Abstinence-Only Education is for the birds: Let’s talk about sex baby.

Don’t act like you don’t love this track.
It is appalling that for a culture as saturated with sex as ours, it is in the arena of education that certain groups want the most censorship and control. Perhaps because it is one institution that parents can have some control over through PTAs, charters and community organizations. It is unfortunate that what is being taught in school isn’t matching up to the level at which youth internalize the sex in the media and have sexual experiences whether it be with peers, through pornography, video games or watching movies. Whatever it is, youth are exposed to sex and have a variety of sexual experiences. It is unfortunate that it is not therefore discussed honestly in school.
So I was excited to see this article in the Boston Globe about a church community that teaches real sex ed, you know, the kind that talks about sex.

A joint effort by the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ, OWL aims to help teens understand sexuality. As Detwiler recalls the sessions of three years ago, the pictures demonstrating what sexual intercourse looks like were “shocking to kids, but also helpful. It helped them to grasp another dimension of sexuality.” So did the frank discussions about dating norms, the chance to pass around condoms, and informal conversation about the way sex is portrayed in magazines, movies, and music. OWL is among a handful of sex-ed programs that take a position more radical than it may, at first, sound: namely, that sexuality education should actually talk about sex. While events like the spike in teen pregnancies in Gloucester last year or the bulging bellies of youthful pop stars (or Alaskan first daughters) can prompt outcries for better sex ed, most of what we call “sex education” is really about preventing the bad stuff. As one Newton teacher puts it, “It’s all been reduced to two issues: teen pregnancy and STDs. That’s all really important, but I feel we’re losing other important things.”

Check out the rest here. This stuff makes sense! Yesterday in the Yes means Yes live chat we got into a conversation about sex education teaching youth that their body can be for pleasure and the fear that that promotes among some parents that this is somehow “pro-sex” or “pornographic.” Let’s face it, youth are going to do exactly what you are “afraid” of. It is an unfortunate reality that many Americans are afraid of sex that is for the purpose of pleasure, yet our media is obsessed with sexuality (often to the point of sexualizing women.) Schizophrenia anyone?
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