public health vs. parenting April 25, 2008
Experts told Congress yesterday that an increasing body of research indicates that “abstinence only” sexual health instruction doesn’t seem to prevent pregnancy or STDs among targeted audiences, like teenagers.
Our own Rep. Jimmy Duncan expressed skepticism.
Rep. John Duncan, a Tennessee Republican, said that it seems “rather elitist” that people with academic degrees in health think they know better than parents what type of sex education is appropriate. “I don’t think it’s something we should abandon,” he said of abstinence-only funding.
I think Rep. Duncan is confusing public health strategy with parenting. They are two different things. Public health strategy - meaning what we spend tax dollars on to decrease disease in our populace - should be based on hard science. It’s epidemiological in nature. Does this way of teaching groups of people how to prevent disease work effectively in preventing that disease among groups of people? Yes or no?
Parenting is about more than that. It’s more nuanced. It’s about imparting the cultural or religious values that matter to an individual to his or her individual children. Parenting doesn’t belong in public health campaigns.
But we need both. Children need effective, engaged parenting to learn values, and they need exposure to effective, engaged public health programming to make sure they are able to grow up and live out those values in a physically healthy society.
If parents were doing their jobs then we wouldn’t need a public health policy. And by and large the parents who ARE doing their jobs aren’t the ones that public health is worried about. Once upon a time, the values of society at large matched the values that the majority of parents wanted to teach their kids. So parents had a lot more wiggle room to miss stuff, confident that their kids would pick up what they missed from other sources. That is not true today. Of course abstinence based education doesn’t work if the example the kids are seeing at home and what is proceeding out of the mouths of their parents contradicts that. Or if the parents just bark rules at their kids without having that relationship that earns them the right to be heard, the kids can rebel. The problem is that parents who ARE encouraging abstinence are not appreciating the fact that their kids are being told by planned parenthood to “just do anything that you want to do” and “disregard uptight messages from your parents”.(things I seem to remember seeing in some PP brochures in my younger years. straight from the horse’s mouth. Not hearsay from a pro life group) Unfortunately, teaching biblical values in a secular setting to kids who are not getting the same message at home is doomed to failure. As far as “what works”…does the alternative to abstinence based education work either? The problem is that as a society we have moved away from a biblical foundation into a “whatever feels right for you” mentality. I am well aware that many of the founding fathers were not actually Christians, but were deists. Some of them were also profound hypocrites. However the overarching message of society resonated with the way of life proscribed int he Bible. Of course there were always people who did things differently, but it did not have the seal of approval of society at large. I think that this kept messages consistant. The problem now is the mixed messages kids get all over the place. There is no substitute for a strong parental relationship and if anyone thinks some institution is going to pick up the slack for them, then they are wrong.
Just another example of a Republican playing the “elitist” card and attempting to vilify education, all the while raping the uneducated masses for whatever he can because they are too uneducated to realize that he is doing it.
I’m from Indiana. These “abstinence only” pledges are nothing new. It was common knowledge that the kids who made those pledges were still having plenty of sex, just not actual intercourse.
Leigh is right: as much as they would like to change history to fit their needs, this nation was not founded by “Christians.”
Ph.D. candidates are not likely to be the girls who got knocked up at 15. I’m just sayin’. How many Mensa members appear on the Maury show?
Funding for abstinence only programs is ridiculous. It’s not helping. Young people are still having sex, having babies, and passing diseases. Abstinence is a wonderful thing to try to impart to a young person, but you need to educate them too. I’ve met teens who believe those stupid urban legends that I used to read and think, “Who’s dumb enough to believe this?” I know a 21 year old whose ex had three abortions while they were together. Abstinence only is not working.
of course, lets ask if having condom party assemblies is working either?
UGH. And just today I had a student come visit me with her baby that was only 6 days old; in a public high school with a 6 day old baby. The truly sad part is that the girl’s mother is only 29, and her grandmother is only 46.
this is very sad. Probably both the abstinence only and the planned parenthood routes don’t address this fully. Abstinence only is closer to the truth, but it doesn’t begin to address how hard it is to change the way your family has thought through several generations, the messages you have internalized. You have to break the cycle some way. It does not help though, when kids are being taught that it is their “right” to have sex and anyone who encourages them not to or to wait for a permanent relationship conducive to child raising, is being “uptight and oldfashioned” Maybe PP doesn’t push this attitude anymore, last time I saw their materials was in the late seventies early eighties. We are now, dealing with the fruits of all those free love types in the sixties who forever changed the view of sex in the eyes of the American public. Instead of something that is an intrinsic part of a permanent committed relationship, it is now a recreational activity that everyone has a “right” to, suitable relationship or not.
Uh, Leigh, I was raised by two hippies. No out-of-wedlock pregnancies. I used birth control when I became sexually active and I had a steady partner each time. No one-night stands. No abortions. No STDs.
Actually, what you are saying, the opposite is true. It’s the uptight, morally judgmental yet constantly incorrect JesusFreak types who have vilified sex to the point where we a) do not educate our young about it and b) blame it on “liberals” when their harebrained ways result in teen pregnancies and STDs, when in reality they need only look to themselves and their failure to educate (and LIVE IN THE REAL WORLD) that is the problem.
They have also vilified a woman’s right to an abortion to the point where many women do not even consider this to be an option for themselves any longer.
We were honest and open in our house about sex. Don’t insult hippies and those of us who were lucky enough to be raised by them.
I was raised by a smother mother and an absent father whose only admonition to me about sex was, “Don’t bring no longhairs home with you.” My mother’s approach was to remind me of my reputation. When I got my first period, she merely bought me one of those Kimberly Clark “You’re a Woman Now” kits. I learned about sex from my peers, and I think that’s pretty much still true. I learned about birth control the same way. Today’s kids are very savvy, and I think the birth control issue is based on whether the partner wants to use a condom, whether the parents are the least bit enlightened about human nature, and the emotional state of the teens. Public health departments and Planned Parenthood
are the best resource they have when all else fails.
As for the “hippie” remark, none of my hippie friends’ children have had children as teenagers. I think it’s because we DO know about human nature and act accordingly.
Premarital sex and teen pregnacy were both around before the hippies and free love.
Premarital sex and teen pregnacy were also around before rock & roll, beatniks, jazz, ragtime, jitterbugging, communists, labor unions, movable type, indoor plumbing…
>Fortunately, teaching biblical values in a secular setting to kids…is not constitutional.
Fixed.