Guest guest Posted December 29, 2000 Report Share Posted December 29, 2000 from www.nytimes.com > December 28, 2000 > Sex Education With Just One Lesson: No Sex > By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO > > Stephen J. Carrera for The New York Times > Griska Gray lecturing about chastity to freshman girls at Lane Technical > High School in Chicago, one of many such programs nationally. > > CHICAGO — Jenny, a cartoon teenage virgin, is about to give in to her > boyfriend and climb into the back seat of his car. Suddenly, the emergency > brake gives out and his car rolls until it teeters from a cliff off > lover's lane. Their lives hang in the balance. > > That is when Windy, the good witch in high-tops, leaps to the rescue. > "Paul loves me," Jenny protests. > > Windy asks, "Oh. Is that why he asked you to do something that could mess > up your life forever?" Using her time machine, Windy shows Jenny how she > would have awoken pregnant. Had the car's brakes not failed, her > boyfriend's condom would have. > > The cartoon, shown to sixth graders at Burbank Elementary School here, is > one weapon in an arsenal of films, celebrity rallies, school classes, even > lollipops and pencils, pushing a message of chastity in classrooms around > the nation. > > A recent survey by the Alan Guttmacher Institute found an elevenfold > increase since 1988 among secondary school teachers who say they do not > discuss any method other than abstinence as a way to avoid pregnancy. The > percentage of these teachers rose to 23 percent from 2 percent. > > Groups promoting abstinence until marriage have flourished since > conservative Republicans in Congress, in a little-noticed amendment to the > Welfare Reform Act of 1996, stepped up federal financing to promote > chastity, which had totaled $60 million since 1981. > > The new law set aside $250 million for five years — $437 million including > mandatory state matching funds — and barred participating programs from > encouraging use of condoms or contraception, or giving any information > that might undermine the abstinence message. > > Along with other increases in financing for abstinence programs, federal > and state governments will pay $100 million over the next year to teach > chastity as the only realistic strategy for avoiding disease and > pregnancy, dwarfing the $30 million a year Washington spends on education > to fight H.I.V., largely by urging youngsters to use condoms if they do > have sex. Aside from spending on abstinence and H.I.V. programs, the > federal government designates no other money for sex education. > > New York State spends $6 million a year on a range of abstinence education > programs, including advertising. The largest grants go to nonprofit > organizations like the New York archdiocese and Harlem Hospital, which use > the money to teach abstinence in public and private schools and other > sites. > > The abstinence-until-marriage programs teach young people to view > commercials, television shows and movies portraying sex between singles > with skepticism, and to refuse physical intimacy not anchored in wedding > vows — values most parents tell pollsters they want schools to pass on. > > But the programs part company with parents, who overwhelmingly favor > teaching youngsters to take precautions if they do have sex, in shunning > practical information for students who ignore the abstinence message. > > Contrary to the wishes of more than 80 percent of the parents surveyed in > a half-dozen national polls over the last decade, > abstinence-until-marriage programs do not tell youngsters how to obtain or > use birth control and condoms, instead emphasizing their potential for > failure. Some describe in gruesome detail the advanced stages of venereal > diseases, but do not mention where teenagers should go or what they should > do if they catch one. > > In recent classes at Lane Technical High School here, given by the > Southwest Parents Committee and Project Reality, Griska Gray, an > instructor, showed a videotape demonstration meant to parallel sexual > intercourse. On the tape, a half-dozen teenagers chew cheese snacks, then > spit into glasses of water. The dirty water represents bodily fluids, > which the teenagers share by pouring their water into one another's > glasses. Before long, the class echoed with exclamations of disgust. > > Another point the film makes: the murky water, even if passed through a > strainer, can never be clean again. > > The growth of abstinence courses appears to reflect inroads by > conservative, often religiously based groups on local school boards and at > the federal and state level, rather than a ground swell of popular support > for such classes or evidence documenting their success. Educators predict > a vigorous debate next year, when most of the money available faces > reauthorization. > > "This is really an argument not about research," said Sarah S. Brown, > director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, which > believes that teenagers need information about birth control and disease > prevention, which the abstinence courses avoid. "It's about what people > believe is right." > > "It's the culture wars writ large," Ms. Brown said. > > So far, the three studies of abstinence programs generally recognized as > the most valid have shown insufficient evidence that they delay sex, said > Douglas Kirby, a senior research scientist at Education, Training and > Research Associates in California. Mr. Kirby's group produces its own > curriculum, which promotes abstinence but also emphasizes the importance > of using condoms and contraception. > > A second review of the studies by Rebecca Maynard of Mathematica Policy > Research, a data analysis company in Princeton, N.J., reached a similar > conclusion. Ms. Maynard is running the government's first evaluation of > federally financed abstinence programs. > > A National Academy of Sciences committee on H.I.V. Prevention recently > called spending on abstinence- only programs "poor fiscal and public > health policy." A panel of scientists the National Institutes of Health > convened in 1997 deemed the programs an obstacle to reducing the risky > behaviors among teens that spread H.I.V., and called for the elimination > of their financing. > > People under 25, many of whom may have been infected in their high school > years, account for half of all new H.I.V. cases in the United States. > African-Americans and Latinos appear to be the most severely hit by the > disease, representing 84 percent of new cases among 13- to 19-year- olds, > although they make up only 30 percent of teenagers in the country. > > Debbie Olson, a Chicago nurse who heads the Southwest Parents Committee, > which teaches abstinence, acknowledged that few recognized studies proved > conclusively that courses like hers keep teenagers from having sex. But, > Ms. Olson said, she just knew it was right, on moral grounds if not > scientific ones. > > "It's a philosophical difference over what is sex for," she said. "Is it > for recreational sport or is it something special and meaningful?" > > Though advocates appear polarized into two camps, pitting "abstinence > only" against "comprehensive sex education," studies over the last 15 > years have documented success among programs that combine both approaches: > discussion of the risks of early sexual involvement and the skills needed > to refuse advances, backed up with instruction about precautions for those > who have sex. The studies found no proof that talking about protection led > teenagers to have sex earlier. > > Abstinence programs are rising against the backdrop of a steady decline in > teenage pregnancy, for which advocates of both comprehensive sex education > and abstinence claim credit. From 1990 to 1996, the pregnancy rate among > 15- to 17-year- olds fell 17 percent, after rising 23 percent over the > previous 18 years, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy says. > > By age 17, roughly half of all high school students remain virgins, but > recent studies suggest a more complicated picture of teenage sex: students > are more frequently resorting to oral and anal sex — both condemned by the > abstinence movement — even as they avoid vaginal sex. And venereal > diseases among teenagers are increasing. > > Leslee J. Unruh, president of the National Abstinence Clearinghouse, based > in Sioux Falls, S.D., says the new federal money, which goes to states in > the form of block grants, has invigorated the abstinence movement. Because > the federal government left policing of abstinence education to the > states, the clearinghouse moved into what has become an apparent vacuum, > issuing a national report card rating the faithfulness of abstinence > programs to Congressional guidelines. > > Taking a page from antidrug campaigns, the National Abstinence > Clearinghouse gives teenagers stickers that say, "What part of NO don't > you understand?" or, simply, "NO." Another group, the Pure Love Alliance, > affiliated with the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, draws an idealized portrait of > marriage between virgins and describes premarital sex as a downward > spiral, beginning with "regret" and "heartbreak" and ending with > "depression or suicide." The group, which taught in 61 Chicago schools > until this summer when newspapers reported the link to the Unification > Church, urged students to take a "pure love pledge." > > Scott Phelps of Project Reality asked a class of freshman boys to list the > emotional and physical risks of teenage sex. He came up with anger, > jealousy, violence, pregnancy, cancer, sterility and death. His message: > While all of these problems may not strike teenagers who have sex, some of > them will. "And you don't know which," he said. > > One student in the front row suggested a solution: "What if you only have > sex with virgins?" > > "That's looking at sex from a getting perspective," Mr. Phelps said. "We > want to help you think through the giving part of sex." > > Later, the teacher tried again. "Sex isn't about getting," he began. "It's > about —— " > > "Taking," a student, Scorpio Perry, blurted out. The class erupted in > laughter, before someone provided the expected answer: "Giving." But the > 15-year-old student later said his answer was no joke. > > "I mean that's what it's about around the school — taking," Mr. Perry > said. > > At no point do the teachers invite questions, which could pull the classes > into unplanned areas. Mr. Phelps said that youngsters had already learned > about sex from friends, television and perhaps family. He was here, he > said, to teach abstinence. > > Keith Foley, the principal of Lane Tech, said the abstinence classes > represented the sum of what the 4,300 students in his magnet school will > learn about sex from their teachers. He acknowledged that some parents > wanted schools to teach more, but said, "I firmly believe it's the only > thing we should be teaching. To do anything else only gives kids a mixed > message and confuses them." > > Afterward, several students said they liked the classes, but wanted to > know more. Upperclassmen do brag about sex, Mr. Perry said, but they never > mention getting tested for diseases, or how to keep girls from getting > pregnant. > > "They shouldn't hide anything that we need to know to keep safe," Mr. > Perry said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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