Texas leads the nation in the rate of teen pregnancy. Read more, here.
Yay Texas public education wonks. Keep sticking your heads in the sand with your abstinence-only policies despite repeated studies showing how ineffective they are (examples, here and here).
Moms Speak Up reads like Moms Fed Up in their post on the rising teen pregnancy rate, here.
My kids will be getting an earful of options but that doesn't mean their friends will. Those kids will hear it from me too, if they ask. If they don't ask me, they'll hear it from my kids. Fact is, peers are the leading source of sex education, right or wrong.
Wouldn't we rather they hear factual and accurate information by adults than listen to nonsense on the school bus?
12 comments:
I can see how committing a whole 2 weeks to the subject is working for TX too.
Like I said my kids have a 4 week course -- and it is progressive each year -- there is abstinence but also pretty balanced with good practical advice- like what to do to try to prevent STDs etc.
in the early stages (3rd or 4th grade) the boys and girls are seperated -- but after that they are together.
Jeannie
Apparently not all of us would.
Jeannie - Your kids are getting way more and way better than mine. My son has gotten zilch by way of anything to do with reproduction, until now. And even now, its all vague abstinence-only messages, nothing clinical or anatomical.
Jenn - right, apparently I'm out numbered, here in my state, anyway.
it all seems very last century to not have a clue how to teach teens not to get pregnant!
My parents are very conservative. I learned my sex ed on the school bus. I also learned that if i have sex before getting my first period or WHILE i am having my period monthly that I cannot get pregnant. Good thing i never found a guy i wanted to have sex with until WAY later, once i knew facts about pregnancy and sex.
You're right - they should stop this abstinence-only policy. It's completely insane.
Oh, and I've seen the 2007 version of Persuasion, saw it when it was on TV last year. It was probably the best one in the series, even though I'm not the biggest J.A. fan!
Ciao
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I think there's only so much blame you can lay on the school system. You can't get that angry at schools for not being efficient at doing something a child's parents should be handling.
e - or the basics of reproductive anatomy and biology, for starters! its arcane. I got more instruction from nuns than my junior high student is getting in public school.
feministgal - then there's the schoolbus yarn "girls can't get pregnant if they're on top" .. hmmm, wonder who tells them that charmer?
jamjar - Welcome and thanks for posting! I did like the 2007 PErsuasion too. hell, I'm a Jane Austen slut. I like them all.
blackthirteen - Thanks for visiting. I agree completely that we parents should be teaching at home, and I certainly do, but fact is, many parents don't know the facts. I don't think its fair that their kids lose out on basic science that can have lifelong consequences, sometimes lethal consequences in the case of HIV-AIDS.
I'd be really worried, honestly, if a parent made it to parenthood without knowing the basics of sex and contraception.
I mean, they managed to get pregnant/get someone pregnant, they should have SOME idea how it works.
Yes, the slight winking humor was intentional.
It's strange, though. I hear all these stories of schoolyard stories and such being spun around...I never heard any of these when I was in school.
Admittedly, it's been a fairly long time since I was that age, but not one of those ever reached my ears.
It's an interesting thing, because if schools universally offer comprehensive sex ed, you're going to run into what I eventually saw a lot of: Parents demanding opt-out forms for their children.
I don't think there will ever be something to fully satisfy all parties involved, and that's troubling.
blackthirteen - yes, knowing how to get pregnant and how to prevent pregnancy are very different things. Noone opted out of my son's class, and noone to his knowledge, but very big school, hard to know. Its impossible to please all, as you say. The scientific facts would be a great place to start.
Well, that's the thing. Some parents might fear those facts, or fear that the class will just be trying to show teens how to have sex, etcetera.
Though, if you know how to get pregnant, chances are you know how NOT to get pregnant.
I'd be frankly worried if they didn't know that.
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