Hermenuetics

Comments

Abstinence isn't the "bad" word that today's culture makes it out to be. It's actually the exact opposite — it's a positive choice that teens can make to ensure a brighter and healthier future. Teens who choose abstinence don't have to worry about STD's or STI's, and they don't have to carry the emotional baggage that having sex brings. An abstinent teen can keep a clear mind to help make positive, healthy choices for their future. And most importantly, being abstinent means that you never have to live with regrets.

"Game Plan" is a great abstinence-based curriculum that many schools across the United States are using. To learn more about "Game Plan", visit www.justsayyes.org

Posted By: Alice | July 23, 2009 12:45 PM

Alice, you are right, in a perfect world, abstinence would be the only thing we needed to teach. However, we don't live in an ideal world. Although we should teach abstinence, we should also realize that people are going to have sex. We need to teach them that while abstinance is the right choice to make, if they don't make that choice, there are things they need to do.

Posted By: Anna | July 23, 2009 2:19 PM

No surprise that some journalists blame Bush for this. They blame him for everything else. But we've got to get real. Abstinence is best, and it should be taught that it's best, especially for younger persons, but contraception needs to be part of the educational process.

Posted By: Truthmeister | July 23, 2009 3:49 PM

Abstainence ONLY education does not work. I don't think this is anything new. Abstainence education needs to be taught and encouraged, and a comprehensive sexual health ed plan needs to go along with it. I don't get the either/or thing. It's all about choices, and encouraging teenagers to make good choices for themselves, and to that, you need to know why you should abstain.

Posted By: Stephanie | July 23, 2009 4:33 PM

Abstinence works with people who are so strong in what they want for their future and they care enough for themselves to say no to the jerks and yes only to the guy they marry. You use to be able to terrify a boy into backing off because you could say, my parents will kill me or my father will kill you.Now the laws say the parents can't say anything and have no right to back up the daughter who says no. The boy says you can have an abortion so the implication is the girl can't or doesn't have the right to say no even if she doesn't want to do it. The tv shows and the movies have the girl jumping in bed 2 seconds after they meet a guy and the baby never shows up. The school teaches sex, any sex is normal and a person's right, never mind the class is loaded with 6 year olds. Your politicians and stars prove every day morals are out and any sex is in, outside of marriage, of course. Girls are taught sex is a personal issue, having it is called choice instead of danger and in reality involving others like their own family and relatives. Boys are taught sex is a right with no responsibilities. And than there are the parents who are afraid to say anthing because they can be arrested for abuse and have the disobedient kids taken away from the parents. Let's face it, sex is a kizillion business, controlling or putting sex in its perspective is not.

Posted By: Original Anna | July 23, 2009 8:20 PM

Absolutely unbelievable that the press is blaming GWB for the rise in teen pregnancy. It is this sort of ridiculous "journalism" that accounts for the fact that no one takes anything they have to write or say seriously any more.

Posted By: FLEUR | July 24, 2009 7:43 PM

Be informed.
Comprehensive does NOT include a case for abstinence or the skills needed to achieve it. Comprehensive does NOT tell the consequences of support enforcement or the emotional impact of sex outside of a healthy marriage. Usually, it does NOY teach fetal development or the emotional consequences of abortions for the mother and the father.
Comprehensive DOES include all the sexual orientations as normal behavior but these classes fail to teach what behaviors are legal. (look up the long list of sexual orientations) This is important since most sex education happens BELOW age 15.

Posted By: Louisa M Alcott | July 25, 2009 11:16 AM

I strongly believe in teaching saving yourself for marriage.I also strongly believe in teaching teens their self worth in believing that they are a special person by waiting until they are married.I also believe in spiritual matters,and is a christian making the decision to wait or not,to truely think I truely love my savior they will save their bodies for marriage. It will also help to date someone who has the same values as you do.I am saying this bacause I was a christian teen mother who had the guilt and same of not saving myself for marriage.

Posted By: amber thomas | July 28, 2009 8:17 PM

The information presented is far too shallow to draw any conclusions. There are many factors that influence sexual activity. I've read, for example, that participation in sports or clubs has a strong negative correlation to sexual activity in girls. The hypothesis is that kids either become sexually active to "fit in" or "keep a boyfriend" whereas girls who are active in clubs and sports already have a social network. You see the same kind of behavior in adults, sad to say. For athletic girls, pregnancy, obviously, gets in the way. Of course solid/respectable role models (ie mom and dad), enforced boundaries set early in life, requiring kids to contribute to the family, cultivation of a like minded friendship network and turning off the television also have significant impacts on behavior/habits and attitudes, including sexual. If the data don't measure these and other variables in detail, then they cannot be used to draw substative hypothoses.

Posted By: Mike Taylor | August 5, 2009 12:41 PM

Abstinence-only sex education(in other words, enforced ignorance) has been proven over and over again to be a complete failure. Study after study shows that it leads to increased teen pregnancy, and therefore more abortions.

Understand this: in any "abstinence" program, some teens are going to fail.

Posted By: Shannon | August 6, 2009 3:14 AM

I'm still waiting for an explanation (and not a tirade) on why Teen birth rates increased in 2006 and 2007, and why were there large declines from 1991-2005. Somewhere there are facts free of emotional outbursts and knee-jerking a presidents name into the fray. I for one, would like to know.

Posted By: nelson michaels | August 7, 2009 2:10 PM

I find it interesting that the dramatic increases in adult content on both cable and broadcast television as well as the music industry, not in shows or music targeted toward adults mind you, but specifically targeted to teenagers be it through MTV or NBC Must See TV or the continual media spotlight on sexually saturated images and pop-stars like Brittney Spears or Christina Agulera over the past decade are not even considered valid factors in the increase in teen pregnancy.

The often scoffed teaching of sexual abstinence cannot begin to compete with the media at large. We live in a culture obsessed not with sex but an unrealistic Hollywood version of sex that simply does not exist. Only in Hollywood can Rachel find herself pregnant, not know who the father is, and manage to continue living the life of an adult teenager without the first hint of real consequences.

Posted By: REricKoch | August 7, 2009 2:42 PM

"Louisa": I am interested to see the sources for your comments on comprehensive sex ed. I still wonder why sex ed has to be either/or. Why can't there be abstinence taught along with a more comprehensive plan?

Nelson - agreed, I want to see more data on why pregnancy rates declined. I believe there are more factors than a sex ed curriculum.

Posted By: Stephanie | August 10, 2009 3:00 PM

I went to a Christian school for part of junior high and all of high school. They taught abstinence only sexual education, but it isn't what the media makes it out to be. I came to university much more informed than my peers.
They were very thorough about describing STD's, as well as the biology of sex. They also discussed condoms, birth control, and healthy sexual relationships (including information about orgasms etc), but that was all discussed within the context of marriage.
Not all of my high school peers ended up saving themselves for marriage. That said, they were still well-versed about sex, and it was always discussed positively (which the exception of STDs, but then, are those ever positive?).
It is my belief abstinence only education CAN encourage teens to save themselves for marriage, while still being comprehensive about sexual education and maintaining a positive viewpoint about sex.

Posted By: Sara | August 10, 2009 10:29 PM

I went to Christian school for grades 4-12 and received ZERO sex ed. Nothing. Except in bible class when we were told that sex is bad, bad, bad.

Anecdotes will get you nowhere.

Posted By: Robyn | August 13, 2009 1:53 PM