Sex, Lies, and the Classroom:

Greeting Colleagues,

   Just in case I have any of you joining me in one last hurrah before deadline time; I thought we would start off our blog blitz with a personal bug bear of mine. In question form: What is up with the continuing abstinence only sex education in public schools? I mean at its very (idealistic) core, public schools are meant to educate your populace at large, an absolutely crucial thing in a society striving to a democratic one; yet for some reason lying about sex in the atmosphere meant to educate is actable.

                Let us set aside all of the moral speculation and of the subject being taught in schools in the first place, ok. Once you progress to a certain grade level the curriculum puts you in a health class and you’re going to come across it. If you are indeed totally against the idea you can opt to have your children exempt from it. But if you’re going to cover the subject why lie about it? And make no mistake the abstinence- only education model taught in Texas public schools consist of lies, as in things that presented as facts that are in reality not true.

 As defined by t the Texas Department State ofhealth services abstinence –only education is meant to: “… Abstinence-Centered Education program (AEP) is to encourage the implementation of evidence-based interventions… that will delay initiation of sexual activity as part of a continuum of services to decrease the teen pregnancy rate and rate of sexually transmitted infections”. One look at the records though will tell you this does not seem to be working. Teen pregnancy rates in Texas rank 4^th highest in the nation as of 2013; down from 3^rd in 2011 as the result of plus programs (we will come back to that). Texas also rates 1^st in the nation for greatest number of repeat teen births, moving the state up from 2^nd in 2011.

The issue lies in the fact that abstinence only education focus on discouraging teens from engaging in sexual activity by either ignoring contraceptive methods or focusing solely of the failure rates of various birth control methods (often exaggerated), along with emotional manipulation and “slut-shamming” tactics such as those used in the Canyonschool district in Texas, which informed its teachers in charge of sex ed to liken students to sticks of gum and plastic wrapped toothbrushes. The leaked guidelines instruct teachers to “Encourage students to stay new like the toothbrush, unwrapped and unused. People want to marry virgins, just like they want a virgin toothbrush or piece of gum.”

Having been born and raised in Texas I took sex education here, and again when I moved to California. The differences were striking. Upon completing the program in California I realized just how much I hadn’t been told or had been flat out lied to on some subjects. My personal favorite was that condoms were vastly unreliable, and failed to work about 70% of the time ;). It would seem that I am not the only one frustrated with the current model, and more and more evidence is coming to light to show alternatives are producing progress that the old model does not. Recall that move from 3^rd to 4^th in the teen pregnancy rate? It’s a apart of what Dr. BrianCarr called a “quiet revolution” where in a growing number of schools are switching from abstinence- only to abstinence-plus education, which started to pick up steam in mid-late 2011. These programs included accurate information about contraceptive options as well as basic instruction/description of the various methods available.

Though abstinence- only education is the primary program recommended and stressed in the majority if Texas schools, I for one am glad to see the tide turning. As are apparently a growing number of Texas voters. An opinion poll in late 2011 showed that 80% of those questioned favored instruction on birth control methods such as condoms, and their contraceptives along with abstinence based instruction.