Abstinence-until-marriage programs have come under criticism for teaching fear and fostering ignorance. In the sex issue, on streets now, I describe one curriculum, Choosing the Best, faulted in a 2004 congressional report for understating condoms' effectiveness.
Approved to receive federal funding, Choosing the Best is taught in many area classrooms, including the Kansas City, Missouri, School District. Kansas City schools teach abstinence in the face of startling teen birth rates for minorities. Fifty-three percent of Latina teen girls and 51 percent of African-American teens will become pregnant at least once before they turn 20, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
District officials defend their decision to use Choosing the Best, which in the past has used a story of a knight, a princess and a village maiden to illustrate purity.
"I think a lot of the message depends on the delivery, and to present information on how to make healthy decisions and choices," Roger Franks, the district's abstinence education coordinator, says in an e-mail, declining to elaborate further.
Parents unsure that a story of a slain dragon is sufficient prevention may want to search for a curriculum they can teach at home.
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Are you serious? Let me tell you from a front line perspective. STD's/STI's are a reality in the hood. Pregnancies are a REALITY in the hood. the numbers are staggering for what chlamydia and HPV are doing to our young ladies (both African-American and Latino)
We teach CTBP, CTBL, and Game Plan in the schools and let me tell you...if you are practicing sex outside of a true relationship, with or without a condom, foam, IUD or whatever..if your life is worth the risk of taking a less than 100% chance..do what you do. We teach choices and consequences and guess what? THE TEENS LOVE IT! We teach and encourage the youth that they have the power to make fantastic decisions when it comes to their health. They can abstain from sex, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, etc. to reach their goals. Do we expect total purity? No. Do we raise the expectancy bar for the young people to expect more out of their lives? YES!
People like yourself and advocates for 'safe-sex' need to take a step back and say.."Let's give them (the teens) all the info we can (both agendas) and let's let THEM make an intelligent choice. Let them choose the BEST direction that they believe works..THEN let's see the outcome.
Your way hasn't worked in the past..it does not work now..it will not work in the future.
Teens are smarter than you think.
Signed
Abstinence Works!
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