Sex Ed vs Teaching Abstinence And Assumptions
posted: Jul 2, 11:27 PM
I posted a link on Twitter this morning to an article by Marie Cocco on Unprotected Sex: Abstinence Educations Main Accomplishment. I found her article articulate and to the point.
Elizabeth, at Sex In the Public Square, sent me an article recently which completely amazed me; and not in a good way. It is a blog post by Jill Stanek, Sex Education Unnecessary?
Essentially, Ms Stanek, a former R.N. believes educating children and youth on safer sex, sexuality, birth control and, probably, their bodies, leads to rampant sexual activity in adolescents. She sites a psychiatrist, Dr. Phillip Ney, as her source to substantiate her opinions on this subject.
It concerns me, and, I would go so far as to say frightens me, when educated individuals subscribe to rather close minded thinking. I have always believed the more we learn, the more we realize there is so much more to learn. Additionally, this knowledge has made me very cautious about saying anything which implies my opinion is more correct than another’s. (That being said, however, my opinion may be more informed. It will be based on reliable research, not on subjective beliefs).
All of this leads me to the subject of assumptions. We know the saying “assuming makes an ass out of you and of me” and this is a prime example. In the event we assume giving young people information will lead to unplanned pregnancies; unprotected or unsafe sex; multiple partners; whatever our worry/concern may be, how do we balance this assumption with what we know historically to be the case in our society? In the early to mid 20th century sex ed. was certainly not part of any school’s curriculum, but young people still had pre-marital sex; there were unplanned pregnancies; dangerous abortions and untreated STIs. So, assuming education is bad, is bad.
What we do know today, is youth are sexually active. They need information. I know many young people who I could have “assumed” were well informed about birth control and safer sex. Fortunately, I made no assumptions, because, the questions they asked illustrated all too clearly how little they knew.
The number of pregnancy tests they have come looking for; the questions … such as “if I don’t have a condom will Saran Wrap work?” tell me, and us, these youth need information. The adults hiding their heads in the proverbial sand and insisting information regarding sex and sexuality only leads to “wanton” behaviour are misinformed!
I read an article recently about STIs and HIV infection in newly single “older” adults. These adults had been single prior to HIV and were not accustomed to using condoms. The writer’s inference was younger adults tended to be more cognizant of the health risks associated with unprotected sex due to growing up hearing “use a condom”.
In my Twitter update I noted information on its own is not power…it’s what we do with the information. Let’s advocate for giving our youth the power to keep themselves safe and healthy.
Gemini