Should Abstinence Be Taught In Schools (At all)?
 

Seems to me that abstinence is something parents should that school has no business drilling into teens/pre teens heads. I believe as it is now there are hardly any school districts in America that don't teach abstinence as a part of their sexual education/social living programs. Thoughts?

abstinence is probably the WORST thing to teach in a school. yes...worse than not teaching nothing and worse than having a "favorite positions" class. especially using a word like "abstinence" it adds some kind of mystique to the whole topic of sex. then you want to have it.

i'm sure anyone who has seen russell brand's stand up has heard his rant on the jonas brothers and their stupid "abstinence" rings. all it does is draw attention to the idea of sex.

my view: schools should give out condoms to those who ask for them. they should teach safe sex techniques. they should teach of all the potential sti's you can get. they should give a girl who happens to get pregnant a list of ALL her options. they should also not teach that sex is evil. that is so ****ing middle ages. christianity views sex as evil therefore by extension our schools view sex as evil. i'm kind of sick of that...sex is awesome and not evil at all.

maybe i went on a rant there. i don't know.

no - its ****ing stupid. aren't americans the only people in the western world scratching their heads about this?

correct me if anyone knows otherwise

Totally agree with you, we live in a such a highly eroticized society and it's mainly caused by our culture's view of sex as something mystical and holy.

"Teaching" abstinence is pretty stupid. Kids are going to have sex and maybe the odd brainwashed Catholic will be convinced but it's not going to make much of a difference. Like duga said, there are much more important and worthwhile things to teach in the vein of sex education.

i don't think mystical and holy are the right words at all

to put that lightly

Man, why do Catholics get all the ****? The Catholics don't care! It's the fundamentalists who are the crazies, you know.

In my sexual health program we were taught that abstinence is the only sure way to prevent STI's/pregnancy (and our teacher recommended it overall), which it is. We were also taught about other methods of protection and sexual activity. I don't see anything wrong with it. I certainly don't think sexual activity during the teenage years should be encouraged.

I'm not really sure what you're getting at though. Maybe it's because I'm Canadian and have little knowledge of my local Catholic school.

So it shouldn't be encouraged for teenagers. Fair point I do agree, however.. I think 16+ yr olds should do whatever they want. Abstinence is highly idiotic, saying its the only way to prevent sti's and pregnancy is the worst thing i've heard like ever.

I never said that it's the only way, I said it's the only sure way. I'd feel just as comfortable as anyone using a condom.

At my school we're told to not have sex until we are 18. It's fine to show the benefits of abstinence and say it's the only sure way to prevent pregnancies/STI's but I think it's the parents job to tell a kid whether or not they should have sex.

Okay, so there's quite a difference between your schools and our schools.

So that being said, the way they're teaching you about it in your schools is pretty damn unrealistic. Good intentions, but in end students are being deprived of some necessary knowledge, especially since so many teens are having sex anyways.

I'm not getting on to you btw, I didn't mean to direct it at you. If you feel it has been :).

yeah a lot of schools in the US in the really conservative areas have a "don't talk about it unless it is to say you aren't going to have it" policy. i met a lot of kids while i was in uni who were seriously ignorant towards many of the issues i feel are vital.

sure, abstinence is the only sure way to ensure no pregnancy or sti's, but that is not the human condition. it is the christian condition. if it were based on human condition, then teaching kids what to expect and worry about from their bodies should be a totally natural thing.

My bad, thanks for clearing that up. :D

This is like teaching genesis...and by teaching them mean telling...

No one gets aids after they're 18.

No, No, and No

Hell no, sex is everywhere and you can't avoid it, and every parent with a brain cell should know that they should be the ones to teach their kids about it because if they don't someone else will.

Seriously, why is giving your kids the straight facts and pros and cons of sex such a difficult concept to understand?

People have always tried to enforce the belief on me that sex should be a purely reproductive thing and that the only reason god made it pleasurable is because that's the only way he could get people to do it.

Exactly.

I got the abstinence stick in middle school, teachers were tight-lipped about it and choice parts of human physics were viewed as vulgar or crude. High school couldn't have been more different, where getting laid was a matter of whose party you went to on Friday night and all the teachers knew which were the good ones.

The abstinence-only bullshit only gets you so far, especially when your hormones are playing a fucking circus during your formative years. Parents and teachers should encourage a healthy sexual development in teens, it's the only way they can be forewarned about the dangers that accompany it. Failing to establish good practices in maintaining a sexually active lifestyle ensures unsafe opportunities down the road.

Plus it's nice knowing which hole to stick your dick in if you ever manage to get there.

EDIT: Poll added. :)

I never got the whole abstinence thing drilled into me at school. Most of our public schools teach protection and safe sex rather than abstinence. Which I think is a much better idea.

Teenagers are going to experiment and most of them are going to have sex or experiment with sex at some point whether you tell them not to or not. In fact, the way in which a teenager's mind is wired probably means that if you tell them not to do it, they will want to do it even more. So isn't it better that they are armed with knowledge about how to participate in safe sex and how to protect their bodies etc rather than the useless piece of "don't do it" advice?

I think Australian schools are quite opposite to the schools being described in the US as most of our schools steer clear of the whole abstinence argument and teach protection and safe sex lessons instead. In fact, it's only really the private religious schools that teach abstinence.

An oxymoron if there ever was one, abstinence programs are the exact opposite of teaching.

I think whoever the child looks up to should be a good role model for their children.
However, I don't think that abstinence should be taught at all without proper discussion about sex.
Rather than, "Don't have sex, sex is bad." like I was taught.
Maybe something like, "Sex can be a beautiful thing, especially if you wait."

I wish someone told this to me.
Instead I was thrust into a world who knew everything when I knew nothing at all.
I learned everything about sex from my friends and the world around me.
The only thing about sex I learned from my parents was one time when I asked my mom what rape was.
I think I was in eighth grade.
Yeah, it was that bad.


Edit: I didn't really answer the question.
I think schools should encourage open discussions about sex rather than make it taboo.
That way children can go home and feel comfortable talking about it with their parents.

Well yeah, it's telling I guess.

Although in my person opinion a teacher's job these days isn't teaching per se, it's facilitating learning. But I won't get into that can of worms.

i'm with Alfred on this one, then again i'm another Canadian.

i don't think it shouldn't be taught, but i also don't think it's the only thing that should be taught. it IS a viable option and there's absolutely nothing wrong with making the choice to wait, regardless of gender.

although i think it's a huge disservice to future generations by forcibly educating ignorance in relation to the most fundamental function of our bodies.

it's the same as providing drug 'education' that just lumps any illegal substance into the 'bad' pile and doesn't offer any worthwhile education as to what sort of effects said drugs will have on the individual.

well put.

Of course there is nothing wrong with making the choice to wait. But the purpose of education is to educate, not make decisions for the students (regardless of what decision this is.) So the primary purpose of sex education should be to educate students on: what sex is and how to participate safely in sex. Sex safety should not only be physiological lessons but also psychological ones - encouraging young people that it's okay to make their own decisions and to not feel pressured to do anything they are not ready to do or don't want to do.

But I think the main focus should be on safe sex and how to protect yourself from unwanted conception and sexually transmitted diseases. Not on whether or not they should be having sex or not - this is the individual's decision to make, not the education system.

...why?

I will say Swansea schools don't teach Abstinence which I'm rather happy about but we do have one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in Europe also. :D

You inspired me to go look at the list of teen pregnancy occurrence in different countries (Teenage pregnancy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and Australia has a significant lower rate per population than anywhere in the UK or US. No schools in Australia teach abstinence unless they are a private religious school, which adds to the contention that teaching abstinence is not an effective form of preventing teenage pregnancy or perhaps even disease. New Zealand is a little lower down the list so not sure how the schooling system here differs, but tis interesting!

When I have my own kids, I'd like school to teach them facts - like facts about STDs and pregnancy. I won't need teachers to pass on their moralistic views on sex to my kids. I like to think that will be my job as a parent.

I think there has to be a middle ground.

I think its ridiculous to say that schools shouldn't be teaching our children either a) anything about sex, and there are people who believe that sex education is not something that should be taught to our children in any capacity whatsoever or b) that abstinence should not be a part of sexual education.

In England our teenage pregnancy statistics are awful. A hell of a lot of girls i went to school with had kids before they were finished uni or in some cases before they were finished school and had to drop out for those reasons. For a 16 year old kid this can change your entire life. And what sex ed did we have at school? We had quite possibly the worst teacher they could have chosen for the job to get us to write anonymous questions which were then put in a box and he would read them out infront of the class and answer them. I think it was touched on in R.E too but of course getting sex ed in a R.E classroom in a catholic school, im sure you can imagine what that involved.

Give kids options. Don't allow sexual education to become a ways and means of forcing one single opinion on them but actually try EDUCATING them to make their own decisions or giving them enough information to then feel comfortable to go home and talk to their parents about it. And yes, i strongly believe that one of these options should be abstinence, it's irresponsible to leave it out.

i agree with most of what everyone is saying...we all seem to generally be in agreement.

i think i can narrow it down to a couple things.

1) teach all the logistical things...safe sex, sti education...just all the stuff that as an ignorant human i would want to know about it. that way you are among peers of the same age taught by a professional and the parents can avoid that awkward conversation.

2) that doesn't mean the parents should be exempt. it should be up to them to instill the moralistic side of things in their kids.

When I was a kid, there was some religious nut working with youth in my home town who tried to make teenagers sign a contract saying they wouldn't have sex before marriage :rolleyes: More probably as a motivator than actual legal stuff, but still ..

I think it's pretty darn manipulative. Of course, my parents told my older brother not to sign it.

My own experiences with school and morality are not particularly good either, although they don't particularly relate to sex. We had a few religious nut teachers of the older school (who were teachers, not social workers and who are mostly retired or dead now) and they tended to make me a target of morality rather than a reciever :p: Some teachers should just keep their opinions to themselves.

I think it's worth pointing out that the kind of kids who most need teaching about what could happen if you have sex don't give a flying fuck what teachers or their parents say anyway.

teaching abstinence would be pointless. sex is a huge topic of interest for young people. ranging hormones and curiosity about the opposite sex will most certainly override any ideas you try to implant about not exploring...

Yes but that happens because they aren't taught enough about it.
They probably don't ask questions, and if they ever did, they were turned down or turned away.

they're giving half the kids something to feel guilty about and the other half something to rebel against, but ultimately, who cares?

could also be a large scale reverse psychology ploy on north american society. the population is getting older, young people aren't making nearly as many babies and waiting longer to do so. by forcing ignorance and taboo onto a generation it could serve to swell a population that's starting to stagnate.

Last I heard the Population of America is only growing due to immigrants and not due to births.

I come from a teen mom I remember how it was... Mom had 3 Jobs at one time and Dad worked Construction.

There should be a middle ground... You cant tell High Schools not to have sex because they will... You just have to let them understand the dangers.

My dads way of doing this was.... "Son dont **** up like me and have a kid, Wear a rubber" Classic quote from my dad

My Mom was in nursing school when I was a teen.... So her method was pulling out the medical book and showing me pics of Herpes.

Both methods worked well.... I always wear a rubber :)