I suspect that most teens don't pay attention to sex ed regardless of what source material is used.
I suspect that most of the sex-ed curriculum goes goes in one ear and right out the other of most teens just like the curriculum for most other subjects does for most teens.
Interesting snippets.
From a student:
"A lot of girls fall in love, and it doesn't seem they care about protection," she said yesterday. "It's 'What am I going to enjoy right now?' Or they'll say, 'I know he hasn't been with anybody. . . . He's clean.' Or, 'He'll stop before we go too far.' "
From a doctor:
"Kids are not comfortable disclosing what they do," she said. "Or when they do come in, every single one will tell you they or their partner are using a condom. Obviously, many are not."
From a school administrator:
We got the message out about preventing pregnancy," said Molly Love, who works with teens and young adults at a nonprofit health clinic in Silver Spring. "Perhaps young women learned about birth control at the expense of using condoms. Young women don't think as much about the risk of STDs as they do the risks of getting pregnant."
Of the kids having sex (at least in the cities, I'll concede ignorance about rural areas) the problem is abstinence only sex ed curricula. Most know how STDs get passed around. The problem is that the kids having sex aren't even making use of what knowledge they do have.
Of course, condoms don't help (or don't protect completely) with the main disease found in the study, HPV, so I don't know how helpful that would actually be. What would help? Mandatory STD testing for kids over a certain age? Vaccination? Cold showers? Chasity belts?
My main point is that the article makes it clear that kids are having sex whether we tell them to or not, and it's time to address the problem from a public health perspective, not a moral perspective.[ Parent ]
My main point is that the article makes it clear that kids are having sex whether we tell them to or not, and it's time to address the problem from a public health perspective, not a moral perspective.
That's a reasonable position, but it bears little resemblance to what your point appeared to be. It certainly looked to me like the main point of this diary was that the rise in STDs in teens is the direct consequence of abstinence only sex-ed curricula pushed by various groups.
The truth of the matter is that there are multiple causes and it isn't clear what (if any) policy would actually help.
Wumpus[ Parent ]
My doubts are whether or not particular sex ed programs are the cause of this rise.
