*on the soapbox again*
Abstinence programs are being considered in my loving home state. The religious right is saying now that maybe we shouldn’t be teaching kids how to properly use contraceptives, especially at the middle-school level, even though such education led to a 30 percent drop in teen pregnancies.
My high school had the highest pregnancy rate in our entire county. And sex ed wasn’t introduced until ninth grade — one segment of a semester-long health class — and it was taught by two women who have probably never seen anything other than a plastic penis in their lives. It wasn’t enough, but I imagine it might have helped somewhat.
My mom had the best attitude toward sex — DO IT! She didn’t believe in forbidding me to do much of anything, and it led to my attitudes today of, “Well, I know I can have it whenever I can get it,” as opposed to, “*Shriek* It’s naughty, it’s dirty, so let me have as much as I can so I can rebel against parental wishes and societal norms!”
Of course, she had me when she was 16, so that kind of impacted me as far as, “Oh HELL no, I don’t want kids, especially at that age!” Mom, though, was one of those people who was meant to have kids — that’s what she did best, and she’s regretful that I am an only child, but at least she had the support and built-in babysitting services of my grandparents and great-grandmother. Most kids don’t have that kind of help when they decide to have babies of their own.
In any event, sure, stop teaching kids anything other than, “Sex is bad.” (That last line said in the voice of Mr. Mackey on “South Park” — “Sex is bad, drugs are bad, maryjuwana is bad, mmm kay?”) Don’t separate church and state. Pretend that kids really will listen to their gym teachers who are forced to teach abstinence as not just the best, but the only, way to deal with their budding sexuality.
And if they’re so fucking concerned about babies not having babies, maybe they can teach homosexuality as an option.
*off the soapbox again*