TN Passed Gateway To Sex Law

[keeperrox]

Except let me assure you to sex Ed is totally, totally fucked. For example the 6th grade curriiculum in my son's district (one of the largest in tn) has a game where they throw a paper ball around and rip off a piece of paper and at the end they find out they all have HIV. Because a game that effectively simulates an orgy between a teacher, and 6th graders make sense.

In your son's district, I have no doubt that what you say is true. However, it's not like that around the country, and it shouldn't have to be. Schools across the nation have allowed community members to wield their power to push inappropriate agendas on students. I blame the communities who elect school boards that support those agendas, not the teachers.

[treemom]

In your son's district, I have no doubt that what you say is true. However, it's not like that around the country, and it shouldn't have to be. Schools across the nation have allowed community members to wield their power to push inappropriate agendas on students. I blame the communities who elect school boards that support those agendas, not the teachers.

Sorry I want clear, I live in Tennessee which is what we are discussing. It s state law, not school board. This is the just the facts abstinence only lessons we get in Tennessee.

[Witsec7]

Lets take this all down to basics, breathing is a gateway to sex.

[doggie]

Planned parent hood is having trouble telling exactly what this law is about. seems it is pretty unclear to most people.

[PokaDot]

And this is from the same group of people who scream bloody murder that the government is trying to control our lives (when it's something they don't agree with)...

[doggie]

And this is from the same group of people who scream bloody murder that the government is trying to control our lives (when it's something they don't agree with)...

it is only control if you are on the loosing end of the control.

[artmama]

In your son's district, I have no doubt that what you say is true. However, it's not like that around the country, and it shouldn't have to be. Schools across the nation have allowed community members to wield their power to push inappropriate agendas on students. I blame the communities who elect school boards that support those agendas, not the teachers.

Yes, but it IS like that in many, many parts of the country, particularly in the South. Check the demographics for poverty, teen pregnancy, infant and maternal mortality- it is no coincidence that so many of the states that lead the nation in these issues are in the south.

This report contains what I can find as the most current data for teen pregnancy by state. It also gives statistics about abortion rates among teenagers nationwide. I think you will easily see the corollary of birth rates in states that have comprehensive sex education and greater access to birth control and abortion.

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/USTPtrends.pdf

and the bolded could be said the same for those on the opposite side, who don't want any legitimate sex education presented in schools in TN. In a perfect world, the lines of communication between parents and child would be far more open, and further these parents would be equipped with up to date and accurate information to pass along to their children.

However do not live in a perfect world, we live in this one. One of the main objectives for public schooling is to impart knowledge upon, and adequately prepare our youth for life in the real world. I would think that trying to ensure that our children have accurate, shame free education about sexual activity and reproduction, and the risks associated with those choices would be the very definition of trying to prepare them for life in the real world.

Laws like this are doing a tremendous disservice to our youth.

[valsa]

I'm assuming the first part of your rant is supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, but it just blows my mind what some people think the role of a public school educator is. Parents should try talking to their fucking kids, instead, and stop being pissed off when your public school education isn't being presented exactly as they think it should.

Except a lot of parents are ignorant about the facts of life as well. I've unfortunately heard middle aged women with children who don't know how to properly take the pill (or what will decrease its' effectiveness in preventing pregnancy) and a few who've never even experienced an orgasm (from penetrative sex) and didn't know enough about (or are just too embarrassed by) oral sex or clitoral stimulation to talk with their partner about trying that.

[ElphabaGalinda]

Except a lot of parents are ignorant about the facts of life as well. I've unfortunately heard middle aged women with children who don't know how to properly take the pill (or what will decrease its' effectiveness in preventing pregnancy) and a few who've never even experienced an orgasm (from penetrative sex) and didn't know enough about (or are just too embarrassed by) oral sex or clitoral stimulation to talk with their partner about trying that.

QFT. Parent's should, but a lot of the time they don't, won't or even can't. Kids still need to know all this stuff, and a lot of parents won't teach them. Mine certainly never did. But kids need to know a lot more than "don't have sex", and the places that teach only that seem to me to be more likely to be places where a lot of parents won't teach their children anything else.

*edited for riffles

[holothuroidea]

Abstinence for teenagers is just cruel and stupid. Teens are SUPPOSED to be exploring their newly-mature sexuality. And guess what, they are going to do it whether they're "allowed" to or not. Nature finds a way.

The only way to prevent teen pregnancy is to give teens the tools they need to prevent it themselves. Body confidence, sexual alternatives to PIV, masturbation (I like the idea someone else said of handing out vibes in school), responsible intercourse, how to identify and avoid a partner who does not respect your boundaries, etc.

ETA: I went to a school that did teach us how to use condoms. They also were available for free at the nurse's office. All of my sexual experiences as a teenager were safe and positive, and I do thank public education for that because I definitely didn't get it from home.

[alba]

"a focus on abstinence is needed because Tennessee has the seventh-highest teen birth rate in the nation and the 11th-highest HIV infection rate in the nation."

Umm, yea, because abstinence-only sex-ed *always* works.

I don't understand this myth that comprehensive sex-ed causes teens to have sex and get pregnant. The number of teens having sex is about the same regardless of the method of "education" (and I use that term loosely). I got decent sex-ed in high school: starting with puberty and menstruation, we worked our way through discussions of sexuality, pregnancy, contraceptives, STIs/protection, and that the decision to have sex is a individual one and no one should be pressured to engage or not engage in sexual activity. There's probably more I'm forgetting, but those are the main things we covered. It didn't exactly make us all go out and have mass-orgies and get pregnant :roll:

[ElphabaGalinda]

"a focus on abstinence is needed because Tennessee has the seventh-highest teen birth rate in the nation and the 11th-highest HIV infection rate in the nation."

Umm, yea, because abstinence-only sex-ed *always* works.

I don't understand this myth that comprehensive sex-ed causes teens to have sex and get pregnant. The number of teens having sex is about the same regardless of the method of "education" (and I use that term loosely). I got decent sex-ed in high school: starting with puberty and menstruation, we worked our way through discussions of sexuality, pregnancy, contraceptives, STIs/protection, and that the decision to have sex is a individual one and no one should be pressured to engage or not engage in sexual activity. There's probably more I'm forgetting, but those are the main things we covered. It didn't exactly make us all go out and have mass-orgies and get pregnant :roll:

The only logic I can see in this is that Tennessee actually wants to have the highest teen birth rate and the highest HIV rate in the nation. Because that's where they're headed with this.

[SpeakNow]

I teach Special Ed in TN, and I had a weird situation. I had a student (high schooler) with severe disabilities who engaged in public masturbation. Obviously, we spent a lot of time teaching him to go to the bathroom when he felt the urge, but we were literally not supposed to tell the other students anything about masturbation. Even just being able to explain that masturbation is natural and should be done privately (aka not in the hallway of teh school) was a big no-no.

[geniebelle6901]

I swear it's like our state legislature is in a race with the Mississippi state legislature to see who can set us back the furthest the fastest.

AL isn't too far behind.

[Vex]

Hey they should come over where I live where both teen pregnancy and HIV are super super rare, see how easily things work when you have availability to and frank discussion about condoms and birth control, as well as high levels of education and low levels of (strict) religion.

Same where I live. You can get free BC and sex ed teaches you how to use a fricking rubber. Magically, instead of having a teen birth rate of 1000000%, we have an extremely, extremely low rate. I am the only person I've ever met who was the result of a teen pregnancy, and I've never known a pregnant teenager. HIV (in America at least, last time I read the stats) is spreading fastest amongst young heteros, so the need to teach protection is greater than ever because there is no magic way of making teens stop wanting to and having sex.

[fluttershies]

In your son's district, I have no doubt that what you say is true. However, it's not like that around the country, and it shouldn't have to be. Schools across the nation have allowed community members to wield their power to push inappropriate agendas on students. I blame the communities who elect school boards that support those agendas, not the teachers.

I'm not sure how saying masturbation is fun and can be an appropriate low-risk sexual activity = pushing an inappropriate agenda. With gay teens especially, promoting mutual masturbation as an alternative to oral or penetrative has been very successful here in the UK. Or is teaching about teh ebil ghey sex also an 'inappropriate agenda' to you?

Also, many parents are ignorant about sex and contraception (especially things like same-sex sexual activity), so how can they teach their children about it? What if those children are growing up in a repressive household? A well-trained teacher could really help a kid in that situation have the right information about sex.

[luckystone]

QFT. Parent's should, but a lot of the time they don't, won't or even can't. Kids still need to know all this stuff, and a lot of parents won't teach them. Mine certainly never did. But kids need to know a lot more than "don't have sex", and the places that teach only that seem to me to be more likely to be places where a lot of parents won't teach their children anything else.

That's my view too. Parents should, but many won't or can't for various reasons. Should those kids (and then their kids/partners/society) suffer as a result? Probably not. It's good to cover it off.

[tankgirl]

I will say my last post was partially tongue in cheek and partly not. I think we need to step back and realise while their are moral beliefs tied into sex, it is also a public health and safety issue these days. We need to get really freaking honest with these kids. They are ignorant on some pretty basic information. What's worse is, that even if some of their parents had a frank, honest talks with their kids, most are only slightly less ignorant then the kids. I mentioned anatomy do you know how many women, not even men, women I have come across, that couldn't tell you where their labia or clitoris are? It is sadly a whole lot of them. Some of these same grown adults still believe many old wives tales, like you can't get pregnant on your period, if you are breastfeeding you can't get pregnant, and some even more ridiculous beliefs you would think only would come from teens. We need to start taking care of this country, we are almost as bad as Africa is regards to this issue. By that I mean, the religious groups are coming in and telling us yes, we know there are terrible diseases and things going round, but talking about condoms is just something we can not allow, so we'll just go over here and pray those sluts, stop spreading their legs and diseases and everything will be swell. It does not work!

Teaching kids about sex, helps kids. When kids are taught early, they tend to be less likely to be molested, teaching them about safe sex, makes them less likely to get diseases, and pregnant. Also kids who are educated about sex, tend to be feel less preasured to have sex, or go beyond their comfort level. Hell, we talk about it all the time here, the wedding nights of fundies and the fears some of the brides and grooms must have. Imagine what the lack of information must do to those "kids" and they don't tend to have to worry about disease or getting pregnant. Education is always better then ignorance, just cause God might get tied to the topic, does not change that at all in my mind.

[samithemage]

About 15 years ago, I remember my "sex ed" class at my high school in Arkansas wasn't quite abstinence only, but abstinence only or you'll get a horrible disease! It was part of our semester long health class and during the sex ed portion we learned that boys have penises and girls have vaginas and periods! Also, that theoretically, you could have sex before marriage, but condoms and the pill with still lead you to become pregnant and have all sorts of nasty diseases. The only safe way to have sex was to get married to another virgin, because then you would know for sure you wouldn't get AIDS. I assume things haven't changed much, since as of 2010 Arkansas was ranked number 3 for teen pregnancy rates.

[Maggie Mae]

We didn't even get the disease training.

We learned the medical stuff - what the various parts were. On boys. And for girls we learned about the parts that are required to make a baby but the labia and clitorus were never mentioned. Masturbation was never mentioned. Menstruation was discussed, and I'm pretty sure there was some insinuation that you can't get pregnant while on your period because I believed that until, like, last week. PIV sex was mentioned, briefly, and then we learned about the Church's position on birth control, and how sex is only supposed to happen when you love someone and are married and if god wills it the semen will meet the egg and penetrate the egg and then we will have a baby. No mention of implantation spotting or anything like that. We did not watch any sort of birthing videos. I'm a smart kid so I did my own research and shared it with my friends. I'm pretty sure most of my friends from jr high think i'm some sort of pervert for reading about sex and telling them about AIDS and condoms, and whatever else I read in 17 magazine.