ludahai said:
If THAT is all they are teaching, that is fine. If I see that curriculum, I will not object to it. BUT, if it involves teaching children that using condoms and so-called "safe sex" is the way to go, and that it even involves passing out condomns in school (some schools DO this), than I have every right to opt m children out of that class. It is a violation of my rights as a parent to teach morality.
The idea behind passing out condoms is the fact that condoms aren't cheap, especially on a high schooler's budget, and I think we can all agree that your average high school student, if presented with the opportunity for sex will not avoid taking advantage of the situation. My high school had a seperate office for that sort of thing. Parents had the option whether or not to sign their kid up to be able to go to this office, and at this office they could do all sorts of things, from flu shots to STD tests to birth control to free condoms.
Just because something's offered doesn't mean it's encouraged. I'm yet to meet anyone whose high school didn't heavily push the concept of abstinence. We went through several assemblies about abstinence, and how it's physically and morally best, but the fact is that the type of people who argue for abstinence in front of high school students are the exact type of people that high school students don't take seriously. We did it freshman year, and I can tell you I was one of, but far from the only one who gave her crap the entire time, cause it came across as ridiculous.
And I can tell you that 100% of the reason of why I had so much sex was my response to the teaching of abstinence. This is because the teaching of abstinence deviates from teaching the actual facts of sex, but moreso it was just a whole bunch of scare tactics, like "Do it and your **** will fall off" and what have you. And what happened was I gave them the benefit of the doubt, and decided that I like my **** and would protect it, but then senior year one night I drank a handle of whiskey, and there was a willing female, and the next morning my **** was still firmly in place, so it just made me realize that I had been decieved. So after that I went and had sex with whoever I could whenever the opportunity presented itself. And I lucked out, got away with no pregnancies and no STDs, which isn't half bad since I had sex with 5 different girls in the last 3 months of senior year.
Here's just how it is:
Some kids will have sex, a large portion of them
Kids aren't smart enough to really grasp the responsibility that comes with sex
Kids are smart enough to tell when they're being lied to.
So since a lot, if not most kids are going to have sex before graduation, then we can agree that it is important that they know how to do it as safely as possible.
Kids aren't smart enough to grasp the responsibility behind the act, so thus showing them the actual effects is neccisary.
But since they're smart enough to tell when they're being misled, this means that you have to stick to the actual reality of the situations that will arise. Thus only reasonable scare tactics are ok, with actual statistics, and so on and so forth.
The actual morals behind sex are not a school subject, and should not be taught in school, and this includes pro-abstinence morals. The school is there to teach, but not there to teach morals.
Since I'm assuming you actually have kids, all I can say is I hope you realize that mishandling this part of their development will screw them up more than you can imagine. You have to adress it, and tell them the ACTUAL facts about it, not just trying to scare them away from it until they're mature enough to handle it. If your kids are religious, then your religion's beliefs on sex are appropriate, but if your religious and your kids aren't, then using your religion's approach to sex will just drive them further away and hurt your credibility.