(Photo of Texas governor, Rick Perry)Much of what's wrong with Texas began when George W. Bush was governor. Some people are afraid Texas will never recover. Much of what's wrong with Texas has continued under Rick Perry. That's another reason why Texas may never recover!
As prez, da Bush has touted "abstinence only" sex education. He continues to tout abstinence only sex education even though several studies have shown that it is simply not effective.
Rather than lower the rate of sexual activity among teenagers, it leads to more sexual activity!
The State of Texas led the nation in abstinence only spending last year - $17 million. Generally, it is the extremist Christian right and those politicians in their sway that push abstinence only - mostly for religious reasons. The fact that it has proved ineffective fails to dampen their fervor, as they know God wants young people to refrain from sex until marriage.
According to the Dallas Morning News, "Federal statistics in June showed that 52.9 percent of Texas students in ninth through 12th grades had sexual intercourse, compared with 47.8 nationally. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also reported that Texas youths are less likely to use condoms."
This is not surprising to anyone who has bothered to look at the data. The worst of it is that not only does abstinence only sex education not further abstinence, it fails to provide young people with the proper information to make informed decisions about their sexual activities.
The governor of Texas, Rick Perry, is a George Bush clone. Information, data, results, evidence -- these are just words to him and have no impact of what he "believes." Allison Castle, a spokeswoman for Perry said, "The governor is comfortable with the current law and supports abstinence programs."
Of course he is and of course does.
Another abstinence only supporter, state Representative Rob Eissler, chairman of the House Public Education Commmittee, asks, "Can you imagine being a parent and having your child come home and tell you all the ways they learned in school that you can (have sex)?"
With a moron like Eissler heading up the state's House Public Education Committee, it's no wonder that Texas teens are screwing like rabbits. For one thing, comprehensive sex education isn't about "all the ways ... that you can (have sex)." Comprehensive sex education is about providing the information and tools that will allow teens (who will have sex no matter what) are able to make wise decisions regarding their sexual choices.
Texas doesn't want to give them that information and those tools. So Texas teens learn about sex from the parents? Maybe, sometimes. Most often they learn from other teens, whose knowledge is steeped in ignorance and circumscribed by their hormones. Or they learn by the simple method of experimentation - which leads to sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies, among other things.
Texas must not like their teenagers very much.
1 comment:
Wow! If only I had grown up in Texas. Sex was not something we knew much about, but got as much as we could anyway. Our parents knew less than we did and we knew they didn’t have any sex. We had little information but managed anyway. It is almost funny to think back to the weird ideas we did have. We had the same raging hormones kids have today, but with less opportunity but we found partners anyway. I wonder how much damage we did through ignorance. I do know there were unexpected consequences and abortions anyway. Kids are going to have sex no matter what we tell them. It is better to have knowledge than not to have knowledge. The hormones will still rage and some will find ways.
I missed a lot but I cannot turn the clock back,
Bob Poris
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