Just as children take cues from their parents, community programs look to the examples set by their funders. At the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a key lesson being taught is that manipulation and distortion of science is fine as long as it promotes chastity. The creators of the abstinence-only programs that HHS funds have learned the… return to article
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Reader Comments (11)Page 1 of 1 pagesThis administration would seem to prefer only the science that supports it’s view. What a surprise!
As with foreign intelligence, environmental policy, effects of the tax cuts, drug benefit costs, size of the deficit, and progress in Iraq.
Posted by Kenneth D. Brown on Feb 10, 2005 at 8:20 PM Parents at home can get around the blindspots of abstinence-only curricula by informing their own kids about sex from an informed, scientific angle, starting by referring to genitals by their ordinary names when they’re very little and giving them age-appropriate books, health-oriented website URLs, and informative videos (the public library might have stuff like this). There’s so much accurate, interesting information around, if the local school or community program is hamstrung by federal restrictions tied to funding, there’s no need to waste time waiting for the bureaucracy to change its tune. It does need to change its tune, of course, but kids are only young for a little while, so it makes a lot more sense to help your kids get educated with your involvement and lobby for policy change as separate needed emphasis. Better for the kids to have good reasons taught to them about why it’s smart to wait until they’re a bit older, and also how to be smart about it when they decide they’re ready to go for it. Religious families will likely advocate abstinence before marriage, but even their kids would benefit from accurate health information, whether HHS offers it or not.
Posted by Kuya on Feb 11, 2005 at 7:04 AM Putting politics aside...and that includes putting out a cry for a re-establishment of programs to address the problem which WILL occur.
The outgrowth of all this is going to be the same as it was before, when sexuality wasn’t discussed openly.
We will see an outbreak of teen pregnancy, increased abortion, new outbreaks of teen venereal disease...and some of this is already beginning to be manifested today.
And whether or not people will OPENLY show their desire for services they NEED (even though politically or religiously disagree with them)...they WILL be seeking them. And we will be right back where we started.
Affluent families will send their pregnant teen age daughters on “long” vacations, the poor will have to seek “other methods” to obtain care for their children.
Posted by Liberal AND Proud on Feb 11, 2005 at 7:43 AM I received excellent sex education in my convent (yes, convent) school (a free education public school in small-town Ireland, not an expensive boarding school), commencing with an optional afternoon of sex education by parental consent (everyone in my class attended) in the final year of primary school (ie, age 12) and continuing throughout second level education - linked in with civics lessons, religion lessons and biology lessons - including the video that made most of my all-female class swear themselves to chastity: child-birth in all its gorey detail!
In any case, this holistic approach, rather than dealing with it in isolation, put sex in context (societal/political, moral/emotional & practical/mechanical) and made us think of the ‘big picture’ consequences of our actions. It meant that sex just became another quality of life issue: not drinking when driving, choosing not to do Class A drugs, applying for third level education or an apprenticeship, flossing regularly and taking responsibility for your own sexuality, whether you choose abstinence or safe sex.
Education is power.
Posted by Tel on Feb 11, 2005 at 8:44 AM “Education” can be corrupting too.
That is the point of this article. You can teach falsehoods and half truths issue a diploma and call someone educated.
Posted by Liberal AND Proud on Feb 11, 2005 at 9:39 AM Under the Bush regime, misinformation and “propagannon” are the reasons they are in power.
Maybe Bush can explain to his “base” why his ignorance only policies have increase the number of abortions.
Posted by AmericanInsurgent on Feb 11, 2005 at 9:45 PM Maybe President Bush would like to share his own personal experiences of abstinence. Obviously, from his abstinence-over-education program, he must have saved his virginity until he was married. I am assuming his twin daughters will, too. How nice to have a “talk the talk, walk the walk” person in charge...Excuse me while I laugh out loud!
Posted by Brad on Feb 13, 2005 at 9:28 PM One more time. Lies and deception from the Bush administration. NO surpise.
What is surprising is why they think they need to. Believe it or not, many of us here in the heartland would probably agree with the rationale to teach abstinence, or with the need to confront possible WMDs, or personal accounts or whatever the Bush clan deems important. What is disheartening is they fail to see how lying to us further erodes the fragile public trust.
President Bush doesn’t have massive public support, he has corporate support which easily translates into massive amounts of media coverage for his point of view. Which then in turn becomes ‘conventional wisdom.’ So the “I’m too buys to study the issues” voters will easily
buy his catchy 30-second sound bites and vote for him.Sadly, if you study history, the U.S. is a the end of the timeline for this experiment to work. Why? The country has been taken over by those with the loudest voice and most media outlets.
Once again, the Bush administartion proves a longheld political axiom in U.S. politics: Money buys the truth and to hell with the facts.
Posted by Chris on Feb 14, 2005 at 12:28 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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