Fine whines over abstinence ed
Linda Harvey has a cow over Ted Strickland wanting to cut the half-mill the state spends as matching funds for Title V sexual-abstinence programs, equating his words to advocacy of every type of perversion imaginable.
Give me a break! We're not talking about changing Ohio educational policy here. We're talking about not spending stolen money in order to get more stolen money. And in the current bugetary climate, it's the right thing to do.
It's pretty well known that the surest way to avoid STDs and pregnancy is not to have intercourse. You can transmit that message in about 10 minutes, including several rounds of later classroom reinforcements. You don't need long rounds of brainwashing abstinence training. I learned it in one class period in the mid-60s, without Federal funds. The girls in class learned it even better than I did, which is the only reason I left high school a virgin. But abstinence programs aren't about teaching the simple biological facts about promiscuity; they're about teaching morals, and are thus at best treading on parental ground, and at worst a violation of Church and State.
And the State sends a mixed message here. Kids go to school and learn that sex is bad because you can get knocked up. Then they look at their friends who have gotten pregnant and getting money from the government for themselves and their children. As the saying goes, "Money talks, and BS walks." And as economists say, you get what you subsidize. Sure, premature pregnancy will screw up your career and marriage plans, and life in general. But that's future stuff, and teens generally have short time-preferences. What would they do if they saw their buds worrying about how to feed their babies, or how to pay a doctor bill, or watching those babies die? I suspect it would have more effect than any abstinence program yet proposed.
Comments
Posted by: Jo
Posted on: March 23, 2007 12:01 PM
Regarding Harvey's comments....Looks like another case of PC run amok, along with a healthy dose of "Ohmygodwhatwillweeverdooooooo???", and a side order of typical hysteria.
Harvey's way off base.
Posted by: Jeffrey Quick
Posted on: March 23, 2007 12:17 PM
WorldNetDaily is a trip. On most things, they're on the right side, but they're totally sold out to the Christian right, so you get stuff like this, or anti-Wiccan stories, etc., usually so over-the-top as to have at least some entertainment value.