2008 Woodie Awards
Abstinence fails. Use a condom.
The Editorial Board
Issue date: 12/6/07 Section: Opinions
The Sidelines Editorial Board talked sex this week, in a needlessly graphic round-table discussion of various news items. The politics of sex have always been gritty and contentious in our country, and this year is no exception.
Troubling stories about the United States' sexual health should cause us to continually reexamine our personal and national policy towards the ultimate of Puritan taboos, 'doing the nasty.' Of course, each viewpoint in the debate is right, so there can be no consensus.
The federal government began to tamper with nationwide sex education in the mid to late nineties, according to SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States. In the past 10 years, most official policy regarding sex education was that it should focus primarily on abstinence. Condoms are no longer allowed in the classroom, and now, neither are any other types of contraceptives.
Anyone smarter than a box of hammers knows that abstinence is the only foolproof way to prevent STIs and pregnancy, 100 percent of the time. What now?
If you know, or have been a teenager, you are fully aware that teens tend to do the exact opposite of what their elders advise. Enter: Tennessee's abnormally high rates of both teen pregnancies and STI infections. Clearly, "just say no" doesn't cut it anymore.
Editorial Board members shared anecdotes from health classes in Tennessee schools. Basic fact-checking revealed a staggering amount of misinformation passed off as fact. Imagine that.
To make matters worse, as part of a seemingly benign "budget deficit reduction" bill, Congress slashed funding that used to subsidize the availability of birth control medication to university students. Birth control pills will become more expensive as a result.
The message is clear: those in charge of the federal government are not interested in the sexual health of its college-age citizens, or the vital sex education that our middle and high school students currently lack.
Perhaps when unwanted pregnancies and STIs reach epidemic proportions, the powers that be will wake up.
Until then, don't screw around, literally or figuratively.
Troubling stories about the United States' sexual health should cause us to continually reexamine our personal and national policy towards the ultimate of Puritan taboos, 'doing the nasty.' Of course, each viewpoint in the debate is right, so there can be no consensus.
The federal government began to tamper with nationwide sex education in the mid to late nineties, according to SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States. In the past 10 years, most official policy regarding sex education was that it should focus primarily on abstinence. Condoms are no longer allowed in the classroom, and now, neither are any other types of contraceptives.
Anyone smarter than a box of hammers knows that abstinence is the only foolproof way to prevent STIs and pregnancy, 100 percent of the time. What now?
If you know, or have been a teenager, you are fully aware that teens tend to do the exact opposite of what their elders advise. Enter: Tennessee's abnormally high rates of both teen pregnancies and STI infections. Clearly, "just say no" doesn't cut it anymore.
Editorial Board members shared anecdotes from health classes in Tennessee schools. Basic fact-checking revealed a staggering amount of misinformation passed off as fact. Imagine that.
To make matters worse, as part of a seemingly benign "budget deficit reduction" bill, Congress slashed funding that used to subsidize the availability of birth control medication to university students. Birth control pills will become more expensive as a result.
The message is clear: those in charge of the federal government are not interested in the sexual health of its college-age citizens, or the vital sex education that our middle and high school students currently lack.
Perhaps when unwanted pregnancies and STIs reach epidemic proportions, the powers that be will wake up.
Until then, don't screw around, literally or figuratively.
Viewing Comments 1 - 7 of 18
an opinion
posted 12/06/07 @ 9:07 AM CST
A friend of mine now has TWO kids - wore a condom every time and his girlfriends were both on the pill... Say what you want...
Maybe you should read the article "Syphilis, Chlamydia, Gonorrhea" that you just printed. (Continued…)
Anonymous
posted 12/06/07 @ 10:03 AM CST
"The message is clear: those in charge of the federal government are not interested in the sexual health of its college-age citizens, or the vital sex education that our middle and high school students currently lack. (Continued…)
Reason over religion!
posted 12/06/07 @ 12:04 PM CST
One underlying root of the issues we face in this matter has to do with biology, society and longstanding natural order.
Homo sapien culture has changed more in the last 150 years than the whole other 200,000 combined. (Continued…)
anonymous
posted 12/07/07 @ 7:39 AM CST
re cant help myself:
"UMMMMMM, if STI is an acronym for "sexually transmitted infections," to say STI infections is REDUNDANT, and also should have been caught by the proofreaders. (Continued…)
Roy Malone
posted 12/07/07 @ 10:18 AM CST
"Back to the subject at hand: Far from "sanitizing" the sex from sex ed classes, the government has spent decades putting out all sorts of information from statistics, pictures, and films to condom and banana demonstrations to kids over the years. (Continued…)
Exactly.
posted 12/07/07 @ 5:21 PM CST
"It's WRONG for parents to expect everyone else to educate their kids. AND it's STUPID to throw educational dollars down the drain when our kids are graduating without basic skills and literacy. (Continued…)
Anonymous
posted 12/10/07 @ 4:08 PM CST
I'm a little conflicted over how sex ed should be handled.
Definitely not the way it was taught at my high school--pure scare tactics. Pictures of infected body parts, including an eye and a throat. (Continued…)
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