Sex and the single-minded
Posted on April 8th, 2008 – 6:38 AMBy Josephine Marcotty
I’m always a little flummoxed when I come across statements like the one my colleague, Katherine Kersten, wrote in her Sunday column about the epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases: “But few are talking about the real reason for the epidemic: too many kids are having sex at too young an age.”
It’s true. STDs are spread by sex. Kersten and other social conservatives say that the solution is to tell teenagers and young adults not to have sex until they are married. Problem solved. But this is where I get flummoxed because, obviously, that’s not working.
Despite all the millions and millions of dollars the federal government has poured into abstinence-only education, there is a growing body of research that says such programs are not effective. Survey after survey find that by the time they are seniors about half of high school kids are sexually active. About 75 percent of college students also are sexually active.
So here’s a question: What about the kids who ARE having sex? Some, including people who posted on Kersten’s blog, Think Again, say that we should not use tax money to prevent STDs or to provide public education about them. This flummoxes me, too, because that means that the epidemic will continue. More people will be infected and eventually will require treatment that is far more expensive. In the meantime, they continue to infect others. Of course, there are also those who would say that people who get cancer from smoking cigarettes should just have to live with that, too.
There is a bill pending at the state Legislature this session that would require schools to offer comprehensive sex education to all 7th through 12th graders. That means they would be taught how sex transmits disease and how to protect themselves. It also would teach them about human biology and birth control. This is the type of education that kids in most advanced countries in the world receive. Except this one.
No one knows for sure what kind of sex education school kids in this state get. According to a survey of 140 teachers by the Minnesota Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Prevention and Parenting, a lot of Minnesota kids get a pretty broad-based curriculum. But they don’t get much of it – a total of about 10 to 25 hours throughout middle school and high school.
I’m a newspaper reporter, and I have great faith that accurate, fact-based information does make a difference.
So, basically, I disagree with Kersten about what’s behind this epidemic. It’s not that kids are having sex. They are. It’s that they don’t have the right information. The best way to stop the epidemic is to give it to them. The facts. The education. That, more than anything else, will encourage more of them to wait until they are older.
What do you think?
4 Responses to "Sex and the single-minded"
You mean somebody actually reads the crap spewed by Katherine Kersten? Who knew?
Conservatives call for accountability in public programs and spending. But the “abstinence based” programs they support are repeatedly proven to fail. I agree — give our kids the facts so they can make smart decisions.
Many, many of my friends and I undoubtedly avoided STIs and pregnancy due to an excellent understanding (via good education) on the risks of sexual activity. We learned about “how babies are made” starting in sixth grade (which is probably a little late nowadays); about the risks of bodily fluid exposure (in high school biology), and emotional risks (my RA was excellent at this in college.) Yet, all but one of us (that I know of for sure) chose to have sex with serious boyfriends before marrying the men who became our husbands. We did not have flings. We chose to have sex with men whom we loved. We wanted to do this - we felt informed and mature enough to do it safely (I know, I know - nothing but abstinence is 100% safe.)
As a mother, I am open with my children and realistic about human desire. I don’t want my kids to have sex at 14 or 17, but 20 or 21? If they are in a committed relationship and are smart about it, I will be happy for them. We need to provide information to our children on how to be safe because all the threats, bribes and pleading in the world will not change people’s natural desires.
Lest K. Kersten or anyone else think my friends and I are a bunch of amoral radicals, she can be assured that we are conventional, church-going, child-raising women in our 40s. It is simply not realistic to demand abstinence from young adults. And it is a travesty to encourage ignorance by not supplying information on the options that exist to help people be safer.
Claudia, thank you for your thoughtful post. I’m with you — I think love is imoportant, not necessarily marriage. And knowledge. JM
