do you talk to your parents about sex?

When I was in high school, my dad sat me down to tell me that if I ever got pregnant, I should feel comfortable coming to him and my mom. I mumbled, "Okay," blushed intensely and immediately thought to myself, "Nice try dad. But if I ever get pregnant, I'll deal with it alone."

I knew my dad meant well and that he was doing what parents were supposed to by making himself available--but still, the thought of telling him something so intimate and personal just seemed utterly impossible.

I was thinking about this not too long ago as I was teaching a girls' health class. The topic of talking to parents about sex came up, and I was curious to hear what they had to say about the subject. Maybe in the intervening years, kids and parent had somehow bridged the communication gap?

gURLs sound off on sex ed at their schools

Writing this blog has taught me a lot about the situation inside America's "sex education" classrooms.

Some of my knowledge has come from closely following the news on this topic, but plenty has also come directly from comments that you have left after the posts.

I've really enjoyed reading them, so I thought I would share some highlights with you:

ArielMeog says, "I live in North Carolina ... I can tell you loads of bull crap I got from the abstinence-only ed. It's the whole "girls give sex to get love, boys give love to get sex." They basically promoted the stereotypes that girls were weak and gullible while boys were unable to control their urges.

In my ninth grade health textbook there was a load of information on drugs such as marijuana, crack cocaine, heroin, barbiturates, meth ... very comprehensive information. But when it came to sex it was 'SEX IS BAD, YOU ARE GUARANTEED AN STD AND PREGNANCY. PLUS, IT GOES AGAINST YOUR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS!' And I go to a public school."

pregnant teens can now blame TV

Finally--an answer to the question, "Why do Americans experience such a high rate of teen pregnancy?"

It's TV's fault!

At least, that's the claim of a recent study linking teen pregnancy to shows like "Sex and the City," "Friends" and "That 70's Show." (The data were collected a few years ago, hence the slightly dated TV shows).

According to the lead researcher of the study, "Watching this kind of sexual content on television is a powerful factor in increasing the likelihood of a teen pregnancy."

Sounds like a nice link, but I have to say I'm skeptical. While the study did look at a few other factors, like if teens lived with a single parent or wanted to have a baby, it didn't address a number of other crucial issues. 

teacher fired after giving teens sex advice

Josephine Isernia, a New York State teacher with 22 years of experience under her belt, has been fired. Her offense? Allegedly having an explicit sexual conversation with two female students.

According to the town’s local paper, a school board report on the incident says,

“The two students came to Isernia's classroom after school when one needed clarification about an assignment. At one point, one of the students received a text message from her boyfriend and slammed her phone on a desk. Isernia began asking her what the problem was and the student reluctantly explained that her boyfriend was pressuring her to have sex or oral sex, the students said in the report. Isernia responded with some sexually explicit advice on the matter.”

One of the students went home and told her mother about the conversation. The distraught mother then contacted the school board, which investigated and eventually determined that what Isernia had said was so “vulgar, obscene and disgusting” that she needed to be fired--despite having no previous disciplinary problems, positive performance reviews, and over two decade’s worth of service.

sexually healthy? condom makers call out colleges

When I was in grad school, I was pretty amazed by how many sexual health services were available to students. We had peer counselors, a health center that freely gave out condoms, did on-site HIV testing and offered workshops covering everything from breast health to how to have an orgasm.

It was a far cry from my undergrad experience, where if there were any sexual health services I sure didn't know about them.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one who noticed the huge disparity in sexual health at different schools. The makers of Trojan condoms also identified this issue and, in light of what they call a "sexual health crisis," decided to survey 140 schools and rank them on their sexual health.

do you really know how your parents feel about sex ed?

When it comes to an issue like sex education, do you really know what your parents think?  A lot of teens assume that their parents are more conservative on this issue than they actually are.  But despite what you might think, the majority of parents support real sex education for teens.

Studies have been finding this for years, but the most recent one to confirm this just came out of Washington D.C, a city with a very high teen pregnancy rate and the highest rate of HIV/AIDS in ANY American city.

The study was done by Metro Teen AIDS and Healthy Youth DC. It found that in Washington D.C. a whopping 93% of parents support comprehensive sex education! 

sex ed is a human right

These days, it's pretty hard to find scientific research proving the benefits of abstinence-only education. In fact, study after study has found that such programs fail to prevent teens from contracting STDs or getting pregnant, let alone having sex before marriage. But a conference held at Columbia University in New York found something else: Abstinence-only programs infringe on teens' basic human rights!

st louis high school facing HIV crisis

A suburban school in St. Louis has come face to face with the reality of HIV after discovering that as many as 50 of its students may have been exposed to the virus.

According to the AP, "The St. Louis County Health Department said last week that a positive HIV test raised concern that students at Normandy [high school] might have been exposed. The department is not saying whether the infected person was a student or connected with the school, only that the person indicated as many as 50 students may have been exposed.

obama's in! so what does that mean for sex ed?

Ten years ago, I packed my bags, said goodbye to my Canadian homeland and moved to New York City. It was the end of the Clinton era and, like many people around the country, I was more caught up in the President's affair with an intern named Monica Lewinsky than I was in his recent signing of the Welfare Reforms Act and how it would affect sex education.

I soon learned that, in addition to cutting thousands of people off of public assistance, the Welfare Reforms Act also set aside money for something no one had heard of at the time: abstinence-only education.

When Bush was in office a few years later, we began hearing a lot more about this form of "sex ed."  Soon it became clear that Clinton had laid the groundwork for some pretty scary stuff.

england to start teaching sex ed in kindergarten

While Americans were busy debating whether or not a high school senior was old enough to be taught anything other than abstinence-only education, England decided to implement a comprehensive sex education program beginning in kindergarten!

It's not that such an idea had never been heard on American soil. A few months ago, Barack Obama suggested just that--but his suggestion did not see a program like this put into place. Instead, his comments were met with outrage from some camps who claimed Obama was a pervert for even raising the topic, implying that he wanted to teach five year olds how to have sex.

Though the new decision has been controversial in the UK, the British school system (unlike ours) hasn’t been paralyzed by such accusations and intends to go ahead with the plan for the next school year.

sex ed and abortion: where do the the vp picks stand?

The presidential election is only days away!  Recently, a lot of talk has been dedicated to Republican Vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s view on social issues like abortion and sex education.

Palin opposes abortion under any circumstance. The National Organization of Women reports that, "In a gubernatorial debate, Palin stated emphatically that her opposition to abortion was so great, so total, that even if her teenage daughter was impregnated by a rapist, she would 'choose life' -- meaning apparently that she would not permit her daughter to have an abortion."

For Palin, such comments aren't only idle chatter. One of her daughters--17-year-old Bristol--is pregnant.  (Though thankfully, this is the result of unprotected sex with her boyfriend and not due to a sexual assault).

the fear of gay marriage & california's proposition 8

Election season is almost upon us and around the country various issues beyond the presidential race have been added to the ballot.

In California, one of these is called Proposition 8. 

Gay marriage has been legal in California since last May. Proposition 8 seeks to change that.  If it passes, gay marriage will become illegal and the California constitution will include the phrase: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

fox suggests pausing

The other night I was watching some bad Fox reality TV show when an ad came on. It showed a few teens partying, a girl looking at herself in the mirror and a couple in a car seemingly about to make out. A narrator said, "When you give yourself a minute to think, you give yourself to the chance to make a better decision." It then directed viewers to a website. I was intrigued, so I went.

I have to admit, what I found surprised me.

wal-mart wants to sell you abstinence

I have the typical consumer love/hate relationship with big box stores. But one that is particularly easy to hate is, of course, Wal-Mart.

This is mainly because of the laundry list of unethical activities associated with the retailer. They have been criticized for everything from shoddy labor practices to environmental offenses, plus I consider the fact that, while they sell guns, they often won't sell emergency contraception. Most recently, the Wall Street Journal even revealed that the chain has been trying to intimidate its employees into voting Republican.

If those things weren't bad enough, I can now add one more offense to the list: Wal-Mart is pushing for more abstinence-only education.

mccain hates sex ed

Here's something you should know: if John McCain is elected president, you sure won't be getting any more sex ed. In fact, it's likely that the recent decline in the number of states funding abstinence-only- until-marriage education will be just a fond memory.

In a McCain administration, we can pretty much guarantee more money will be pumped into these faulty programs. That's because, like many republicans, McCain is an abstinence-only booster. His campaign is also trying to make comprehensive sex education sound like something dirty.

Take his latest ad. In it, he attacks his opponent, Barack Obama, for supporting comprehensive sex ed for five-year-olds.

The ad shows a still photo of Obama and says, "Learning about sex before learning to read?” It then implies that the only accomplishment Obama has had in education was to encourage an inappropriate style of sex ed for kindergarteners.

But as the New York Times explained the ad is based on lies. First off, the bill, which wasn't even sponsored by Obama, never passed. 

taking abstinence money to teach sex ed?

I'm going to admit something here. Once upon a time I took some of the government's abstinence money.

Not me personally, of course. I taught sex ed at a pretty progressive organization that got one of the federal government's abstinence grants. Luckily, I was still allowed to teach comprehensive sex ed and the money was used in creative ways by my employers. But the situation always felt a bit weird to me.

It seems the agency I worked for was not the only one caught in a situation where they philosophically opposed abstinence-only education, yet still took money designed to promote it.

Apparently, the Pennsylvania Health Department is trying to do something similar.

whatever happend to the REAL act?

1996: the year the Clinton administration first signed away millions to fund abstinence-only programs.

2007: the year legislators finally introduced a bill that could counter a lot of the misinformation brought about by 11 years of medically inaccurate, conservative education.

This bill is called the REAL Act, and its goal is: "To provide for the reduction of adolescent pregnancy, HIV rates, and other sexually transmitted diseases, and for other purposes."

As Advocates for Youth reports, the REAL Act would fund programs with important characteristics, including:

• Being age-appropriate and medically accurate;
• Not teaching or promoting religion;
• Teaching that abstinence is the only certain way to avoid pregnancy or sexual transmission of diseases;
• Stressing the value of abstinence while not ignoring young people who have had or are having sex;
• Providing accurate information about the health benefits and side effects of all contraceptives and barrier methods as a means to prevent pregnancy;
• Providing information about the health benefits of condoms and other barrier methods as a means to reduce the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV;
• Encouraging family communication about sexuality;
• Teaching skills for making responsible decisions about sex, including how to avoid unwanted verbal, physical, and sexual advances and how not to make unwanted verbal, physical, and sexual advances; and
• Teaching that alcohol and drug use can affect the ability to make responsible decision's

So why are we still getting so much abstinence-only education?

practicing safer sex? thank your folks

When I was in high school, my family had sit down dinners almost every evening. Granted, if it was a night my mom was working and my dad was in charge, those meals might have been of the hot dog and baked bean variety...but regardless of what we ate, the table was set, the TV was off and conversation was had.

I had mixed feelings about our dinners. Sometimes I really enjoyed them. Other times, like when everyone else was headed out for a night of endless coffees at the diner, I'd try to weasel my way out.

Well, according to a new study, my folks had the right idea. Researchers at Boston College found that teens in homes with things like regular family meals and family activities, "had sex less frequently, less unprotected sex and fewer sex partners."

abstinence-only update: the good and the bad news

When it comes to the current state of abstinence-only education, there's good news and bad.

The good news is that as of September, only 28 states will still be taking the government's abstinence-only money. By October, that number will drop even further to 26, when Iowa and Arizona opt out of the program.

This means that in the past two years, 40% fewer states have been pushing the "no sex outside of marriage" party line. This drop is really significant when we consider that in 1998, when the program began, California was the only state that rejected the Title V funding that pays for such programs.

would you rather have your regular teacher teaching sex ed? (studies say: yes)

Having taught on both sides of this fence, I was really interested in a study just published by the University of Ohio. The study found that students learn about issues like safer sex better from a teacher they already know, than from a stranger coming in to do a one-off presentation.

As a university publication reports, "For years, many high schools around the country have been relying on outside experts to teach sensitive subjects such as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and pregnancy prevention. But a recent study...found that students learn more about such issues when taught by their regular classroom teacher."

not worth the wait--even for abstinence fans

Recently, a Nevada based abstinence group launched a blog. I'm definitely not the intended audience, but even so, I can say pretty confidently that the posts on Worth the Wait, weren't.

The site uses terms like "screenager" to describe media saturated youth and tells teens, "Maybe you've already given your virginity away and it's impossible for you to be a virgin on your wedding night. Don't trip…there's hope for you, too." 

I don't know about you, but to me, that sounds more than a little forced.

the secret life of the (imaginary) american teen

Have you seen that new show, The Secret Life of the American Teen?  That's the one where the good girl gets pregnant the first time she has sex and as a result suffers all manner of cliched teen baby mama drama.

borrow a baby anyone?

Seeing as schools rarely provide decent sex ed, I can't say I was that bothered when I heard the reality show The Baby Borrowers was trying to fill the gap by thrusting babies upon teen couples.

The couples begin the season by caring for a baby for three days. Then they spend the following three days chasing a toddler. After that, they move on to three days of life with a tween and finally they tend to an ailing senior. 

Despite the cheesy set up, obligatory melodrama, over the top characters and bizzaro situations, The Baby Borrowers actually addresses a pretty important issue.  Not all teen pregnancies are accidents. Plenty of teens actively try to get pregnant. 

all about the money (and personal connections, apparently)

I never cease to be amazed how unethical people who claim to take the moral high ground can be. I was reminded of this after reading about a recent incident involving an abstinence-only group and a huge government grant. The organization is called the Best Friends Foundation and their motto is, "Helping girls develop self-respect through self-control." The grant they received was from the Juvenile Justice Department and it was for 1.1 million dollars.

Funny thing though: Best Friends only applied for half that, the still huge sum of $500,000.

Even funnier: The grant was awarded after the Juvenile Justice Department had rated Best Friends lower than many of the other groups who were competing for the funds.

So why did the Best Friends Foundation get so much money to teach kids to keep their eyes covered and their legs crossed?

comprehensive sex ed exposed...or is it?

I'm wary any time some group claims to be "for truth." So when I came across the Parents for Truth website I was expecting the worst.

I wasn't disappointed.

This organization's mission is to "expose" comprehensive sex education.  How do I know this? Well the huge message on the homepage saying, "Comprehensive sex ed exposed. Watch this video" was one clue. 

abstinence summer camp?

I'll give it to the Colorado based Friends First; the website advertising their summer conference is pretty rock and roll. 

But the message that that conference is promoting is just as traditional and conservative as that of the larger abstinence movement.  This can be seem in organization's goals which include:

• Sponsoring events which support and promote the abstinence message to teens
• Providing a resource to health advisory committees, community leaders and policy makers on issues which promote abstinence until marriage

The summer conference is designed to reinforce these goals during an intense three days, which the group's website, YouTube video, and MySpace page make look a lot like summer camp.

girls + activism = more sex ed

My first regular job teaching sex ed was in the South Bronx. Though I’d lived in New York for a number of years by that point, I still wasn’t really sure what to expect.

I knew that the Bronx had burned in the seventies, and was hit hard by violence, HIV, poverty and teen pregnancy. But I wasn’t sure what this would mean for my kids on a day-to-day basis.

After four years of teaching there, I saw that while these were real issues for a lot of the teens I worked with, they weren’t necessarily defined by them.

I was reminded of this when I read about the Bronx based Women's Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WEDC). WEDC is an anti-poverty organization. In addition to a lot of other projects, they run an after-school program for girls called STEP. After-school for these girls wasn’t just about milk and cookies and homework time. Recently, the group worked on a community empowerment program, and collected over 200 signatures on a petition demanding that their middle school provide comprehensive sex education.

utah wants to make it illegal to answer sex questions

A Salt Lake City teacher with over 30 years experience under her belt, is currently on paid administrative leave and may be fired, or even charged with a crime, for answering students' questions.  That's because the questions asked were about oral sex, masturbation and homosexuality.

After hearing about the incident, a number of parents were up in arms. "We want her fired. We want her never to teach ever again," said one.  Another proclaimed, "These are our children, and we're not going to breach the firewall of innocence." Apparently, to folks in this state, silence is golden and educators are just supposed to stare blankly when confronted with inquires about sex.

elders again advocates for teens

Being the Surgeon General of the United States is a pretty prestigious position, and in 1993 Joycelyn Elders became the second woman and the first African-American to hold it.

Unfortunately, fifteen months into her term, Elders was fired. Her offense? Daring to acknowledge at an AIDS conference that masturbation, "perhaps should be taught" to teens as a way for them to express sexuality without risking sexually transmitted infections.

Within a day of the conference, President Bill Clinton asked for her resignation and she was out of a job. A big reason this happened was that despite having no harmful effects, masturbation has long been considered taboo. It’s also been blamed for everything from insanity, to acne and infertility.

Since broaching a subject that cost her a job, Elders hasn’t simply sat around wishing she had stated that masturbation was actually a dangerous endeavor. Instead, she returned to her previous position as a professor of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas and has been an outspoken advocate for teen sexual health.

heritage foundation ignores facts on abstinence education

With a name like the Heritage Foundation and a mission: “To formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense,” it shouldn't come as a surprise that this group also goes to bat for abstinence-only education.

In April, they conducted an assessment of the effectiveness of 21 abstinence-only programs and declared:

“Opponents of abstinence education contend that these programs fail to influence teen sexual behavior. At this stage, the available evidence supports neither this assessment nor the wholesale dismissal of authentic abstinence education programs.”

Excuse me? I don't just "contend" that these programs are a failure. I back up my contention with scientific research.

at what age should sex ed begin?

A few months ago, Presidential candidate Barack Obama created quite a stir when he suggested that aspects of sex education had a place in the kindergarten classroom. Conservatives went wild, claiming this idea reflected Obama's weak morals and that sex education was damaging for young children.

Liberals pointed out that Obama’s idea was not to teach five-year-olds the equivalent of a college level human sexuality class, but rather to address issues like the difference between appropriate and inappropriate touch.

But opponents of sex education (and Barack Obama) dismissed these claims and continued to argue that the only appropriate way to talk about sex with youth was through abstinence-only education.

minnesota moves forward

Minnesota has cold winters, the largest mall in the world and, now, a bill requiring comprehensive sex education in schools. That’s good news in a state where the birth rate for 15-17-year-olds grew 10% last year, (the national average at this time was 3%), and the rate of sexually transmitted infections increased almost 4%.

A local news station reports, ”According to the Minnesota Department of Health's 2007 Sexually Transmitted Disease Statistics report, more than 17,000 people became infected with chlamydia, gonorrhea or syphilis in 2007…The MDH report showed adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19 had some of the highest rates of STD and comprised the majority of chlamydia cases.”

abstinence clubs on college campuses

The New York Times Magazine recently ran a story about the appearance of abstinence clubs on college campuses--a natural occurrence after 15-years of abstinence-only programs in high schools.

I had a really different reaction reading about these college clubs than I expected when I first saw the headline. After finishing the article I ended up thinking:"Oh, that's interesting," and not: "Why is abstinence now being pushed on college kids too?"

Why?

ever had sunday school sex ed?

What do you think of when the topic of sex and religion comes up?  A lot of folks assume that all religions have a very limited view of sexuality (e.g.: sex is only okay between a married man and woman, and often just for the purposes of procreation).

Others are influenced by news stories like the recent ones covering the Pope's comments on the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. Or the raid on the polygamous FLDS sect, which allegedly forces marriage between teen girls and older men.

But the pairing of sexuality and religion is not always a negative or conservative thing. In fact, one of the best sources I've found for teaching sex ed was created by the Unitarian Universalists and the United Church of Christ.

guess what? some politicans are actually upset you aren't getting proper sex ed

One of them is California Representative Henry Waxman, a Democrat who chairs the Committee on Government Oversight and Reform.

Back in 2004, Waxman compiled a report on the medical inaccuracies found throughout abstinence-only programs. Last month he continued to address this theme and held a hearing called, Domestic Abstinence-Only Programs: Assessing the Evidence. This was basically supposed to be a research-based critique of government funded abstinence-only program.

Among others, Waxman invited college student Shelby Knox (the subject of the documentary,The Education of Shelby Knox) to speak about her experiences with abstinence-only education and virginity pledges.  She told the committee: "As a young person with firsthand experience about the misinformation, shame, guilt, and intolerance propagated by these programs, I urge you to eliminate funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs and instead to allocate those funds to comprehensive, medically accurate sex education that provides young people with the tools they need to make responsible, informed decisions about their sexual health."

so who teaches abstinence-only education?

The abstinence-only world has produced a few stars over the years, people who will draw a crowd and spout off a laundry list of dangers they claim come with sex before marriage.

One of these is a man named, Ed Ainsworth, or "Sex Ed," as he calls himself. "Sex  Ed" is a Baptist pastor with a mission: Stop those kids from having sex out of wedlock!

Ed Aisnworth came to wider attention after appearing in the 2005 documentary, The Education of Shelby Knox. The film told the story of Shelby Knox, a young southern Baptist girl, and her fight to get comprehensive sex ed in her school.

Ed appeared throughout, first entreating drunk kids in a parking lot to give up sex, then officiating as Shelby takes a virginity pledge and finally announcing to a packed auditorium that:

"The first time I ever had sex in my life was when I was 20 years old. It was in Austin, Tex., at the Hilton Hotel, at 11:30 at night, in room 1158. That's right...it was on July 15, 1978. I celebrate it every year. It's my wedding anniversary."   

the marriage pushers

Unlike some people I know who dread weddings, I love a good to-do. I also love the idea of a long happy marriage. But what I don't love is the cultural expectation of marriage that is foisted on girls from day one. 

Partly because I have a few issues with an institution that has about a 40% chance of ending in divorce, is still denied to gay Americans and yet can be won as a prize by straight folks on reality TV. And partly because lavish weddings seem to get a lot more hype than having real discussions of how to build healthy, lasting relationships.

sex education the canadian way (part two): head & hands

Canada’s only-French speaking province is bucking another trend, and this time it's one that's going to affect a lot of teens. Quebec is the first Canadian province to cut sex education from its school curriculum.

This is a pretty dramatic move in a country where the government explicitly supports the teaching of comprehensive sex education in schools.

As a result of this cut, students are denied crucial, lifesaving information and already strained community organizations are forced to pick up the slack. Sound familiar? If you live in the States it should. This is exactly what has happened all across America.

sex education the canadian way

Despite the fact that I am based in the States, I have a lot of interest in Canadian sex ed. Partly because I was born and raised in Canada. And partly because Canada seems to fare better than the States on teen sexual health issues. For example, Canada has half as many teen pregnancies and a much lower rate of sexually transmitted infectionsamong youth than America does.

studies confirm: more sex ed equals less sex

Just out of curiosity, what’s your favorite class? Math? French? Art? Sex ed?

I can handle it if it's not sex ed. Partly because I know not everyone digs the same thing. And partly because a recent study reports that comprehensive sex education has real results. That's true whether or not you're crazy about the class. The two main results?

1) Teens who take sex ed have sex later.

2)Those who do have sex are more likely to use condoms and birth control.

three more states reject abstinence-only funding (it's a good thing)

In January, New Mexico became the 15th state to reject the government’s abstinence-only money. Later that month, Arizona became the 16th. In late February, Iowa brought that number to 17 with its rejection!

That’s pretty exciting considering that in 1998, (the first year this money was offered), only California declined it. At the beginning of last year, only eight states had turned it down. This decision by Iowa, Arizona and New Mexico means that the number of states to say no to abstinence-only funding has more than doubled in one year’s time.

So what are all these states rejecting?

florida’s healthy teens act

What comes to mind when you think of Florida?  I know that manatees, Disney World and hurricanes are at the top of my list.  But for a lot of Floridians things like teen pregnancy and HIV rates would probably be right up there, as well.  That's because Florida has the sixth highest teen pregnancy rate in the country, and the second highest rate of HIV/AIDS.

Now I can't tell you absolutely what's behind those numbers.  I can, however, tell you that of all the fifty states, Florida gets the second highest amount of government funding for abstinence-only programs.  Go figure.

a huge number of teen girls have STDs

If you had a one in four chance of winning the lottery, getting into your dream college or being voted class president, you’d probably feel like those things were distinct possibilities. One in four odds are pretty good, right?

Well, guess what? According to a new study by the CDC, one in four teenage girls are walking around with a sexually transmitted disease. Odds are, you or someone you know is one of them.

we're number one! (in teen pregnancies that is)

Being number one can be a good thing. Who doesn't want to be at the top of their class, win a statewide  soccer championship, or kick butt in the debate tournament?

Of course, being number one can also be a bad thing. For example, the fact that America has the highest teen birthrate among all industrialized nations isn't exactly something that most folks like to brag about.

some topics remain taboo (even in sex ed class)

Whether it’s called family life studies, health class or sex ed., one thing seems pretty consistent: teachers in those classes tend to be more comfortable talking about abstinence and HIV than they are about addressing topics like abortion and sexual orientation. (I’m sure a lot of you have experienced this first hand.)

even more money for abstinence-only education

When I was in high school I had plenty of gripes. I complained about the graduation exams. I muttered about having to wait until twelfth grade to take psychology. I wasn't too big on the mandatory square dancing we had to do either. But if someone had asked me about federal spending on say, sex education, I doubt I would have had much of an opinion.

However, times have changed, and following these issues has become a lot more important.

can the government decide when sex is appropriate?

The American government has made it quite clear that it believes sex is only okay within a heterosexual marriage. Schools are given funding to promote this message and families are offered resources to do so as well.

One of these is a government website which provides biased information for parents like, "It has been clear for quite some time that teen sex and emotional problems such as depression are related." On the site you can also watch public service announcements like "Muffinhead" and "Talk To Me." These videos features pre-teens and teens earnestly pleading with their parents, "Tell me to wait to have sex." At the end of the ad, a voice-over reminds the audience, "Tell your kids you want them to wait 'til they're married to have sex."

five "fun" flaws with abstinence-only education

Everyone has a different idea of fun. Some people love parties. Others are crazy about movies or snowboarding. My idea of fun? Why, finding flaws with abstinence-only education, of course.

Here are my top five:

the condom conundrum

Halfway through my first year of high school, the halls were abuzz with talk of the new apparatus in the bathrooms. It wasn't another tampon dispenser. With this machine, if you slipped in a quarter, out came a condom.

Upon hearing this, my friend Jenny and I decided to make a pilgrimage to the bathroom during lunch. There we diligently fed the coin slot, got condoms in return, and did what most thirteen-year-olds with prophylactics will do: we blew them up, bonked each other over the head then ran from the bathroom shrieking.

We did not, as some folks fear, sidle up to the closest pubescent prospect and announce that we were ready to have sex.

how did abstinence-only become all the rage?

These days a lot of liberals fondly remember the Clinton era. (It's a feeling I'm familiar with.) But I also think it's important to hold Bill accountable for a few things that happened under his watch. For one, starting the craze for abstinence-only education.