No more parental control!
No more voluntatism!
No more out-of-wedlock birth!
Do these follow? No. The opposite follows. But that does not stop this guy, who writes for the Huffington Post, the journal that puts the jerk into knee-jerk liberal.
A new report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says one in five births to U.S. teens ages 15-19 is not a first child. The data comes from 365,000 teens who gave birth in 2010 and shows that 67,000 of those were the teen mom’s second child. It’s time we revisit sexual education in America’s schools and make it a part of the curriculum in every middle school and high school.
The delusional thinking is that providing comprehensive sex education in schools is an endorsement of sexual activity. So instead, in the richest country in the world, we are forced to learn about sex on the streets. Here’s objective reality: Whether you like it or not, teenagers are going to have sex. They always have and always will.
According to America’s Center for Disease Control, 47.4 percent of high school students have had sex. And these are only the kids who admit it. . . .
Only 22 states require their public schools to teach sex education, which is an embarrassment for a country that claims to be progressive. . . .
I remember sneaking into a drug store when I was in high school to buy condoms. It was a painful experience because like most Americans, I was programmed in church to be ashamed of my sexual desires. Critical thinking says it’s time to pass legislation that mandates comprehensive sex education in all of our public schools. . . .
Our culture of sexual repression makes America appear naive and immature in relation to many parts of the world. The delusional thinking around sex in America is derived primarily from puritanical dogma that bullies us into believing sex is a sin. . . .
I’m not encouraging teenagers to go out and have sex, but critical thinking says as sure as the sun will rise in the east, teenagers are going to have sex. So rather than fight the inevitable, why not do everything we can to make sure they are having safe sex?
I have a better idea: homeschooling.
I don't know, I thought his argument was actually quite reasonable. Yes, homeschooling is the correct way. Yes, compulsive education is wrong. Yes, taxpayers shouldn't fund it. But young people will have sex and there is nothing anyone can do about it. It's not a crime, no one's property rights are violated. Why not give them the knowledge necessary to do so safely? Put it this way. If I ever have a child, I will make sure he or she is able to make informed decisions about sex. Would you really rather they find out the hard way?
The real problem here is bigger than sex, in my opinion. It's their high time preference. Teach them to defer gratification and not only will they forgo sex, they will also learn to make a whole slew of decisions better – financial, hygiene, diet, etc.
@ Igor – No, the problem is that tax-funded schools can ONLY teach methods, they are not allowed to say anything about values. Yes, some teens will always have sex. But the percentages have increased since sex-ed came into the schools. If you don't think "safe" teen sex is a problem, then you are part of the problem.
Sex education starts when people are babies.
Ever see a 2 yr old hup the arm chair of the couch?
This is the time to explain things, yeah they can understand.
I have raised 5 offspring none have had babies.
They know all about the sexual operation.
But we also taught them that Love is not a gimmie feel good thing.Love is the giving of ones self to another for no reason other than I love you and want what is best for you.
People toss the word Love around too much.
They love ice cream, they love dancing, they love christmss.whatever what ever.
They love sex.
Isn't this the same old sex-ed argument we've been hearing for nearly 50 years? Schools offer more sex-ed classes at younger ages, just like they wanted, and yet STDs and teen pregnancies are still a problem. The solution, obviously, is to mandate MORE of what hasn't worked.
Sure. Makes perfect sense.
I was lucky with my daughter, I told her that if this is an activity she finds that she wanted to engage in, that she better be mature enough to handle the emotions connected with sex. And that stuck with her all through school until college. But she got married in her twenties and had her first child in her middle twenties. I fell that some sex education can be done with hygiene classes. But must think about the more sex is thrown in your face, then the more it will be on your mind!
Its very unfortunate that our teens want to have sex in their ealy age
We learned about reproduction in health classes, part of Phys Ed. this was in the 40's, My mother told me about birds and bees, I told my girls and hubby talked to boys, we preached about morality, we went to Church as a family and we worked, and played as a family. I got married at 18, I had graduated from HS at 16, my girls were 20 and boys older, 2 have been married over 25 years; Sex education starts in the home, teaching to respect their bodies, privacy and most of open conversation, we had house rules and expected them obeyed, failure to do so, meant loss of privledges.
Yeah, not so logical, when you consider that, the more sex-ed they have put in the schools, the more sex obsession it has encouraged. Kids think about it enough when the hormones start flowing. Parents need to take back their responsibility to teach and guide and, until that happens, nothing will improve these dismal statistics. But more to the point, why has it become fashionable for adults who should know better to blatantly defend the position that young people having sex is okay? No one should be doing this unless they are ready to be parents. That's what the whole apparatus is there for. Period.
Doesn't anyone teach their children to avoid SIN anymore? Are all you people really so blase about your own children screwing around with no relationship, commitment, or emotional ties? I feel sorry for your kids and also for you, if you think this jaded attitude is somehow sophisticated and enlightened.
Exactly. It's one thing to teach the *mechanics* of it in health classes—here are the biological minimums, class–but govt schools don't stop there. They attempt to usurp the proper place of the parents and teach the *morality* of it, or, as is more often the case in govt ed, the lack of morality. Or perhaps Amorality would be more correct. Nothing is wrong, so long as "it doesn't hurt anybody", never bothering to tell the kids it can and will hurt them, completely outside of the possibility of pregnancy or STDs. But no, it's hey, kids, let's condomize this banana, and learn about all kinds of other awesomely deviant behaviors. All funded by our tax dollars.
Actually, pearl87, that's completely incorrect. After being taught sex ed, people make much more informed choices and not only does sex decrease, but STDs decrease, pregnancies decrease and abortions decrease. That's the fact of the matter.
I don't care what "message" you devise at the educational propaganda centers, they will follow the example observed in their parents… which is devoid of character and morality.
So what do they have in mind… diving down into the adult sexual perversions already endorsed?
You’re crazy, Mr. Big Guy With the Big Name! It is not inevitable that young people will have sex if they are properly raised with the proper discipline. I never had sex until my twenties. There are millions of others of the Greatest Generation who did not also. We do not need more sex education. All we need is more discipline: more of just saying “No”, and more enforcement, that is, enforcement in a familial atmosphere of love, to make sure it is followed. The species must have procreation to survive, but it doesn’t need the kind of unwanted and profligate procreation that is occurring today. It needs procreation in an atmosphere of love and devotion.
Mr. North is way off base here. There is no law of nature that mandates that teenagers will go out and have sex merely because of a sexual desire to do so. They go out and have sex because they are no longer taught how to handle their sexual desires in a loving family with the necessary discipline to highlight the consequences of flaunting their sexual desires. If they are not taught how to handle their sexual desires in a loving and disciplined way, then they will never learn how to handle life situations and successfully function in society. Love is essential in a sexual relationship, but discipline is just as essential. Profligate tennagers today, thanks to so-called Doctor Benjamin Spock, were raised without the necessary discipline. If Gary North can’t do any better than this, he should hang up his word processor immediately.
I was a teenager in the 50's and I would say that most girls, anyway, did not have sex until they were out of high school.
I know some did but that was not the norm. I was a virgin until the day I got married. Girls back then cared about their bodies and morals. And the girls that were having sex, most times it was with a boy that were more or less going steady with. The girls of today probably have had sex with I would say about 5 boys before they are even out of high school.
We sure live in a messed up world. All you see now is that there is something wrong with you if you aren't having sex. They glorify it without telling you what the probable consequences are. I know someone right now who has 4 kids with 3 different fathers and guess what she is doomed to live in poverty all of her life and she realizes it.
Schools are supposed to be learning centers for children directed by parents, and are no place for special interest indoctrination and group-think dictated by the government or anyone outside of the child’s family. Government Sex Education began in earnest during the spread of Aids but since it promotes safe sex promiscuity, mocks abstinence, disregards morality licentious behavior has skyrocked and so has the spread of sexually transmitted disease, teen pregnancy and suicide. Any wonder why the Government also pushes for abortions. Government sex education is a failure and should be banned! If schools want to teach first aid skills to prevent infection and save lives leave it at that. One statue on the National Monument to the Forefathers at Plymouth, MA is Lady Education. She holds an open Bible, the book of knowledge. She symbolizes the responsibility of parents to train children in the way they should go, using the timeless principles of the Bible applied to all of life in the world. Her support is the wisdom of grandparents who have lived by God’s Word. We need to get back to the Bible and parental control of education. It is strong Christian families that build America.
It might be acceptable if it is honest enough to admit that homosexuality is a sick perverted lifestyle that normal people find unacceptable .
I've got an even better idea. Mandatory sterilization of all children, starting now. You end sex, you end the awful, Godless, Satanic breeding of this miserable, degraded, evil race entirely. That stops the problem in its tracks.
How can you not see the solution? It lies IN EVERY KNIFE!
Nobody seems to have mentioned that God has already given us a way to handle our sexual desires – it's called "marriage". The problem is, we have developed this ridiculously huge emphasis on college and graduate school education so our sons and daughters are delaying marriage and this causes no end of sexual temptation. So let's bring back the trade and vocational schools so our sons can support their wives and children at a younger age, instead of waiting until their late 20s or early 30s. This is a complex, interrelated problem and just saying either "free sex ed!" or "homeschooling!" isn't going to solve it.