Posted on 11/08/2004 6:38:25 PM PST by Ahriman
Presidential politics isn't the only realm where the Texas way prevails. As a heavyweight in the $4.3 billion textbook market, the state puts its stamp on materials bound for many of the nation's classrooms. On Friday, two messages came through loud and clear as the State Board of Education voted on a new list of approved health books: That abstinence should be taught without any textbook discussion of contraception. And that the books should be explicit about marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Texas is one of 21 states with a centralized process to review textbooks, but it's the second-biggest market. "If [interest] groups can be successful in California and Texas in getting some restrictions as to what content is covered, that will have a major influence on textbooks that are sold nationally," says Martha McCarthy, chancellor's professor of education at Indiana University in Bloomington.
Everything from evolution to multiculturalism has come up for scrutiny in textbook debates over the past century. But the origin of the state-approval process dates even further back to just after the Civil War. Southern states organized to keep out textbooks that they saw as disparaging the Confederacy, so Northern publishers began sending separate books with more palatable references, like "the War for Southern Independence," according to a September report on textbooks by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Washington.
The report criticizes states that dictate what books schools can purchase, saying the practice "entices extremist groups to hijack the curriculum, and papers the land with mediocre instructional materials." Textbook publishing is ripe for reform, it argues, because students spend somewhere between 50 percent and 90 percent of class and homework time focused on textbooks.
In hearings before Friday's vote in Texas, the debate centered on the discussion of abstinence and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in four high school books. Protect Our Kids, a coalition of educators, health experts, parents, and religious leaders, raised concerns that three of the books don't talk about condoms or other contraceptives at all, while one mentions latex condoms briefly.
Instead, all the books teach that abstinence is the only 100 percent effective way to prevent pregnancy or STDs. One offers strategies such as going out in groups, avoiding alcohol and drugs, and getting plenty of rest to avoid having "to make a tough choice when you are tired."
As long as they cover the science/biology part of it. Seems like that's overlooked when politicians get involved.
Why can't they just stick to the science/biology of it all? That's what I think sex-ed should be.
This will work </sarcasm> NOT!
It's actually fun to learn too. If it drives kids toward medicine, even better.
"Abstinence Only" is a misnomer. The AO curriculum tells the truth about condoms and "safe sex". That is what makes left-wing wackos crazy. For some weird reason they don't want kids to hear how risky "safe sex" is.
That's ridiculous.
Science/biology includes contraceptives, STD's, etc. I've never understood the problem with teaching kids a comprehensive sex-ed course at school and leaving it to the parents to handle the moral implications.
Of course, I'm also in favor of handing out free condoms by the barrel-load, so I'm hardly with the conservative mainstream on this issue.
Both sides are disingenuous. I agree with you about handing out free condoms -- but ALSO telling kids the truth about venereal disease. For instance, HPV, or venereal warts, can still be passed along even with the use of a condom. And until science catches up, HPV is a present for life, which, depending on the strain, can cause cervical cancer or painful lifelong tissue scarring. Is it even possible for both sides to be honest? Seems not ... sigh ....
Good news! Abstanence works every time it's tried.
See my experience with Comprehensive Sex Education:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1189749/posts
The fact is, PUBLIC SCHOOLS DO NOT HAVE TO TEACH EVERY DANG THING IN THE WORLD. There are plenty of places PARENTS INCLUDED where kids can learn any message they want, including all kinds of sex education and birth control, but at least I do not have to use my tax money to support Planned Parenthood Delusions with the present Texas law, and I do not have to expose my kids to that baloney or waste their time "sitting out" while other kids are indoctrinated with it.
And in fact, this approach has worked VERY well. I live in the county where we had the HIGHEST teenage pregnancy rate in the state, and it has DRAMATICALLY improved since an aggressive Abstinence Only effort has replaced the old Planned Parenthood "we can't stop them from having sex so let's make it even easier and more tempting" approach. I see this up close and personal every day in my work and I have witnessed the dramatic change here as a result of these new policies and related ones over the last 5 years.
Those saying "This will not work" know nothing about it because it already is working well, but the tone of the comments suggests to me that they are coming from the same worldly mold as the Planned Parenthood zealots who we have finally knocked down in Texas.
Way to go, Texas!
Thank you!
Much obliged.
Teenagers are smarter and more practical and more moral than even teenagers themselves realize. And your generation is the most amazing, great generation, especially resistant at NOT swallowing the baloney fed to it by Madison Avenue techniques. (I think you have developed an immunity to it!) What honestly do you not already know that you need to learn in school about condoms? Kids also need permission to be sane, and motivation to do the right thing, and just plain facts that not everyone has to have sex in high school and very importantly because this really drives the Planned Parenthood people nuts, that even those who have started having sex do not need to continue having it.
Anyway, the approach is a proven success and is superior to other approaches, so anyone who does not want it has other motivations whether they realize it or not.
Re; "free condoms by the barrel-load".
As I told my boys, "They had to come up with the pill because condoms were notoriously fallible and being that germs are a lot smaller than sperms"..
Well, the dice are still loaded.
I could just as easily say many high school students don't want to learn algebra. As a person who is a voice of reason, I ask you, is that reason enough not to teach algebra?
I am a high school student, trust me, I know.
Trust me, I was a high school student once too. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Things haven't changed that much.
AO curriculums attempt to use scare tactics to keep students afraid of sex, and they largely don't work.
Facts are facts. The fact that certain facts scare you doesn't make them irrelevant.
When they could be teaching students how to prevent teen pregnancy and STDs, they lecture on a practice that those who would practice it largely don't need to hear, and those who would not practice it will largely ignore.That is the voice of rationalization.
Of course, AO curriculums are effective for some students, but they aren't effective enough.
What is considered "enough" and who gets to decide when "enough" is enough? "Safe Sex" has been taught for over 30 years now and, if anything, STDs and teen pregnancies have increased rather than decreased. Isn't the fact that "safe sex" has not reduced STDs enough to try another approach?
Just because abstinence is a personal, moral, or religious value held by those who set the curriculum does not give them the right to force it upon the students.
Don't go getting all DemocRAT on us. Nobody is "forcing" anybody to practice abstinence.
Many students at my school do not know how to properly use a condom or other methods of birth control, and, even worse, many still use none, and I believe AO is the wrong policy for teens in America today, because many teens just don't know how to properly protect themselves and their partners.
Rest assured. Even after you and your friends are taught about how to properly use a condom and how to protect yourselves and your partners, many of your friends are still going to use them incorrectly and even the ones who do use them correctly are still taking a chance because 10% of condoms are defective and HIV virons are small enough to pass right through any condom.
And before you ask, I'm male and 16, and I am fully abstain from any and all sexual activities.
Good. Keep it that way until you are married. And do your best to find a girl who has done the same. You will each be giving the other the best wedding present possible. If you know what I mean and I bet you do (nudge, nudge) (wink, wink).
Now go do your algebra homework.
p.s. And start saving money. You will be shocked how fast 25 (no, wait....26) years goes by.
Dang, you're good!
When they could be teaching students how to prevent teen pregnancy and STDs, they lecture on a practice that those who would practice it largely don't need to hear, and those who would not practice it will largely ignore.
That is the voice of rationalization.
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