February 8th, 2008
And a Time For Every Purpose, Under Heaven
“Two eighth-graders in St Louis, Missouri were suspended for two days this week after they wore shirts that promoted safe-sex in protest of their school’s abstinence-only curriculum.”
There is a time and a place for everything.
Eighth grade is a great time and place for proper sex education. Even condoms hanging off a tee shirt in the hallways of an elementary school are better than the eventual trauma those little ones will suffer due to their abstinence only education.
You Go Girls. xxxooo
I have received hits from dependable erection for some time I finally decided to add them to my blogroll…
Yes, I was fearful at first of what I might find over there, assuming WLON was being referenced as a blog to visit for a dependable erection was not exactly as flattering as one might presume, so I scrolled on over with one eye closed. I actually find it a good read, as to if it is about erections or not, you will have to look for yourself.
Peace
We can all breath easier as the last of the “I’m a male model with good hair” candidates has been dismissed.
They still make schools with abstinence-only policies? That’s deplorable. I’m going to have to ask more of my friends in other parts of the country what curriculum they were schooled with.
“the packaged condoms would have caused a “disruption”" - I hope that when they go back to school, they follow this up by sticking un-wrapped condoms complete with mayonnaise filling onto their shirts. FFS, abstinence-only policy is nothing but a head-up-our-arses policy - I’m guessing there’s no drug education on the curriculum there either.
It is quite interesting actually, eighth graders (probably somewhere between the ages of 13 or 14) probably just now exploring their sexuality for the first time, and their biggest worries in life being more focused towards video games or the girl who they have a crush on in their first period class, being fully cognoscente of the ethical dilemmas presented with an abstinence only curriculum. It just seems like their would have to be a very strong outside influence telling them what to think.
Just a thought. I could be wrong.
I can not remember 8th grade that well. I know we were not schooled in abstinence only, and that was a good thing.
Heh, well sex ed, regardless of abstinence or safe sex policies, tend to be a bit of a joke anyway - especially in the U.S. TI think I agree with Jake here… this sounds like an outside influence using children as media targets to bring an issue to light.
Hell, I’m completely opposed to the batshit insane notion of abstinence-only education, but I’d question the intent of any parent who wouldn’t realize that, well, school districts will usually suspend your junior high kids for violating a non-disruptive clothing policy. And, well, student walkouts or mass protests would be so much more effective than a wifebeater covered with Sharpie marks and rubbers.
MOJO:sADLY YES.
flame: I don’t know that answer.
Jake and Jason: fourteen and fifteen, which where I came from was actually high school, and maybe it was just where I came from but kids that age were certainly able to think for themselves and come up with some very creative forms of protest. I prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt.
I also do not recall anyone telling me what to think at age twelve, never mind age fourteen and fifteen, but then again these are girls not boys so maybe there in lies the difference.
The schools I attended in 8th through high school had a sex ed program which was nowhere near a joke, it was comprehensive, and funny thing the few people that I have heard of who did get pregnant in high school were kids whose parents had them excused from the program due to their ideology.
Sadly the school system went back to abstinence only a couple of years ago from what I hear due to parental concerns, and now is back again to comprehensive sex education.
G: You are right there.
It’s the parents who need to be educated. They think if they don’t discuss–and 13 is way too late–it won’t happen
Two days, really? Incredible. No one had reacted at all over here in Sweden. Maybe in the opposite direction then, complimenting them :-)
Inf*ckingcredible.
My girls learned about the ‘birds and the bees’ when they were @ 10 years of age. They came home with questions like, “Daddy, what’s a penis”, “What’s sex mean”, and so forth and so on. I didn’t beat around the bush.
Being a single parent it was up to me to let them know what was what. And you know what - after I answered their queries, they responded with, “Oh” or “Okay” to which I responded, “Is there anything else you’d like to know?” and they said, “No, thank you.”
For all you parents out there be you single or not, if your children ask you questions do not, I repeat, DO NOT deflect their questions, DO NOT give them a bunch of horse shit, DO NOT say, “Wait until your mother/father gets home”, DO NOT ignore their curiosity.
By the way, my girls are well adjusted professional women, happily married with children of their own. When their children got to the age where they started asking questions, they, my girls, answered their children’s questions, just as I had answered theirs.
And they made of point of thanking me for my counsel when they were young.
Abstinence only. What a crock. If my children were in that school - somebody would get bitch-slapped in a heart beat.
Insanity isn’t only in the asylums.
You had me rolling at the end!
Pretty frustrating, programs proven to be no help in protecting the children.
I was home schooled until I was in 9th grade, age 14. I remember an intellectual curiosity, and being able to think without the influence of adults, so while it is possible there was adult influence behind this scenario it is also possible there was no such influence.
Pia: And certainly by thirteen they have minds of their own.
Lifecruiser: It’s why I so love Sweden.
Morgan: Exactly.
Dave: I bet that is pretty hard to do to.
jm: logical as always.
“…so I scrolled on over with one eye closed”….had me laughing. I’m going to open both of mine and click on over.
Abstinence only education? Interesting..