There has been a great deal of worry in the U.S. about the state of literacy and education of the young. The great schools with the highest standards still attract and educate. Many other schools spoon-feed vocational courses into lethargic kids. However, new studies that suggest teenagers in Britain and the United States do not know how to use condoms are disconcerting.
An interesting Fox News article written in 2002 by Glenn Harlan Reynolds, "Teen Sex and Media Hype," makes a good point about the infantilization of teens in our society. He wrote of teens coddled to the point where they had neither to accept responsibilities nor to act in constructive paths. Perhaps, he mused, if they were, they would behave in the role of citizens and be less like the traditionally irresponsible leisure classes "... with all the vices that have historically attended leisure classes."
He also noted that treating them as infants in growing and sexual bodies keeps them from developing the "base of judgment and self-respect" that allows for appropriate decision-making. Appropriate decisions imply deciding when they are ready for sex (always a difficult choice given the flooded hormonal circuits of the adolescent) and learning about and taking responsible precautions.
The forces against science and knowledge and even a group who are opposed to education about sex (hard to imagine, isn't it?) continue to dominate school boards or try to. More than a few times they have managed to ban books and work their censorship incantations over library choices.
It is not a slight lessening of intellectual interest in young people that is the problem. This week's report from the U.K. proves that the world faces a real problem of dumbness (or is it numb-ness?).
USA Today published the article "Report: Teenagers Often Shun Condoms" early in the month. It reported on a study appearing from Child Trends, a not-for-profit agency in Washington, D.C. that those teens who are sexually active do not use condoms regularly. This activity puts them in danger of acquiring STDs, passing them on to their partners, and creating pregnancies.
Article comments
1 - diana hartman
Funny that you mentioned not having teens as you come across as a well-educated parent. It's not funny how many parents don't take this kind of thing seriously. As the mother of three (two in college) I've not been in any mood for stds or pregnancies. As a person, I appreciate your voice. As a parent, I appreciate your concern for all the children everywhere.
2 - Staci Schoff
Howard, this is interesting, but I think it can't be entirely accurate. Teenagers have sex because it's a natural biological urge, some can and will wait, but it goes strongly against their human nature.
I don't think lack of education is the reason many don't take contraception and STD avoidance seriously. I had sex education in high school, I had parents who warned me my life would be OVER if I got pregnant, all of my friends and I watched the condom-on-a-banana demonstration in health class. And yet, most of my friends had unprotected sex and one time or another. I would have too, but my boyfriend was older (and apparently much smarter) than I was and he just took care of that. God knows I wouldn't have thought of it... even though I knew better.
I think that young teenage feeling of invincibility and general recklessness and tendency not to thoroughly think through the consequences of one's actions is more to blame than lack of information.
3 - Howard Dratch
Staci. How could anyone argue with your comment? It is cogent and, undoubtedly, true. Still, no matter how much the "natural biological urge" of raging hormonal storms can dominate I still think that the more knowledge, education and accessibility to contraceptives; the more chance there will be that at least one of the people (of any age or sex) will remember what to do.
Diana is a parent thinking and worrying about her children. As she says, she has not been "in the mood for any stds or pregnancies". Obviously she has done her discussing and teaching well and can worry more about "... all the children everywhere."
I wrote this remembering my youth -- even though I, like Staci, wasn't always quite as responsible as I thought I would/should be. Those hormonal storms put Katrina to shame.
4 - diana hartman
staci, the soundest reasoning for better, earlier, more frequent sex education is substantiated by your comment that "my boyfriend was older (and apparently much smarter) than I was and he just took care of that"...
the key word here is "smarter"...for whatever reason, he had acquired an education that surpassed your own, meaning your sex education was not adequate...
taking chances with one's own body and life is not smart...given that you walked away from sex-ed with little sense of self-protection means that those who educated you failed to teach you anything of substance...
fearlessness can be effectively coupled with reality to give children a greater sense of their limits and vulnerability...those who wouldn't wear condoms for lack of a (better) education will look both ways before they cross the street...why one and not the other? effective education...
sex education in the united states is a joke and a misnomer...these programs speak nothing to children of how it might feel, physically and emotionally, to give of oneself in this way...my own children came away from their middle school class having been taught nothing about pubic lice, physical conditioning, or even the basics such as the role a woman's orgasm plays in conception...
effecive sex education should give a person a sense of something fantastic to look forward to, a sound sense of their body and the body of others, while at the same time, and just as strongly, invoking the instinct to self-protect...anything less is nothing but mechanics 101...
5 - Staci Schoff
Diana, you make a great point about crossing the street. I think it's because we all learn that VERY early on, when we're still being more "conditioned" rather than "taught." Perhaps that point could be used to advocate for earlier sex ed, I'd never really thought of it that way before.
And Howard I definitely agree with you that knowledge, education and access is vitally important and didn't mean to imply that we shouldn't bother with it.
For every 5 or 6 kids I knew who had unprotected sex, I knew at least one who was very very responsible in that way. But I think it's more of a personality/individual thing. In the same way some kids will smoke and some won't, some will experiment with drugs, some won't. Some will be cautious and mature when deciding when, whether and how to engage in sex, and some won't.
6 - carolina
i think you should put some pictures