Oral sex lessons to cut rates of teenage pregnancy

The Observer ^ | Sunday May 9, 2004 | Mark Townsend

[mlmr]

Oral sex lessons to cut rates of teenage pregnancy

Mark Townsend

Sunday May 9, 2004

The Observer

Encouraging schoolchildren to experiment with oral sex could prove the most effective way of curbing teenage pregnancy rates, a government study has found. Pupils under 16 who were taught to consider other forms of 'intimacy' such as oral sex were significantly less likely to engage in full intercourse, it was revealed.

Britain's teenage pregnancy rate is the highest in Europe. In 2002 there were 39,286 teen pregnancies recorded. The government has spent more than £60 million to tackle the problem but so far failed to halt the rise.

A sex education course developed by Exeter University trains teachers to talk to teenagers about 'stopping points' before full sex.

Now an unpublished government-backed report reveals that a trial of the course has been a success. Schoolchildren, particularly girls, who received such training developed a 'more mature' response to sex.

The study by the National Foundation for Educational Research found youngsters were 'less likely to be sexually active' than peers who received traditional forms of sex education, dispelling the fears of family campaigners who believe such methods actually arouse the sexual interest of teenagers.

Now the government will recommend the scheme, called A Pause, to schools throughout England and Wales following the success of the trial in 104 schools where sexual intercourse among 16-year-olds fell by up to 20 per cent, according to Dr John Tripp of the Department of Child Health at the University of Exeter, who helped to design the course.

Teachers who sign up to the course are primed to deal with queries from pupils on all kinds of sexual experience. Those behind the course stress the scheme does not suggest teenagers experiment with oral sex. Instead they say A Pause promotes the message that other forms of physical intimacy are safer than full intercourse.

'It teaches people assertiveness skills and that they should be only as intimate as they feel comfortable with,' said Tripp.

A Department for Education and Skills spokesman said the report's verdict would be made available to all schools. 'All teachers respect peer-reviewed material, and this will help influence their decision,' he said.

[AQGeiger]

This is disgusting. Perish the thought that children be taught the importance of abstinence as a fail-proof method for preventing teenage pregnancy and contraction of STDs.

[shaggy eel]

,,, they'll need an increase in staff at STD clinics. This initiative is a bit like raking water uphill.

[mlmr]

they'll need an increase in staff at STD clinics.

OF COURSE THEY WILL. HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A SYSTEM THAT DOES NOT SELF PERPETUATE?

[aculeus]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1132142/posts

[TexasTransplant]

Have you ever thought of getting a Patent for that Rake?
(On a side note, can I get the phone number of your favorite Niece?)
I like the way you think and you DO have connections, we might be able to do business, the American Dream, We can go far.

[I still care]

Oral gonorrhea:

This is what the left considers acceptable risk for our children. They are bankrupt of ideas.

[mlmr]

Sorry I didn't realize the party had already begun.

[shaggy eel]

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A SYSTEM THAT DOES NOT SELF PERPETUATE?

,,, it's all about designing a crisis wherever you can.

[prophetic]

yukk!!!

[shaggy eel]

We can go far.

,,, I learned at an early age not to complain with my mouth full. It's a competitive edge that's evolved over the years.

[NewRomeTacitus]

There are no words to adequately respond...

How about "Once again life imitates Monty Python"?

[cyborg]

OMG

[Polybius]

"Don't let your daughter leave home without it."

[cyborg]

LOL that's saved me from a whole lot of mess in my younger life.

[KarlInOhio]

Headmaster: What's wrong with a kiss, boy? Hm? Why not start her off with a nice kiss?

[I still care]

And that's the small picture.

[TexasTransplant]

Shaggy
You said she was your Niece, you didn't tell me she was your wet nurse.

Complain later, (about what I don't know)

WOW

[NewRomeTacitus]

If you haven't seen "The Meaning of Life" you've deprived yourself. You'd especially enjoy their take on the Catholic mandate against birth control.

[cyborg]

LOL I can ONLY imagine.

[NewRomeTacitus]

The Galaxy Song by Eric Idle

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go 'round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.