Florida legislators are encouraging a review of their "abstinence only" sex education programs after a recent survey completed by Florida teens returned some curious results.
According to some of the teens, drinking bleach will prevent an HIV infection, and a dose of Mountain Dew soda will stop pregnancy. Knowledge of condoms and other forms of sexual health appeared to be comparatively lacking.
State officials believe that the myths are spreading due to the lone focus on abstinence, rather than other proven methods which encourage sexual health. A new, more comprehensive Bill has been drawn, and has passed its first committee vote.
that ingesting bleach will not cure or mitigate an HIV infection, nor render you immune to catching it. Bleach is effective at killing the virus, but not once it's been metabolized by an organism.
is one of the reasons why the world has a negative view of America - it's so obviously stupid, and harmful, that people are just shocked that the US legislators don't realise it.
And if it's a religious thing then it's even worse.
I think if you ingested enough bleach, possibly with a vinegar chaser (enough to get the chlorine pumping out) you won't have to worry about HIV anymore.
I drink bleach and mountain dew everyday, no wonder why I am not pregnant (not that I can get but you never know, I saw that movie Junior) nor I have HIV.
Seriously, what kind of people are these? Looking at the number of STDs among the American teens I am not too surprised anymore.
Supposedly the yellow dye in Mountain Dew would lower your sperm count (false). I have no idea where the bleach thing could've come from.
In our High School, since our Sexual Education was thrown out, pregnancies have risen at a ridiculous amount. We have two public middle schools, there are 10 pregnancies in one of the middle schools, 8 in another. For those foreign to our school system, that is populated by (counting back from my age), 11-14 year olds. The youngest is supposedly in sixth grade. Abstinence education doesn't work. Period.
I don't know if they are morons because of their religion, or if they are religious because they are morons. We have a bible belt that seems incapable tolerance of others, has turned the bleeding heart of Jesus into a deragatory remark. The worst thing for them is knowledge. They will fight to the death for their sacred right to be morons and to raise ther many unwanted children to be morons. The U.S. is not all this way it is just that these snake handeling bible thumpers really stand out.
When me and my brother were small children I convinced him to drink some of the strange blue “pop” we found in a plastic bottle. I didn’t even know what bleach was. I remember as he was rushed to hospital I got a real bollocking from my parents.
Turns out I’d just immunised him against HIV. Me thinks I’m owed an apology.
The US says no. The UK gives the morning after pill to 12 year old girls, free condoms to anyone who asks and starts sex education before 10 years of age.
If these two systems are the most ineffective, and so wildly different, surely the conclusion should be that no school based education program or lack there of is relevent?
I don't know how much has changed since I left school 9 years ago, but we didn't get much by means of sex education. In biology they teach you about the reproductive system, but by the age of 11 I'd hope all kids would at least know where babies come from anyway!
Once we got to about 15 they taught us a little bit about contraception and STDs, but considering there were girls getting pregnant at 13 and 14 (although not many in my school) it was a bit late for some!
The problem isn't the schools though, it shouldn't be their responsibility to educate kids about sex, relationships and responsibility. The schools are there to educate kids academically, personal issues should be handled by the parents, who are clearly the ones failing the kids here, not the education system. Parents need to spend time with their kids and talk to them about things like sex and actually listen to what their kids have to say, give them advice and support them. The problem with a lot of people in the UK is that the parents think it's a good idea for their teenage daughter to get pregnant. A child means they can get more benefits, the girl can get herself a council house paid for and not have to work because she has a baby to look after instead. People like that lack ambition and aspiration, they have no interest in getting an education and working for a living, they would rather just sit back and live off other people's taxes.
...sex education in the school was never even relevent to boys in the teenage pregnancies that occured. That's because the males in the relationship were not even in school. It was always the case that some undereducated 20 year old douche bag had somehow convinced a naiive 14 year old to sleep with him and gotten her pregnant. Seriously, I don't remember one instance of teenage pregnancy in our school where the guy was actually of school age.
But I'd like to point out something thats been bugging me for years now. When I was a kid, but still old enough to be part of the modern age, I got caught in this abstinence only garbage.
I am just a little curious, do these people teaching abstinence only realize that when they were younger than us, not our age, but younger, they were having unprotected sex. Lets take the baby boomers for example. These people came about after the war and went off like rabbits. How old were they, oh about 18.
Now flash forward 50 years. Now were the new generation, and not only are we being told don't have sex, but wait until your ready to get married... have a kid... Yeah ok, but in our society having a kid isn't looked high upon until your what... 25, 30?! It's easy for them to say don't have sex when they no longer have nearly the drive, or the enthusiasm for it that we do. I propose that many of screw-ups in this world stem directly from the sexual dysfunction coming from denying our own instincts so fervently.
stems from an old fashioned ultra-hyper-conservative view of the world. Basically the view point is that you should never engage in sex unless it is for procreation and that any sexual intercourse that takes place outside of this is "Evil".
Since these type of old men with these equally old ideas are unfortunately our leaders, we are stuck with their idea of morality. It is essentially forced, via our education system onto the population.
I would surmise that at least 80%+ of the public does not agree with this type of thinking. Yet at the same time the public has time and time again voted for the same leaders that rape us of our rights and freedoms and also economically.
If the US voting public actually voted for people that had brains in their headers rather than the hamster/wheel brained politicians we have today. I am sure our educational system would be teaching actual logical ideas instead of ideas based on biblical moral standard that are 2000+ years out of date.
if they are WILLING to drink the bleach ... should'nt we just award them with a postumos Darwin award instead of convincing them to stop?
and not sure who said it ... but YES it IS the parents responsibility ... school's are there to educate, parents/guardians are there to nurture, and distill the education into something useable.
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/ A guidance booket from the Department for Education and Employment, issued to teachers and school governors in July 2000 as good practice
Page 11
Primary schools 1.12 The department recommends all primary schools should have a sex and relationship education programme
Does anyone really think these kids answered honestly? I went through public schools in Florida... I had Health in the 5th grade...7th grade and 10th grade.. And not once has a teacher ever told me that abstinence is the way.
I remember my health class in 9th grade was all about abstinence only education. We briefly covered condoms on one day. Basically for about one day of the entire course we covered all types of contraception. The rest of the course we covered abstinence. We were not allowed to even speak about other forms of sex.
One girl once mentioned that oral sex would not result in pregnancy and received a detention for it. I remember that pretty well because the teacher got all POed and said she would give the girl who said it ISS(In School Suspension) if she mentioned it again.
The school I was at was very much for only regular sex but at every second pushed abstinence only.
I found that my health class was a complete waste of time.
Most people seem to learn about sex from friends, way before sex-ed and their friends seem to cover a lot more information than anything the schools ever present...
"The US says no. The UK gives the morning after pill to 12 year old girls, free condoms to anyone who asks and starts sex education before 10 years of age."
...and an opt-out clause: http://en.wikipedia.org/ "In England and Wales, sex education is not compulsory in schools as parents can refuse to let their children take part in the lessons. The curriculum focuses on the reproductive system, fetal development, and the physical and emotional changes of adolescence, while information about contraception and safe sex is discretionary. Britain has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Europe and sex education is a heated issue in government and media reports. In a 2000 study by the University of Brighton, many 14 to 15 year olds reported disappointment with the content of sex education lessons and felt that lack of confidentiality prevents teenagers from asking teachers about contraception."
I don't see anything there about the sexually-liberated policies you mention as commonplace, any sources to evidence that? What a govenrment guidebook suggests may be far different from the real-world application.
"If these two systems are the most ineffective, and so wildly different, surely the conclusion should be that no school based education program or lack there of is relevent?"
If your summary were accurate, maybe, and only if kids lived in a bubble of schooling. They don't, so such a conclusion is hasty, at best.
It's hard to remember that sometimes - that not all Americans are like that. Most of the news that gets to us is 'look at all this terrible stuff in the US'.
Of course we see good stuff too, but it doesn't help much given your government is part of the rubbish. They're supposed to represent you, and people tend to take their impressions from them.
Nice to know there are good people over there too :-)
"Primary schools 1.12 The department recommends all primary schools should have a sex and relationship education programme"
When was this meant to have been introduced? In primary school, the nearest we got to sex education was on one day, these women came in and took all of the girls to a room where they told us about periods and what would happen to us when we hit puberty. This was when we were 10/11 years old and some of the girls were already starting to grow breasts, a couple had started their periods too.
I think the boys had a similar thing where some guys told them about what happens to boys during puberty.
Nothing was mentioned about sex, only that once you started your period you were physically capable of conceiving a child.
By this time, I don't think there was a single kid in my class who didn't know what sex was. I mean, nobody was actually doing it, but we all knew what it was.
By the age of about 12 most girls were reading "Just 17" magazine, which was full of articles about sex and relationships as well as some pretty graphic problem pages! Most boys were reading mags like FHM, although there more more articles about interesting stuff and less pictures of semi-naked women in it those days, it was still a men's magazine rather than something aimed at kids.
Sex education really should be up to the parents, but most people feel awkward and embarrassed discussing stuff with their kids and the kids feel embarrassed asking their parents about things like sex and contraception.
"The US has the highest rates of teenage pregnancy, 52/1000 The UK comes second with 30/1000"
I'd say that makes abstinence look worse, considering the number one country emphasizes abstinence, and has nearly double the amount of teenage pregnancies as the number two country.
even in canada its a joke, in the US its a utter laughing stalk, in canada it starts in middle school; grade 5-8, basic contraception is taught though emphansizing abstinance...
for STD's and whatnot, its a massive scare tactic, to enforce the abstinance concept more than likely.
all in all i agree with sam kinison about sex ed... all guys gets for sex-ed is dick.
although spontaneous erection was an amusing topic. it can pop up just like *teacher hits the desk* that.
personally schools might as well stop teaching it entirely. they are obviously inept... not that mom and dad are any better a source of information...
sadly this is one topics that your friends are the best teachers the kids today have, sadly not so dissimiliar to drug education which is also non existant in north america (due to gross amounts of misinformation)... and when it come to actual sex-ed; porn...lol
...and comments, there isn't enough room to write them all...so i'll just summarize: /rant 1. Floriduh-n/k, really, color me surprised, 2. Let them continue, give them all a darwin award, and let them remove themselves from the gene pool, 3. Abstinence only sex education doesn't work because no one can hear with raging hormones in their ears, 4. We in America have gotten so prudish about sex, we can't talk about it with our children, which is where it should start, it should NOT be left to the schools to teach, 5. Instead of teaching just abstinence, or condoms, or what have you...how 'bout teaching these kids what it takes to raise a child...like money for food, diapers, doctors, etc...not to mention babysitters if you think you're going to have any kind of nightlife after children...daycare, toys, omg there are sooooooo many things...don't just stop with "or you're going to get pregnant"...continue with what that really MEANS! /rant
That's a good point you raised about kids not being able to comprehend how much having a kid will change their lives.
So yeah, you get welfare, but you're not going to get a great deal considering you have to look after yourself and a child.
The kid will take up all of your time, money and energy. You won't be able to go out much unless your parents agree to babysit, since babysitting costs a lot and once you've paid the babysitter, you can't afford to go out anyway! Add to this the fact that the kid will be dependent on you until they are at least 18, so that's your youth gone without even getting a chance to really live.
Kids go out and get pregnant at 16 and don't think about the fact that they've pretty much written their life off until they are at least 35, because all of their money and time will be taken up by their child that they had simply because they were too stupid to think about contraception or the impact that getting pregnant would really have on their lives.
