Comment & Debate
McKay Stangler. “Editorial: Abstinence failing as sex education tool”. The Daily Kansan. 20 Apr. 2007 – In the face of increasing teenage sexual activity, the answer is not to retreat into a shell of blind ignorance of the world around us. Uncomfortable though it may make us, educators must acknowledge and address practical solutions.
The roads of history are littered with institutions and organizations that refused to adapt to changing realities — sex education is too integral to children’s health to become one of those institutions.
“Let’s Talk About Sex Just saying no is not enough.” Washington Post. 18 Apr. 2007 – What’s needed are sex education programs that deal with the real world — programs that encourage teenagers to delay having sex until they are ready to handle the risk and responsibility and that encourage sexually active youths to use contraception. Such programs do exist.
One American schoolteacher said in 1994 to an Atlantic reporter, “How can I teach abstinence when there are three pregnant girls sitting in my eighth-grade class?”[1]