Abstinence-Only Education is Irresponsible
With the 2008 election getting closer, a few topics have been coming up lately that I’ve gotten frustrated with. The idea of abstinence-only education, as opposed to the teaching of safe sex, is absurd.
This is a policy the Republicans (especially Sarah Palin) have been pushing for years, and it’s hard to believe this idea is even being considered in these modern times.
The idea is simply to teach kids not to have sex, instead of teaching them about the proper precautions to take if they decide to have sex. In doing this, kids won’t have sex, so they don’t need to learn about birth control or STD’s. Brilliant, right?
Here’s a giant flaw in this system though: KID’S DON’T LISTEN TO EVERYTHING YOU TELL THEM TO DO!
If teenagers were robots, and you could program them to stay abstinent, then this would be fool proof. But you would have to be extremely ignorant and naive to think that telling people to hold onto their virginities until marriage actually works.
Let’s say you tell your kids not to play in the mud. You say that and hope they will listen, but you wouldn’t be shocked to find a trail of mud leading from the front door to their room the next day. So you also teach them how to use soap and take showers in case they decide to get dirty anyway. You can tell them not to go out in the rain, but you wouldn’t keep umbrellas a secret from them or tell them they don’t work. So why is this OK when it comes to sex?
It’s not ok, it’s irresponsible. If you believe your children shouldn’t have sex until they are married, then you tell them that. But if they don’t understand how safe sex works and they end up having sex anyway, don’t be surprised if they end up becoming a parent nine months later or further spread STD’s. Also, just because you feel your children shouldn’t have sex until marriage, doesn’t mean you should make sure everyone else’s kids do the same. Worry about your own family and allow others to worry about their own as well.
One more thing: If abstinence-only education really does work, then why is Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old daughter pregnant right now? Maybe if her mother spent a little less time fighting against safe sex and spent five minutes teaching her how a condom works, she wouldn’t be in this predicament right now.
It’s the year 2008, and the fact that this is even an issue is a scary truth. And if you haven’t figured it out by now, I implore you to vote Obama this November and keep ridiculous, ignorant people as far away from power as possible.
3 years ago