Abstinence Only Education Costs Us Billions Of Dollars And Kills And Destroys Young Lives: Do You Support Abstinence Only Education?

That is just stupid.

Taboos and abstinence are harmful to teens in their full identity crisis. They need appropriate information, prevention means and responsabilisation. People learn mostly from errors, and sagacity is long to come. Confinement and isolation are the least to do, but their privacy should be respected.

It is a drastic change for children to become young adults. Restrictive ruling, authority abuse, pressure and no space for personal evolution will suffocate them. Neither drilling nor laxism will solve the problem. There are times for duties, work and studies, and there are times for sports and fun.

It is the time when they must develop their skills and find out about their interests to prepare their future. They need to find out about their limits and their possibilities. They need moral values and ideals, of course, but the most important is the proper guidance to acquire social recognition, self-esteem and self-confidence.

You can support it all you want....ain't gonna happen!

Young people need FACTS!

yes, the FACTS of life. Of course, if Romney gets elected they'll never learn about contraception, will probably learn that a girl screaming RAPE will be "just making it up", and those bodies in the alleys, well, that's just the devil at work...probably dumped there by some "liberal". Freedom of religion is on the chopping block and will be "adjusted" by a conservative amendment to the conservative Constitution.

People need to be realistic. Teens are gonna have sex. Is that really a bad thing if they are mature enough to handle it, have the right education, and love their partner?

Have the right education is the key, but I'm afraid these "Charter schools" will give the WRONG education. THEY have no "regulation" by the public.

Yup, that's a problem...

i'll say it again -
knowledge is power!!!

hey - the "JUST SAY NO to drugs" campaign has worked really well since the 1980's right?? so let's not take the same approach to sex education?!?!?!!??

Abstinence has never worke and never willl. People need to be realistic in what they expect of society and this is definitely not one of them.

The only thing positive about abstinence is that it is the only bc method that 100% effective.

It's a whole class based on half-truths and misinformation, and it has been shown to be completely ineffective in reducing teen pregnancy. Abstinence needs to be taught only along side other forms of birth control and std protection. If they won't do that, better to just get rid of sex ed and save the tax dollars.

I clicked "no" as the screen shifted. There is no evidence that those programs work, and overpopulation is the number one problem facing our planet. "Just say 'no'" is stupid beyond belief.

I'd rather see the schools use the money for better programs to help the students. Let their parents teach them about the birds, the bees, the flowers and the trees, including abstinence.

Encouraging ignorance is just plain stupid.

Absinence only education is an idiotic idea thought up by willfuly ignorant primitives.

True information is ALWAYS a good idea.

Choosing ignorance over education is never a winning position ...

Do the Dutch system. Good, full sex ed and low teen pregnancy rates.

Because that way I don't have to pay for some girl who continuously spreads her legs and pops out numerous kids and expects welfare and everybody else's tax dollars to pay for it.
Not to mention it would curb STD's. But this country has no morality anymore. It will probably always be the way it is now.

That's what happens where abstinence-only education is taught. Stop child benefits, take children away when the mother can't afford them rather than pay for them, have good sex ed, and you'll have much lower rates.

I would just like to see teenagers wait until they find the right one and get married. But that will never happen except to a select few in this day and age. Very sad.

So do I. However, in this day and age, I'll be less ambitious and prefer people to wait until they find someone they truly love... Save children until marriage though, definitely...

That is biology, 100 years ago they would aready be marriage, but our society to day does not allow that now.

Then teach that stupid girl what's happening, fool.

Her IGNORANCE causes the problem you hate. TEACH HER how her body works - EMPOWER her to control her own reproduction.

I'm amazed you people don't get this. BEING STUPID IS NOT THE ANSWER.

Being SMART and EDUCATED is the answer. Sheesh!

Maybe it is. But I'm from a different generation where morality was taught as well as sex education. I'm all for knowing the facts. But teenagers shouldn't take it as as to just go ahead and screw everybody they see. Most teens are reckless and are in hormone overdrive. They don't have the capacity to make those kinds of decisions because they're ruled by their gonads. Get a grip. I've been around a long time and saw the consequences of teens acting on their raging hormones. The statistics say it all. Read them. I'm far from stupid, get off your high horse.

The teens are going to "act on their raging hormones" whether you keep them stupid or not.

Ignorance will not keep a single teen from getting pregnant or getting an STD.
ONLY education can do that.

In my opinion, if you can't see that, then yes, you are stupid.

You are the one on your high horse and need to get a grip on reality.

No I don't. I'm not the one who is pregnant because I couldn't control myself. I know what reality is and that's why I wasn't stupid enough to become pregnant in the first place before I was ready. Don't judge me for other people's mistakes. Go and attack THEM, not me.

It is girls in the most religious states that are getting pregnant and having the most abortions. So your silly idea that abstenence works has never worked and will never work either. The only thing that has ever worked in the past is education.

I am educating you because you are the kind of people who are perpetuating the problem with your head in the sand about education.

So your answer to the accusation that you want to keep kids uneducated about sex education is "I'm from a different generation"?

What, was your generation willfully stupid and willing to turn away from any advancement in knowledge and technology?

I don't think so, in fact I think your generation had some of the greatest advancements in science and knowledge that MOST of the modern society is built on, DESPITE preachers calling for "Greater Morals" and "Less education" at the time.

Excuse me, BOYS are involved. When you preach abstenence only kids have no idea how to protect themselves.

When some of them end up with AIDS and STD's, them maybe they'll wake up and learn that "safe sex" isn't always the way. In fact there is no such thing as "safe sex". Even with "protection" things can happen. It only takes one time with an infected person. Teens and even adults have this weird idea that they can always "protect themselves" from STD's and other stuff. Sometimes it doesn't work. With our society getting more and more sexually permissive, it is making it easier and easier to get STD's. There are so many of them now we can't count them all.

Please, that is what SAFE SEX is all about. That is what EDUCATION is all about.

Our society is not any different than it was centuries ago. The diffence is that the media is reporting more statistics and the governments are now keeping tract of the stats as well. A century ago that never happened.

Get your head out of the sand and start dealing with reality.

There is no such thing as safe sex. Even with "protection" and condoms there is no such thing. AS long as these people carry STD's, no amount of "safe sex" is going to be safe. I DO face reality. That's why I'm healthy and not pregnant.

That goes for THEM too.

Abstinence Only curbs STDs?

Okay, lets look at the STD charts... oh what do you know, in areas where Abstinence Only sex education is taught, STD rates are skyrocketing along with teen pregnancy rates, whereas in areas where sex education is taught, the STD and teen pregnancy rates are FAR lower.

Gee... I guess "low morals" have less to do with it then "proper education".

Unless you're talking about Old Testament Biblical Law, in which case, did you ever talk back to your parents as a child? If yes, why are you still alive? That's a death sentence according to Leviticus.

It would at least help. There is no such thing as safe sex. People need to face reality. And the Old Testament was the Old Jewish Law. We're in the New Testament now. And since the "laws" have changed over the centuries, what was allowed then as far as punishments wouldn't do now. You could go to prison today with those types of punishments that were meted out back in the bible times.

It's true that there's no such thing as safe sex, but abstinence only education isn't education, it's inviting STD's and teen pregnancy due to ignorance.

Then again, there's no such thing as safe driving, but we educate people on how to drive safely, how to prevent accidents and how to keep themselves safe. What you're advocating with AOE is the equivalent to handing a teenager the keys to a car, without teaching them how to drive and saying "have fun".

And yes, you're right, bronze age punishments are inappropriate for today. Which makes me puzzled as to why ANYONE would want to use a bronze age book for modern morality when it so clearly does NOT apply, and the very GRAPHIC representations we have of it's implementation in modern society show just how horrible it is (Modern Shariah law is very similar to OT Laws)

Alot of the morality in the bible should still stand today. The bible is the same yesterday, today and in the future as far as the lessons they teach. But most people don't live morally or sexually moral lives. They want to do what they want to do. Sexual morality was stressed in the bible for reasons besides morality. It was for health purposes too. Now look what's happened? You have a growing number of people with STD's, and since many of these teens have slept with other people, they are putting new boyfriends and new girlfriends at risk. It's like sleeping with everybody THEY slept with. You can't find anybody anymore who is sexually moral. You never know who to trust and who has what or may not have a disease. It's not like the old days where many people waited. Now everything goes whether it's right or wrong. There are consequences for it, and we've seen much of that already. I made my mistakes that I'm not proud of, all in the name of trying to find the "right guy". These teens have no idea what they're in for, and how badly hurt they could become for engaging in casual sexual behavior. But they will. They'll find out the hard way EVEN WITH protection.

Have you READ the Book of Leviticus?

What parts of Biblical morality do you think should still be around today? Now I'm curious.

Oh and as far as the emotional damage that can occur because of teen sex, I agree with you, which is why you should EDUCATE kids about the psychological ramifications of teen sex so that they can make an INFORMED decision, rather then just yelling at them to not do it because God will punish them for it. That only makes sexually repressed people who are MORE likely to act in a risky fashion with sex.

Yep, and it's pretty clear. Fornication (unmarried people having sex), adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, sex with close relatives are all condemned by God and still are today. The first Chapter of Romans says it all. So even if people don't have "consequences" today, they will down the road. Now some people aren't christians and don't believe. That's their choice. But I know I made bad choices, and have asked God to help me make good ones from now on when it comes to sex. My reputation has always been good, I want to keep it that way. Even in today's permissive society, teens are going to brand themselves as easy and loose. I don't want that kind of label. But then my parents laid down the law when myself and my sister were growing up. If we ended up pregnant or was sexually active while living at home, we would be out of the house. I'm glad they did that now. But I still made bad choices as an adult, but I'm glad I never got pregnant. It would have ruined my life.