and that they couldn’t possibly be out there doing those things.
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#2 - Fri Jan 6, 2012 4:50 AM ESTYou're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead. |
