My son and I were actually having a discussion about this earlier today. I happened to ask him if he’d had sex-ed yet, but as of the end of his freshman year, he hadn’t (not surprising in the part of the country that we live in). Of course, my husband and I have already had this conversation with our son many times and have provided easy access to condoms (should he ever feel the need to protect himself).
As parents, who were once young people ourselves, we understand the surge of hormones that kids have to deal with and we understand that kids are going to have sex (whether we want them to or not). I feel it’s important to educate our children about the STD’s that threaten, the potential for teen pregnancy and its challenges, and most importantly, how to protect themselves.
The worst thing you could do is to make sex a dirty, unmentionable word in your house. Making sex a comfortable topic, encouraging questions, and allowing your child to make their own (well informed) decisions leads to nothing but good things.
Of course, the religious groups are already pitching a fit over this initiative, but most of us have heard what ‘abstinence only’ education will get you (higher rates of teen pregnancy, increase of STD infection rates, increase in abortion rates, etc). Unfortunately, the ‘righteous’ are in denial about the disastrous consequences of inadequate sex-ed.
Get a load of Rick Perry being interviewed about this very issue:
There was a much better, and longer, clip floating around (somewhere on the internet) of the interview cited by the Young Turks. I couldn't find it, but if someone knows where I could find it, would you please let me know? It is an interview by Evan Smith, from the Texan Tribune, of Rick Perry. Thnx.
Thats funny because I have taken sex ed and they try to teach the students at my school to be abstient but really the students dont care about being abstient. So it would be alot better for schools to teach protection more than abstinence.
ReplyDeleteB.