So, you probably know the federal goverment is now paying out grant money to these sorts of programs, and pushing for them as a replacement for sex education that teaches anything about contraception.I never quite got what it is they'd be spending much time on "Just say No" doesn't seem to have a lot of content.

After reading this article in the Village Voice, I'm alternately cracking up over slogans like "Hang onto your hormones" and scared and the cutsyfied indoctrination happening.

Thoughts?

(Also, skip back to the front page of the Village Voice before it changes - I bet if a kid showed up with THAT logo at an 'abstinance only' school on their shirt, they'd get suspended!)

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2001

Answers

heee! and according to the sidebar, they can buy 'No Trespassing" underwear.

I don't think kids have changed all that much since I was one, but my teen slut self would have loooved a pair of those....

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2001

I want the shirt AND the underwear!

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2001

Cool! Let's start a Xeney line of abstinence clothing! It's for the chiiiilldddrennn....

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2001

I think that would contradict the message I'm trying to put out there to the kids, though. (Did I mention that I'm looking into Bad Hair Days condoms as JournalCon swag?)

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2001

I'm pretty sure if I'd ever asked my mom if I could have some of that underwear, she'd see is as counteractive to it's message too.

You're going to be very popular with swag like that, missy!

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2001

Well, see, that's what I was thinking last year after JournalCon. "Pretty good con, but it needed more sex. If only we'd had condoms!"

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2001

Not to mention the fact taht it'll leave you at ground zero for all the sex-related gossip... you'll have the best entries afterwards. "That rudeboy came back twenty times for more condoms! Not that I'm suggesting anything...."

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2001

Just wanted to say "hi." Did I wander into the girl's locker room by mistake? {G}

The main reason I'm here is to look at the Greenspun forums. I am thinking of adding one to my group's website--or rather adding a link or whatever.

On the subject of the articles, uh, I guess I could write a book. So maybe I should just shut up. I did think the "carbolic acid on the clitoris" was a bit much, even for John Harvey Kellogg. (I'm surprised they did not bring that up in "The Road to Wellville" movie.)

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2001

If you think this is the girl's locker room, you obviously haven't visited any Heath sites.

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2001

I am never eating graham crackers again.

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2001

Graham Crackers - mmmmmm.... asbtilicious.

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2001

I started writing a response to this that got so long I wound up revising it a bit and turning it into today's journal entry. Thanks Lynda!

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2001

The idea of teaching abstinence as a viable option is fine, and it makes good sense for teens who want to take that path. I'm all for trying to destigmatize virginity and making it more socially acceptable to wait. But the reality is that many teenagers aren't going to wait, and that's also fine ... sexuality is a matter of personal choice, and the responsibility of adults seems to me to be providing good, accurate information and passing on their own sense of values as guideposts.

Teaching abstinence in an "abstinence only" context and not providing information about other options - along with the risks and available safeguards - is just plain stupid. The approach of the group discussed in that article might have worked in 1950 or so, but kids today have way too much information and way too many influences for it to be at all effective now. I think most teens would laugh as hard at those slogans as we are.

I always feel a little bit out of place in these kinds of threads because I'm not a parent and can't speak to anything about raisng kids since I haven't done it. But if I were a parent, I think my job would be to make sure my kids understand what sex is, what it involves (physically, emotionally), what the possible consequences are, how to minimize the risks and hopefully how to make smart decisions. But arming them with knowledge would be about the limit, I think. After that, it has to be up to them. And I'd like to see them wait until they're ready to undertake the responsibilities that come with being sexually active, but I'd have to trust that I'd done a good enough job instilling some decision-making skills and sense of ethics into them that they would make choices they won't regret later.



-- Anonymous, August 02, 2001

To clarify what I just said ... I mean trying to help them understand what sexuality entails both good and bad. Because I'd want my kids to grow into adulthood seeing it as one of the finer pleasures of being alive, to develop a healthy and positive attitude about it. It just needs to be respected, and does come with certain risks that they also need to understand.

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2001

True, I've never visited a Heath site. Worth visiting?

The head of my high school Social Studies department was fired just as I was graduating because some student teacher showed a film strip about overpopulation in India, and one of the frames showed a calendar with some birth control pills and an IUD lying on top of the calendar. I had great trouble convincing any of my fellow students that they should protest this action. Most seemed to dislike this department head personally, so were unconcerned about whether he was fired and why.

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2001