Here’s a little tidbit about me: I grew up Catholic. VERY Catholic. I went to Catholic pre-school, grade school (K-8), and high school. I went to Mass almost every morning and have received all applicable sacraments. I’ve taken enough religion to last any normal person three decades, including sex education. The strict religious institutions, of course, taught abstinence-only sex ed. These are a few of the highlights from my nine years in the program (and the dismal teachers whom I endured).

Sex before marriage only happens when Satan is present (whether he participates or not is a little unclear).

Sex is dirty. It only happens between husbands and wives. Neither enjoys it, because it is dirty and only useful in reproduction. Technically, actual physical penetration is against what the Bible says, but it’s a bit of a crapshoot reproductively speaking.

Holding hands will lead to sex, which will lead to STDs, which will lead to death. Therefore, holding hands equals death. (This applies doubly for homosexual activity).

Birth control doesn’t exist, or it shouldn’t, and any God-fearing person doesn’t use birth control because he/she isn’t even thinking about sex.

Use the pullout method (if you are ignoring the general sin of physical penetration).

Use the rhythm method or the newer Natural Family Planning method.

Petting is a no-no. (On a side note, this one confused the fifth-grade version of me. Did this include petting my dog? I didn’t quite get the implications yet.)

Sex does happen between husbands and wives, but only for procreation. If pleasure does occur, it is an extra gift from God.

As you can tell, there is a lot of guesswork in this type of education. And, when it occurs between several teachers, the lessons become contradictory. The scary fact is that many follow the shoddy advice given above. Many have no place to turn to learn about proper birth control when growing up in a community as I did. Consequently, teen pregnancy and hushed abortions were rampant among the high school kids in my town. Worse, the government is expected to spend around $50 million dollars on abstinence-only “birth control” programs and these programs are targeted to people as old as 29. It is dangerous to teach anyone only half the story. Treat adolescents with the courtesy of full knowledge and prepare them to make the decision with the tools to protect themselves. Unwanted pregnancy happens, but my guess is it will occur less often if we begin teaching young adults ways to protect themselves. So, say “no” to no sex- sex ed!

Chelsea is a junior in the School of Art and a Forum Editor. She can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]

Popularity: 1% [?]

 Print This Post

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Forum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.