Sex Ed.

The Sex Ed. presentation last Tuesday was quite entertaining! I loved the old, black-and-white video the girls used to begin the class discussion. It was hysterical to see how menstruation and girls' adolescence was viewed so many years ago (the 1950s?). While I think some people, even back then, would have rolled their eyes at the corny-ness of the film, I do think that some of the issues covered were indeed popularly believed back then, like that a period is "a curse," (some of us may still think so today) and that you can't do any strenuous activity or swim while menstruating. I think it's obvious that we've come a long way since then as far as debunking period myths and developing the products women use for their periods...I honestly don't know what I would do if I weren't allowed to swim/run around (or square dance!!!) when I had my period, or if pads ("sanitary napkins") were still as big as tissue boxes and had to be worn with an elastic belt!

As far as today's schools' sex education programs are concerned, I think there's a lot of room for improvement. I was shocked to find out that it was Clinton, and not Bush, who started the federal funding for abstinence-only education (instead of sex education)...I'm glad Obama did away with that; the number of teenage moms today kind of shows that an abstinence-only approach wasn't really working for everyone. Also, the girls discussed the fact that those teens who pledge abstinence are more likely to contract STDs because using a condom is admitting to the act of having sex. Also, some teens who pledge abstinence are sexually active in other ways, including having oral sex (high risk for STDs) and anal sex (STDs and still a possibility of pregnancy if no protection is used). It all seems pretty messed up to me! I think that sexual curiosity is only natural for teenagers, and that the more it is forbidden (like anything else forbidden to a teenager), the more teens are going to want to and find ways to do it. Generating awareness about STDs and pregnancy and teaching teens how to prevent both is what really needs to happen.

The movie Juno MTV shows like 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom seem to be popularizing teenage pregnancy and motherhood; a number of the teenage girls who were on the first seasons of 16 and Pregnant are now being glorified on popular magazine covers and in commercials, as if to tell other teen girls "hey...if you get pregnant and get on an Mtv show, you'll have it made!" While I think it's good that some of the episodes show viewers the hardships of (often single) teenage motherhood, many girls who watch the shows are still horribly uneducated and unaware of the consequences of teenage pregnancy and motherhood. Did shows like these drive the Massachusetts high school girls to form their "pregnancy pact?" or was it the other way around?

Here's the link to the Times' article about the teens at Gloucester High School and their "Pregnancy Pact": Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High

It was interesting to hear other people's experiences with their high school's sex education classes (or lack thereof). I can't believe the lies that some religious schools tell their students in an attempt to increase abstinence; it's all just scare tactics. Like I said before, what schools really need to do is educate about STDs and pregnancy and the ways students can go about preventing them. Any way you slice it, our country's schools need to figure some things out about sex ed.!