This just in: apparently, according to one study, certain types of abstinence ed programs might just work. For a while. This has erupted in the blogosphere, where conservatives are saying, See we told you so! and liberals are pointing out that
…the curriculum tested did not represent most abstinence programs. It did not take a moralistic tone, as many abstinence programs do. Most notably, the sessions encouraged children to delay sex until they are ready, not necessarily until married; did not portray sex outside marriage as never appropriate; and did not disparage condoms.”
The main point for me is that they started with twelve-year-olds. Perhaps that might work. But I can tell them, by high school it’s pretty much too late. Last year my kids had to attend a bizarre assembly during which a woman speaker used food props to tell the kids that “girls’ brains are mixed up, like spaghetti, but boys’ brains are compartmentalized, like waffles.” The idea being that girls, once sexually active, would be unable to separate those feelings from the rest of their activities, and they would lose focus on whatever they were trying to achieve. (I guess she was also saying it was okay for the waffle-brained boys to hump like minks, but maybe that’s unfair.) A girl seated behind DD-16 snorted, “Huh. Nothin like that happened to me.” (more…)