Do you blame your sex education class for the teenage rebellion and degrading life of obscene promiscuity that followed?
No? You sure?
This Sunday, American doctor Miriam Grossman will speak at a Melbourne public school – and she will tell you, that you should.
The Australian Family Association is sponsoring Grossman, who describes herself as “100 per cent MD, 0 per cent PC” to give a free talk about how we’re endangering the lives of our kids through sex education.
In a 2007 speech, Grossman said “Now we should be alarmed but we should not be surprised when there’s so much hooking-up and so much casual sex and then so many casualties from all these behaviours, because kids have been led to believe, by mainstream health organisations, that this is okay.”
ABC’s PM covered the story last night.
JOURNALIST: Among her views, Dr Grossman believes condoms don’t protect against the spread of sexually transmitted infections and HIV. She says evidence that oral sex causes throat and mouth cancer is being withheld from teenagers and that girls need to be taught to have children early and often, as a way to ward off breast cancer.
Vice-president Terri Kelleher says the Association wants a rethink of sex education in schools.
TERRI KELLEHER: Talking about the sexuality programs for all young people and the main messages she sees as being damaging; The way in which condoms are presented as protecting you from sexually transmitted diseases and infection – you know, there’s a false sense of security; that’s her point…
JOURNALIST: Victoria’s Health Services Commissioner Beth Wilson is concerned about the talk being held in a state school. She says Dr Grossman’s views are political more than they are scientific.
BETH WILSON: I get very concerned with people who have medical degrees saying that their political beliefs are in fact based on scientific evidence when they quite clearly are not. And I think it is unfortunate that it is associated with the school.
Do you think sex education needs an overhaul? Is it appropriate for a public school to be playing host to such a controversial speaker? What are your memories of sex education at school?
Top Comments
I totally agree with Dr Miriam.
teenagers are gonna have sex whenever they want regardless of how much or how little sex ed they get, the sex ed's good for teaching them how to do it safely. no health teacher is going to say casual sex is a good thing, they just aim at teaching teens how to do it safely if they're going to do it at all.
Jess,
If teenagers are going to have sex "unprotected", then they will never be able to do the act safely.
What I mean by "unprotected" is not that they fail to take all the "necessary" precautions (drugs, condoms, etcetera), but that they do it with whomever they want without be bound to that person (marriage).
Condoms and preventative drugs have consistently failed to protect people from a large number of diseases (like AIDS) and "unwanted" pregnancies. ("accidental" pregnancies... because pregnancy is obvious something that never supposed to occur naturally from sex...)
I can "sorta" see the possible benefits to teaching sex education towards kids who are maturing, however, I doubt that it is being taught in a successful way. From what I know, sex education basically tells you "sex is great, we all know you are going to do it" but they also say "BUT only if you take a whole bunch of drugs to prevent pregnancy and STDs and your boyfriend wears a condom". Somehow I doubt they emphasize just how unreliable such "preventatives" really are (diseases can still get through an intact condom, pregnancy even with pills). However, since kids are being told that they will pretty much be fine since "today's world provides all the answers", they will have sex and many will contract diseases and/or result in pregnancy. Not to mention the promiscuity from kids who find out the first person was "great for a time being, but then the feelings disappeared", then moved on to another person due to the same feelings of "love". (Not to mention kids who tend to forget to take their pill and the condom rips.)
This would not occur to all kids, but a lot.
Sure, teaching abstinence will not work with everyone, just like teaching kids cheating a test is wrong will not prevent cheating. But abstinence until marriage (for both people) is the best way to not get sex-spread diseases and "accidental" pregnancies. Plus, with abstinence, one would basically not even need all those pills (plus no pill-side-effects) and condoms. It might be boring and require loads of self-control, but it works if people do it.
So, teaching kids about ways that can prevent "unwanted results" does not mean they are "safe", perhaps less of a risk, but not a very good one.