Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - A small blow to "Abstinence Only" education

Aladdin Sane · 03-22-2005, 06:49 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aladdin Sane
Lurkette, I've Googled for the article but, as of yet, I haven't been able to find it. Perhaps I was dreaming. Can we pretend I never mentioned it?
Cheers. AS

Perhaps these are the studies you are referring to. I can't find the actual studies, just references to them.
Quote:
The questionable value of sex education

The increased availability of the pill and sex education in the USA had actually run parallel with increases in child pregnancies amongst the US school population.[31]

Research suggests that although in the USA contraceptive education resulted in gains in sexual knowledge, it also led to appreciable shifts towards promiscuity.[32]

(31) Alan Guttmacher Institute. Teenage Pregnancy: The Problem that hasn't gone away. 1981

(32) Richard D. Has Sex Education failed Our Children? Pomona Ca: Focus on the Family, 1990

Flstf, thank you. I didn't think I was dreaming, but you never know.

My aside in reference to this study was just that, an aside, and not the main thrust of the point I was trying to make (in my previous post). By bringing up this study, I panicked the true believers among us and shifted the focus where I had not intended.

My real point is that (1) so-called "sex education" has become so politicized in the United States as to be more akin to state propaganda than to rational inquiry; and (2) government schools in the United States have recently failed to teach reading and arithmetic (to name just two areas--there are more failures, to be sure), so I don't expect these same schools to be successful at teaching human sexuality; the consequences of which are far more grave than missing 2 + 2 = 4. And (3), to quote myself, many Parents have relinquished responsibility for raising their kids to a non-functioning, bureaucratic, insane asylum. It's lunacy. And the more responsibility the schools claim over raising kids, the more parents expect schools to do, and the less the schools actually do well. In an attempt to be all things for all kids, public schools have become experts at very little, save writing grant proposals, and securing federal dollars.

Furthermore, in response to an opinion stated in this forum, I will say that the "expectation of stifling sexual impulse" is indeed rediculous. That is NOT to say that human beings are like cattle and canines, with no ability for rational choice. I often have the impulse to mate with females other than my wife. When those impulses come, as they do on a daily basis, I make a choice to act on them or not. The ability to rationally weigh the consequences of acting on a biological impulse, of making a choice, that is what separates me (and you) from a canary. It's what makes us human.

03-22-2005, 06:49 AM	#39 (permalink)
Aladdin Sane Degenerate Location: San Marvelous	Quote: Originally Posted by Aladdin Sane Lurkette, I've Googled for the article but, as of yet, I haven't been able to find it. Perhaps I was dreaming. Can we pretend I never mentioned it? Cheers. AS Perhaps these are the studies you are referring to. I can't find the actual studies, just references to them. Quote: The questionable value of sex education The increased availability of the pill and sex education in the USA had actually run parallel with increases in child pregnancies amongst the US school population.[31] Research suggests that although in the USA contraceptive education resulted in gains in sexual knowledge, it also led to appreciable shifts towards promiscuity.[32] (31) Alan Guttmacher Institute. Teenage Pregnancy: The Problem that hasn't gone away. 1981 (32) Richard D. Has Sex Education failed Our Children? Pomona Ca: Focus on the Family, 1990 Flstf, thank you. I didn't think I was dreaming, but you never know. My aside in reference to this study was just that, an aside, and not the main thrust of the point I was trying to make (in my previous post). By bringing up this study, I panicked the true believers among us and shifted the focus where I had not intended. My real point is that (1) so-called "sex education" has become so politicized in the United States as to be more akin to state propaganda than to rational inquiry; and (2) government schools in the United States have recently failed to teach reading and arithmetic (to name just two areas--there are more failures, to be sure), so I don't expect these same schools to be successful at teaching human sexuality; the consequences of which are far more grave than missing 2 + 2 = 4. And (3), to quote myself, many Parents have relinquished responsibility for raising their kids to a non-functioning, bureaucratic, insane asylum. It's lunacy. And the more responsibility the schools claim over raising kids, the more parents expect schools to do, and the less the schools actually do well. In an attempt to be all things for all kids, public schools have become experts at very little, save writing grant proposals, and securing federal dollars. Furthermore, in response to an opinion stated in this forum, I will say that the "expectation of stifling sexual impulse" is indeed rediculous. That is NOT to say that human beings are like cattle and canines, with no ability for rational choice. I often have the impulse to mate with females other than my wife. When those impulses come, as they do on a daily basis, I make a choice to act on them or not. The ability to rationally weigh the consequences of acting on a biological impulse, of making a choice, that is what separates me (and you) from a canary. It's what makes us human. __________________ Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.