Abstinence aimed at grade-schoolers

[Rose Siding]

snip>
New Mexico Health Secretary Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Friday her decision to target $500,000 in federal sexual-abstinence education funding toward elementary-school students, because national research suggests that abstinence programs work best among students who have not yet had sex.

Groups that deliver sex education in the schools may apply for funds to use next school year.

When it comes to students in grades seven through 12, lessons must include discussion of contraceptives and sexually transmitted diseases, she said. Promoting abstinence, however, will continue to be a theme in all sex-education curricula.

Lujan Grisham had received strong recommendations from her staff to continue to accept federal money for sexual-abstinence education -- and other recommendations urging her to decline.........

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/12407.html

[underthedome]

1. Will this program actually make them more likely to have sex though?

I'd like to see the national research they used and see how they interpreted it.

[DrDebug]

14. No, they have less sexual partner, but more risky sex

Study Finds Virginity Pledges May Encourage Risky Sexual Behavior

March 22, 2005

A recent study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that teens who take virginity pledges are as likely to get sexually transmitted infections as those who do not take virginity pledges. While pledgers tend to have fewer sex partners and start having sex later than teens who did not take pledges, they are less likely to use condoms the first time they have vaginal intercourse.
- http://www.teenwire.com/index.asp?taStrona=http://www.teenwire.com/flash/fl_mainpage.asp

So they have less sexual partner, the same number of infections but are more likely to become pregnant.

[illflem]

2. If I had found out about sex earlier

I would have tried it earlier.
I know this a women but it makes little sence when guys on Viagra are preaching abstinence.

[0007]

12. Good program, good goddamn program!

I was screwing in the fourth grade and didn't know what I was doing or what it was even called. :shrug:
:bounce:
Now that I've learned what I was doing I'm so ashamed I'm embarassed to talk about it!! :blush:

New Mexico is on the right tract, gotta stop them grade schoolers from screwing. :sarcasm:

[Laughing Mirror]

3. students have to wear body suits filled with water to simulate pregnancy

Surely this is the solution to children having sex.

[TahitiNut]

4. What the f*ck is wrong with the word "celibacy"???

"Abstinence" is non-specific and can refer to refraining from indulging any appetite, whether for alcohol, food, exercise, or even discourse. Most commonly, "abstinence" has referred to sobriety.

"Celibacy" is most specifically the abstinence from sexual intercourse, but can also mean "unmarried."

The political assault on language is abominable.

[w4rma]

20. Probably something to do with the way the word polls. (nt)

[Jade Fox]

5. Don't forget to tell them that masturbation leads to....

insanity and hair growing on the palms of your hands.

[0007]

13. .....have you observed all the folks that wear glasses?

I remember Phil Donuhue telling folks one day that the reason his glasses were so thick was that he jerked off a lot as a child. But he quit before he went blind.

[Toots]

6. This quote gets a really big DUHHHH

"research suggests that abstinence programs work best among students who have not yet had sex."

[Laughing Mirror]

7. DC poet Donald Rumsfeld couldn't have said it better than that!

Great Mencken quote, by the way...

[Richard Steele]

15. Yeah...but once they start having sex, the abstinence starts to decline...

...I suppose!

Geniuses, they are.

That sentence caught my eye also, cuz it's just the stupidest thing I've read today!

[XemaSab]

16. The rate of teen pregnancy

drops off sharply after age 20.

[Art_from_Ark]

8. When I was in elementary school,

I didn't even know what sex was!

[Snap]

9. Sex was not on my list.

But no doubt I could have been encouraged. Given the poor results of this abstinence "education" in terms of kids not having sex, I sometimes wonder if this isn't a cynical ploy to get young kids to be fucking like rabbits with no basic understanding of sexuality, creating a yet dumber america for the enrichment of Walmart.

[regnaD kciN]

11. How early are they starting this???

I mean, are they planning to start lecturing kindergartners about keeping their legs crossed?

:crazy:

[free_spirit82]

10. Abstinence only in Elementary

would be fitting as long as they take out all the outright lies and telling the girls that they shouldn't act too smart if they want to keep a man, etc. If they can't do it without lying or degrading women then they need to drop it completely.

[skip fox]

17. Why not pick a challange they might succeed with??

Let they try to push abstinsence in the graveyard.

[damntexdem]

18. Before long, if they want to fit their ideology to the findings, ...

they'll have to direct their abstinence-only education to infants.

[dsc]

19. This actually makes a good deal of sense

presuming that elementary means 4th through 6th. I don't know how old some of the posters in this thread are, but students in grades 7 and 8 in many cases have already had sex. To the extent that abstinence only works it works if the audience hasn't already had sex. I know more than a few young women who had their first child before high school.