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Sex Education
Sun, 09/07/2008 - 19:24 | EducationTavis Talks
The family circumstances of the GOP VP nominee have raised the issue of sex education and whether it should focus on abstinence or be more comprehensive. A Washington Post article notes that, ironically, Congress is debating whether to authorize millions in federal funding for abstinence-only programs:
Proponents of sex education programs that focus on encouraging abstinence are launching a nationwide campaign aimed at enlisting 1 million parents to support the controversial approach.Which type of sex education program is more effective in protecting young people: abstinence-centered or comprehensive?
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In a sentence: "An ounce of
In a sentence: "An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure."
Congress debating whether to
Congress debating whether to authorize millions in federal funding for abstinence-only programs is a waste of tax dollars! Why? Most of America's 22 million minors (age 13 to 17), whether male or female virgins, are not going abstain from sex, be it only French Kissing or any or all other sexual acts, to conform to some universal belief or model -- which past and present when it comes to advocating abstinence, tends to be: when one has entered into a heterosexual, monogamous, married, male or joint-income bread-winner nuclear-family model. 229 million adult Americans (age 18 to 100) are not abstaining or prescribe 100% to such a value-system or model. This model provokes and feeds the political/culture wars, involving complex issues: pro-choice vs pro-life, single-female-parenting vs male/female parenting, the gay community vs the heterosexual community, birth-control vs abstinence, and so on. Aside from the waste of tax-dollars, and fallacy millions of teen and adult Americans can be re-socialized or re-programmed into priestly-celibacy or nun-virginity defies reality.
A reality-check of complex social problems (all of the above and more) suggest a sober allocation and approach to sex -- namely, comprehensive sex education which includes abstinence as one of many forms of responsible sexual conduct. The abstinence-only-debate speaks to an insidious religious indoctrination, heterosexism, patriarchy, and continued effort to "guilt-trip" 305 million Americans into categorizing each other into two over-simplistic sex camps: all the "good girls and boys" (abstinent virgins) vs all the "bad girls and boys" (promiscuous sexual deviants).