Monday, February 01, 2010

A Successful Approach to Sex Education

Interesting.

An experimental abstinence-only program without a moralistic tone can delay teens from having sex, a provocative study found.

Billed as the first rigorous research to show long-term success with an abstinence-only approach, the study differed from traditional programs that have lost federal and state support in recent years. The classes didn’t preach saving sex until marriage or disparage condom use.

Instead, it involved assignments to help sixth- and seventh graders see the drawbacks to sexual activity at their age, including having them list the pros and cons themselves. Their “cons” far outnumbered the “pros.”

(2) Comments
Posted by Owen at 2135 hrs
Culture + Politics + Politics - General

  1. Too bad the abstinence side of this debate is chock full of whiny moralists who can’t resist using sex ed to further their own ideological perceptions, and that the non-abstinence side of this debate is pathologically incapable of ever admitting the merits of another approach.  A hundred studies like this could come out and it wouldn’t change anything because 99% of the people who get wound up about this issue are idiots.

    Kids, however, are often more capable of rational thought than the crazy adults arguing over them.  And isn’t that really who comes out of this study looking the best?  That maybe the way to win over a kid isn’t to browbeat him with guilt or paralyze him with fear but to instead appeal to his sense of logic?  Gee, really?  Who would’ve thought?  hmmm

    Posted by Recess Supervisor on February 01, 2010 at 2212 hrs


  2. Interesting study!
    Those of us on the West Bend Human Growth and Development Committee (HGD) worked hard to bring these ideas into the curriculum:

    Instruction in marriage (which is required by law). Study after study shows the benefits of marriage in individual’s lives and in society. Poverty, abuse, poor education, etc. all stem from the breakdown of marriage. We on the HGD committee worked to see that kids understand that. We also worked to include ideas for their own future successful marriage. We look forward to the positive impact this will have on our kids.

    Dr. Meg Meeker produced three, seven minute video clips called, The Rules Have Changed, alerting kids to the “silent epidemic” of STD’s. They are worth watching and will now be included in the high school classes.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CjmUReV_jU

    Those were just two new implementations to our local curriculum. We appreciated the opportunity to get involved.

    This is a newly published study from the AMA and also shows a decrease in sexual activity among students attending abstinence-only training:
    http://pubs.ama-assn.org/homepage/media/2010a/0201.dtl#7

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 02, 2010 at 0835 hrs


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