well duh.

[preservationgal]

"Students who participated in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex as those who did not..."Different things work for different kids. All my friends in high school were sexually active. I wasn't. Kids will and will not have sex according to who they are and what they think they're ready for. There are now TWO WHOLE cycles of

Comments

[bertie_girl]

The responses noted in the article are ridiculous. The older programs shouldn't be looked at for long-term efficacy? Abstinence isn't a vaccine??

Doh ...

[pboyd04]

What the article doesn't say is that the students who had abstinence only education didn't get instruction on condom or other birth control use.

I wonder how many of those students are now pregnant or have STI's vs. those that had actual sex ed?

[preservationgal]

those numbers don't exist. Acutal comprehensive sexual education isn't taught in schools anymore, unless you count the small portion of progressive private schools that can teach it, as they're not beholden to public education policy. You can't compare those kids to the National Average Kid because they're statistically too different.

So there is no "control" group to study here, unless you compare the kids now to the kids in our generation, who were the last group to get comprehensive sex ed. But even that is sketchy, as we grew up in a slightly different time than those kids did, and the difference between pre- and post- 9/11 I think could make a difference in how kids relate to sex.

[bertie_girl]

they're not beholden to public education policy

I can't remember the sources of the information, but some schools are relinquishing the federal funding and returning to comprehensive sex-ed. This program isn't, technically speaking, mandatory. It's only required if you want the money, which is a sly way of controlling educational choices in schools that can't afford to operate without the funding.

[preservationgal]

The drinking age was like that - and Louisiana roads suffered mightily until they raised their drinking age from 18. (At least, I think it's officially 21, no matter what happens in NOLA.)

My kids will have comprehensive sex-education whether they get it in school or not. I plan on having all kinds of informative books on a bottom-shelf of the back corner of a bookshelf in the house, and after showing them it exists, I'll *never* take inventory of the shelf again.

[preservationgal]

It certainly felt like it.
Then again, Erin, Alicia, Jessica and Nic and all the rest of those Drama people could've been making it up.
Skupin and most of them IB boys had girlfriends for a reason.

Those were the people I ran with in high school. Come to think of it - Tong might've been an exceptin to that. But everyone else was either having sex or talking good shop.