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May 28,
2004
A basket of condoms
sits on the counter in many of our nation’s high schools. Down the
hall, educators are busy teaching students how to put condoms on the
finger of their partner and assigning them homework to shop with their
friends for condoms. “If your parents would object,” they are told,
“don’t tell them.”
Abstinence is
mentioned. It’s a choice. Then students are told by their teacher,
“When you are mature enough to have sex, this is how you do it.” And
she hands them a condom.
COMPREHENSIVE sex
education is a modern effort to “help” our children learn about sex.
Yet, as we pour more condoms into the basket, and give students an “A”
in condom shopping, there is no clinical evidence to prove the
effectiveness of condoms in preventing syphilis, Chlamydia, HPV, or
genital herpes. For teens, condoms have a nearly 20% failure rate in
preventing pregnancy.
While parents are
worried, the “professionals” pull out roomfuls of research that
insists our kids need to have COMPREHENSIVE sex education. And how
could research ever be wrong?
Sometimes it helps
to take ten steps backwards and look at things through new glasses in
order to see the obvious. What if we were talking about cigarettes
instead of sex?
COMPREHENSIVE
Tobacco Education - What If?
Imagine…somewhere
in the hallowed halls of governmental programs…
Sarah stared at the
reports on her desk. A major government study had just concluded that
kids are still smoking.
Sarah knew the
truth of it on a personal level. Her son Tony complained to her about
the bathrooms at his junior high. He hated to use them because they
were a hideout for the kids who smoked.
Maybe this was her
chance. She had been given the special assignment to draft a
Comprehensive Tobacco Safety program. She could make a
difference for the teens in
America.
Logistics suggested
the perfect place to reach all teens would be in the schools, a
school-based comprehensive program. Thinking of the
kids at Tony's school, Sarah knew no matter what she did, no matter
what she said, some kids were going to smoke. Struck by this insight,
she turned to the computer and began writing.
"While we know the
healthiest choice for teens is to abstain from smoking,
we are taking a reality-based approach. Some kids will
insist on smoking, no matter what we say. In order to gain their
attention and reinforce their self-esteem, we will
suggest that some people choose abstinence. Then we
will provide lessons for this target group of teen
smokers.
"A one-week series
of lessons for every student will focus on safe
smoking, showing that cigarettes with filters will
reduce the risk of lung cancer. Because many students and
their parents smoke, we won't offend anyone by declaring smoking
'wrong' or 'bad.' We will simply label it a choice. We
won't tell teens what to do. As a values-neutral
program, we will suggest that mature people, if
they choose to smoke, will make sure to smoke safely.
To this end, we will invite teens to participate in focus groups
advising us on the best brands of filtered cigarettes and smokeless
tobacco to put in the school's guidance office."
Sarah sat back and
closed her eyes. In the quiet, as the clock softly chimed, her eyes
popped open in a moment of divine inspiration. She turned back to the
computer. "Government funding will pay tobacco
companies to develop and teach this Safe Smoking
program!"
With the finished
proposal in hand, she walked into her Director's office. "Here," she
said, plopping the folder down. "It's a comprehensive plan to teach
our children about tobacco. What do you think?"
Copyright © 2004 Jane Jimenez
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April 16, 2004
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