Religious Groups Teaching Abstinence in Public Schools

[Tmy]

I have no problem wh the abstinence part, BUT if thats all your teaching isnt that religious dogma???

The whole point is to prevent teen preggys and STD's. While abstinence is the best way to prevent them isnt it incomplete eductaion wh/o a safe sex component. If you want to stop STDs and babies you have to realize there will be kids who are going to have sex.

Does anyone know how these abstinence groups work? Can they score fed funding? Anyone ever been exposed to these programs.

 

[Bikewer]

They had an interesting segment on this on NPR's "talk of the nation" last week.

Seems it isn't all black and white... The term "abstinence only" seems straightforward, but apparently "abstinence" can mean many things to many people. Apparently, it depends a lot on which particular curriculum the individual school district has decided on.

I was under the impression that more liberal sex-ed classes were not being funded at all, but that's not the case, according to the show. The money for these programs just comes out of another area of the budjet, rather than from funds earmarked "abstinence only."

All the pundits on the show were of the opinion that the whole thing was rather silly, and that sex-ed should be much more inclusive and start much earlier than is currently the case.

I work at a major university, and each year the school paper runs a survey of student's knowledge of sexuality and STDs. The results are appalling, and this is the upper crust of the country, academics-wise.

 

[pgwenthold]

Does anyone know how these abstinence groups work?

They don't.

Oh, that's not what you meant.

Actually, Sue Johansson had an interesting rant a couple of weeks ago. Apparently there was a study by Eastern Kentucky University where they had an abstinence only sex education program, and students were asked at the end to sign an abstinence pledge, that they would not have sex.

One year later, the number of students who admit they had sex in the past year was the same regardless of whether they signed an abstinence pledge or not.

Big help.

BTW, if you have never seen Sue Johansson, you should. There aren't many people who can render Ellen Degeneres speechless, but SueJo did (Ellen was too embarassed by what she said). Examples of what SueJo is like: last week, there was a call from a lesbian who's partner was bi and she wanted to know how to compete. So Sue pulls a strap-on out from under the counter and says, you ever tried one? Then she told a girl that she should take her 15 year old sister to a sex shop to get her some safe equipment to masturbate with. And the best part is that this is a 65 year old woman.