| Freedom Network: OK to teach sixth-grade public school students about condoms |
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| by Will Lutz | Fri, Feb 27, 2009, 05:04 PM |
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On Feb. 24, the Texas Freedom Network, a group seeking to reduce the influence of Christian conservatives on Texas politics, held a news conference to release a study decrying the influence of abstience only sexuality education programs in Texas public schools. (We post a copy of the study here.)Advocates of teaching birth control in the public school often talk about how they want "age appropriate" sexuality education in public schools. An exchange between LSR’s William Lutz, Kathy Miller of the Freedom Network, and David Wiley of Texas State University suggests that the network’s aims are more sweeping even than advertised. Lutz: If you guys get what you are advocating, does this mean we’re going to be telling sixth or seventh graders about condoms? Miller: What were advocating is that we use evidence-based sexuality education in our public schools. Frankly, we’d be very happy if we got legislation or guidelines that tells schools that they had to provide medically accurate, scientifically accurate information, that they couldn’t discourage contraceptive or condom use among sexually active folks. But we wanted to rely on the experts to decide what is age-appropriate in sexuality education. And just to be clear, we all want sexuality education programs to encourage abstinence. No good sexuality education program does anything differently. However, we have to give our students the information they need to protect themselves and make good decisions. Lutz: So is telling sixth-graders about condoms age-appropriate? Miller: Health educators?
Lutz: Was your study only relating to high school kids or did you go below high schools?
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Comments (15)
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written by Mike , February 28, 2009 TX should get with the program and educate kids about sex. I grew up in a northern state and we learned in 6th grade - kids are going to have sex, so why change their lives with a kid early on - or worse yet, some disease they cannot control. It's being responsible for kids well-being by educating them even about things parents won't (or don't) discuss.
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written by Austin , February 28, 2009 Texas leads the country in teenage pregnacy AND abstinence education funding. Just a coincidence?
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written by Ken Dickson , February 28, 2009 Mike, I guess with all your education in that northern state, morals never came into play & it was just too good to stay there with all that info providing low out of wedlock births, high moral values, & just about everthing better than Texas! I guess that is why the "rust belt" never asks for anything from government? To teach children about sex is a pretty "touchy" subject @ best, but to explain the very depths of of morality takes more than what I have observed in the school systems. Parental education programs may have a lot more merit than a bunch of out of control school programs. What a horrible idea!
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written by Peggy Borchert , February 28, 2009 God, the one who really loves us, makes it so simple. He just says don't have sex until you are married. All this thinking for our young people is not going to help them. There is too much confusing information. The truth is there are consequences to having sex before marriage and it is not just STD's. We need to have more respect for our young people. They can wait. They need to be given that message. For their own self-interest they need to wait. For their own self-respect they need to wait. They have natural desires. That is normal, but they don't need to give into them. As their role models, we should be encouraging them to wait for their own self-interest. When we say we know you are going to have sex so here is how you protect yourself. (These protections are insufficient to protect from disease and disease is not the only consequence to having sex outside marriage) We are saying we know you can't control yourself so here, use this so you won't destroy yourself. It is the wrong message. Children can learn to be self-governing for their own safety and happiness. That is what their growing up years, their maturing is all about. It is for them to learn to be self-governing for their own self-interest and their own safety and happiness. Even if you don't believe in God it is still better to wait. You are loving yourself if you wait. You are respecting yourself if you wait. You are learning to govern yourself if you wait. We need to respect our youth. We need to expect more of them. They need to be challenged. Life is hard and our young people need to be toughened up. We need to challenge them to be self-governing. Any person who has accomplished anything in life has had to be self-governing. It does not make them good. It makes them smart. They cared enough about themselves to control themselves and not just do what comes naturally.
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written by Grrr , February 28, 2009 As much as premarital sex probably is not a good idea, I still remember being 15. One could obsess about, among other things, a pony tail for hours. I don't think Ms. Borchert is going to scare away teenage horniness.
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written by Paul Barnes , February 28, 2009 I'm surprised that no one has quoted Dallasblog favorite Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol on the subject. Remember her? The unwed, teenage daughter of the Republican candidate for Vice President? She said that it was her choice to have the child. I'll repeat choice. And she said that abstinence education is not realistic. Kids today need all the help they can get to make informed, educated decisions. The number of children having children in Texas proves that parents, schools and churches are failing them miserbly.
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written by Byron George , March 01, 2009 Abstinence would cause a terrific hardship on Planned "baby killing" Parenthood. Then they would have to ask the messiah for bailout money. Kids learn morals at home. There is where the failure lies.
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written by Shadrach , March 02, 2009 People who are Pro-Life should seriously consider whether promoting ineffective abstinence only education is the best public policy. The problem with too many in the Right is that they care more about ideology than results. My biology teacher put a condom over banana in my 7th grade class and I did not turn into a fornicating madman. Whether we believe it or not, some kids in public schools will not be found in Sunday School class. As long as sex ed has a strong moral component, why not trust that our teenagers can know how the plumbing works without going anymore crazy than they already would have? The studies I have seen show that "Abstinence Plus Knowledge" sex ed works better at preventing sex, pregnancy, STD's and abortions than "Abstinence Only" sex ed. Forget the ineffective ideology, the real pro-life position is to take the program that prevents abortions.
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written by Amy in Austin , March 02, 2009 And how many times have had unprotected sex with whom you didn't want to rear a child, BG? And judging from your constant commentary, the world would be better off without having more stupid people like you reproduce? Do you even have a college degree? For someone who moans about bailouts all day, you probably just sit at home and blog. Somebody has to pay for your internet access and cheetos.
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written by Byron George , March 03, 2009 Amy, I'm so glad you are back. I have missed your insults. I feel sorry for you. You must be miserable. Your beloved messiah has not fulfilled any of his campaign promises. The DJIA is down 3,000 points since he took office. He has accomplished one promise. He promised change. He is changing this country by leading us down the road to destruction.
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written by Byron George , March 03, 2009 I see the messiah has dipped into the tax evader section to get another nominee, Ron Kirk. "Despite the error, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, issued a statement calling Kirk "the right person for this job," and said he would attempt to have the nomination moved through the panel quickly." Imagine that! Write comment
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