Education - Sex Education
- Aug 1, 2005
A battle is being waged in many school systems across the nation over what material and subjects will be covered in sex education classes. In several places, abstinence-based sex education is replacing the older model that seeks to give children information on a broad base of subjects such as condom use, birth control pills, homosexuality, etc. For example, health education consultant, Diane Waggoner, says, “The fear is that we will not be giving students the information and the skills they need … Students today are experimenting at a younger age, and they need to understand why they are saying no and how to say no and about the situations they may come across.” Even the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics are opposed to abstinence-based sex education.
But many parents today are sounding the alarm and calling for school systems to teach abstinence only. Some, like Carolyn Mack of Rochester, Michigan, have been placed on the advisory committee for the local school board. She and several others opposed a video that was being shown to seventh graders that was far too explicit. Cathy Ponder, who was at the forefront of the sex education battle in Northville, Michigan, said, “There’s no such thing as safe sex. Children deserve the truth, and they deserve to know that condoms do not protect you.”
Michigan law now requires abstinence-based sex education. However, local districts can decide what else may be included. A proposed state law is currently under consideration that would give parents a majority on curriculum advisory boards.
“Parents Lobby for Less Sex in Sex Ed,” http://www.freep.com , September 16, 2002
The American Medical Association (AMA) has decided that the federal government should not fund community-based sex education programs that advocate an abstinence-only approach. That puts the organization at odds with the current administration, which supports abstinence-only programs.
The AMA’s argument is that many of these programs cannot produce scientific evidence that they work. The AMA was already on record supporting programs that include information about contraception and information about abstinence.
The final stance is less stringent than some within the organization wanted. Christopher DeRienzo, a medical student at Duke University in Durham, N.C., who also represents the nation’s medical students within the AMA’s House of Delegates, says that community-based programs often use an abstinence-only curriculum that includes errors and sexual stereotypes. But Billie Jackson, M.D., a Macon, GA., dermatologist and mother of teens, indicated that abstinence-only programs in Jessup, GA., and in Washington, D.C., are effective and that physicians should support programs that work.
Peggy Peck, “AMA: No Evidence That Abstinence Sex Ed Works,” http://www.foxnews.com , December 7, 2004