Do you believe that abstinence-only sex education is a success or a failure?
I personally believe it to be a failure. Abstinence-only sex education simply says “This is sex. Don’t do it until you’re married.” The problem with this is that a teenager’s hormones are rampant, and resisting sex when one is able to do it, legally and physically, especially if the two partners love each other, would be extremely difficult. Abstinence-only sex education does not give alternatives to abstinence. As such, when they have sex, it’s much more likely to be unprotected sex, increasing the risk of unwanted pregnancies and STDs. I live in a town of around 30,000, which is relatively conservative. I looked in the index of one of the health books at school, and I literally found nothing on abortion, birth control, or condoms. The sex ed program at my school is basically saying that alternatives to abstinence do not exist, and there is no way to get rid of a pregnancy, (abortion is a controversial topic, and you may not agree with it, but the option is there, especially in cases of rape). Despite this, however, there is a daycare center next to the health class, which takes care of the students’ children, and there is quite a high percentage of them compared to more liberal cities like Los Angeles. I spent my adolescent years in Los Angeles, and such a day-care center did not exist in my school, because there was no need for one. Again, I think that it is a failure, and alternatives to abstinence should be taught should one not choose abstinence.
Also, many people in religious communities, which often teach abstinence-only sex education would believe that masturbation is a sin, which would cut them off from any way to obtain sexual pleasure, which would make the temptation for actual sex even greater.
April 18th, 2010 at 2:57 am
How many kids do you know that when told “Don’t touch that,” don’t actually touch it?
Tell a kid no, and they’ll want to do it more. Explain consequences and whatnot, they might at the very least think twice.
April 18th, 2010 at 3:32 am
I don’t believe sex education has a place in schools. Period.
April 18th, 2010 at 4:17 am
Abstinence-only has been shown to be a failure over and over. In red states, where all the Christians live and all the Christian politicians come from, they have higher rates of unwed teenage pregnancy, more rape (statutory and otherwise), more abortions, etc.
Sarah Palin’s own daughter had an accidental baby, don’t you think Palin would have learned something from that?
April 18th, 2010 at 4:21 am
thank GOD you’re not some greasy, gray or ashen faced homo!
April 18th, 2010 at 4:30 am
I agree with Miss B. What is “verboten” is a very desirable thing to do, just what like Eve did in the Garden of Eden and look what happened to Adam. He did ate of the forbidden fruit too.
April 18th, 2010 at 4:30 am
Failure.
April 18th, 2010 at 5:00 am
As all these answerers have already said, it is the nature of humans to want to do things that they are told not to do. Instead of just saying not to have sex, schools should just say you know what? You don’t care what we tell you and we know you’re going to have sex anyway, so here are ways to have protected sex; condoms, birth control pills, etc. If you must do it, “this is the proper” way to do it or way to protect yourself. It could be good to say that people feel unsatisfied with condoms and want to penetrate more which will def lead to pregnancy or any sexually transmitted disease, etc. So its just better to wait than have unprotected sex. I think schools should also talk about the emotional effects of sex as well; how it feels to have a one-night stand, or to be pregnant and not have anyone help you, sexually transmitted diseases and how much more common they really are. And as much as I don’t like suggesting it, people can masturbate; a way to please themselves without the bad effects as sex……
The point is to just to try to help the students rather than lose their attention and find themselves in bad situations. Abstinence-only sex education is definitely a failure…
April 18th, 2010 at 5:23 am
Although I agree with religious conservatives who want to challenge the youth to delay sexual activity for a while, I totally disagree with their message that a condom is a provision for sin. I send my Christian friends to the website below which debunks the whole thing against premarital sex in the Bible. That way they have no excuse not to support comprehensive sex education.