Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Kathy Martin and the Kansas BOE
When exactly IS the best time to learn about contraception, safe sex and sexual function? According to Kathy Martin, (Kansas Board of Education), it’s apparently the wedding night. In a by-gone day, Americans regularly married in their teens. Saving oneself for one’s wedding night was no big accomplishment if that night fell before one’s 17th birthday. Those were also the days of childbirth deathbeds and rampant syphilis. There were no sex-ed classes in Victorian times and many families suffered because of it.
Today Americans are more likely to wait until nearer their 25th birthday to wed. By this time the hormones have been raging for well over ten years. That’s a long period of abstinence when people are in the prime of their lives. I believe the reality is, in America anyway, that pre-marital sex is here to stay. But we can prevent disease and unwanted pregnancies along the way, and this is what sex-education is about. It’s a health class.
In opposing any kind of sex-ed other than abstinence-only, Kathy Martin seems to make the argument that sex education causes teen sexual behavior. She refuses to acknowledge that the sexual impulse comes along unbidden, like the impulse to eat, or the impulse to sleep. The sexual impulse hits all teens, the educated and the ignorant alike. The only difference is, the educated have the tools and information they need to make wise choices regarding their sex lives. The ignorant are simply swept away with the flood of hormones, bewildered, confused and dare I say, horney.
It may come as a shock to Kathy Martin, but quite a few parents let their children raise themselves, never imparting words of wisdom, advise or life lessons, let alone a sit-down on the subject of sexuality. You can’t make parents parent. And that really why we need public education. For so many, it’s the closest thing to parenting they will ever get.
To reiterate, sex education courses in public schools provide supplementary health information to kids who might already be getting much of their sex “education” from other kids. To change the status of these classes from “opt out” to “opt in” raises a fence that some of these kids will not be able to surmount, thus assuring that they get 100% of their sex education from another kid, perhaps one with his pants to his ankles.
Today Americans are more likely to wait until nearer their 25th birthday to wed. By this time the hormones have been raging for well over ten years. That’s a long period of abstinence when people are in the prime of their lives. I believe the reality is, in America anyway, that pre-marital sex is here to stay. But we can prevent disease and unwanted pregnancies along the way, and this is what sex-education is about. It’s a health class.
In opposing any kind of sex-ed other than abstinence-only, Kathy Martin seems to make the argument that sex education causes teen sexual behavior. She refuses to acknowledge that the sexual impulse comes along unbidden, like the impulse to eat, or the impulse to sleep. The sexual impulse hits all teens, the educated and the ignorant alike. The only difference is, the educated have the tools and information they need to make wise choices regarding their sex lives. The ignorant are simply swept away with the flood of hormones, bewildered, confused and dare I say, horney.
It may come as a shock to Kathy Martin, but quite a few parents let their children raise themselves, never imparting words of wisdom, advise or life lessons, let alone a sit-down on the subject of sexuality. You can’t make parents parent. And that really why we need public education. For so many, it’s the closest thing to parenting they will ever get.
To reiterate, sex education courses in public schools provide supplementary health information to kids who might already be getting much of their sex “education” from other kids. To change the status of these classes from “opt out” to “opt in” raises a fence that some of these kids will not be able to surmount, thus assuring that they get 100% of their sex education from another kid, perhaps one with his pants to his ankles.
