Abstinence-Only Sex Education

[Andrew]

I figure this thread should get lots of insight (or not).

Survey: Florida Teens Believe Drinking Bleach Will Prevent HIV, Mountain Dew Will Stop Pregnancy, smoking marijuana will prevent a person from getting pregnant

Maybe the teens taking the test intentionally screwed up the scores for fun.

Here's one I found while googling (2006)

Sex Ed Changes At School With 65 Pregnant Teens. So 13% of females were pregnant where abstinence was taught.

Maybe they promote abstinence education to increase their God loving population? Or are abstinence people blind in the same way that the "praying to heal" people are?

What's your view on abstinence education?

[Khan]

I think abstinence is the single worst idea for sex ed as people who will abstain will do it without the education of it and people who won't need the real education. Luckily I went to a catholic school with a really good science teacher who taught us the majority of what you need to know in about 20 minutes.

Silly yanks.

[Caid Ivik]

we learned it on biology when everybody already knew all, without any moral opinions...catholic school too

[Edric O]

As Caid pointed out, "everybody already knew all." I don't see how anything short of living in a cave could prevent someone learning about condoms. And, honestly, using Mountain Dew against pregnancy? That is exceptionally stupid. The person who said that must have been intentionally trying to screw up the results.

But anyway, I think we can all agree that abstinence-only sex education is ridiculous. The fact is, people's sexual practices cannot be influenced by a few hours of class in school. Let sexual education be about condoms and the pill, and use other means to try to improve the rate of abstinence.

[Andrew]

John McCain Campaign to Brody File: Eliminating "Abstinence Only" Programs is Wrong

McCain and his fundy supporters sure are smart.

[nampigai]

abstinence only must be THE single most stupid thing I've ever heard. Funny that the men preaching it isn't the "god's best children"

I'm sick and tired of all the neo-puritanism, teach the kids how to avoid Sexual transfered diseases - they're gonna screw around anyways - and why not?

Politician (and especially the neo-puritans) are so hypocratic, if they don't like sex, they should start living in a monastry - and let the rest of us live as we please!

[Kokiri-Mentat]

In response to Andrew's linked article above, am I the only one who think it is completely absurd that we are relying on politicians to decide how to teach our kids about sex?  (When's the last time they got any good action anyway :P governor of NY doesn't count as an answer ;D)

Parents: teach your kids.

Don't waste my money on ANY program.  I don't care what the program is.  The US may only have 250 years of cultural history, but we need to grow up as a society.  Stop relying on government to tell us what life style to life.  We can do that on our own thanks.

This just sounds like a ploy for headlines anyway.  Please lets hear about some real issues.