According to a report recently released by the Sexuality Information and
Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS), the Bush administration is funding three
sex education programs that provide misinformation and foster fear and
confusion. The three curriculums SIECUS reviewed are "Passion and Principles,"
"Worth the Wait," and "Navigator." Since President Bush took office these three
programs have received $4 million in federal funding. The programs are presently
being taught in public high schools in more than 12 states.
All three of the programs promote abstinence until marriage and exclude any
meaningful discussion of safer sex. As SIECUS notes in their report, the
curriculums argue against the use of condoms, promote fear and guilt in
adolescents, and contain blatant religious messages. In the last five years the
Bush administration has channeled more than $600 million dollars into
abstinence-until-marriage sex education programs. Yet no scientific study has
demonstrated that curriculums that only promote abstinence curtail teenage sex.
These sex education programs all rely on messages of fear and guilt. The
curriculums are predicated on the assumption that adolescents can be scared into
refraining from sex, rather than making educated decisions. The Passion and
Principles program tells students that if they contract AIDS, "You're heading to
the grave. No Cure." It also warns, "A physical downward spiral happens once one
starts engaging in sexual activities." The Worth the Wait curriculum cautions
students that sex is an uncontrollable force of nature, in that, "First, you
start kissing and then hands start roaming and then, oops! Sex just kind of
happens."
The Navigator program asks students to contemplate possible consequences of
having sex before marriage. It then suggests possibilities including AIDS,
cervical cancer, depression, loneliness, stress, worry, having a bad reputation,
and loosing friends. As SEICUS points out, all of these programs are designed to
frighten students into avoiding sex. And the curriculums are condescending in
that they depict adolescents who engage in sexual activity as lacking
self-control and being irresponsible. Given that recent studies indicate that
almost half of all high school students have engaged in sexual intercourse, sex
education programs should provide information on both abstinence and safer sex.
The three programs contain unambiguous religious messages, despite the fact that
they are used in public schools. Passion and Principles encourages teachers to
".teach the students that sex is the glue that ultimately links them to someone
for the rest of their lives within a biblical marriage relationship." Even more
brazenly, this curriculum quotes the New Testament book of Matthew, chapter six,
verse 22: "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good your whole
body will be full of light." This biblical verse references a segment in Passion
and Principles on pornography that advises, "Pornography, like sin, promises to
please me and serve me BUT its only desire is to enslave and dominate."
These curriculums take a dim view of the use of condoms and offer misleading and
inaccurate medical information. Passion and Principles warns students that,
"Condoms provide little or no protection [from Chlamydia] due to skin to skin
transmittal." It also advises, "Nearly 1 in 3 will contract AIDS from infected
partners with 100% condom use." However, countless scientific studies have
documented that when condoms are used accurately they can reduce the spread of
Chlamydia and prevent HIV transmission, even from an infected partner.
Worth the Wait tells adolescents, "Condoms can never protect someone from the
emotional problems that can result from multiple sexual partners and premature
sexual activity." The Navigator curriculum presents a fictitious teenage female
who, while engaged in sexual intercourse, realizes ".that a condom wasn't going
to do anything to blunt the emotional hurt she was experiencing." All of the
programs operate on the false assumption that if students can be convinced that
condoms do not work they will simply decide not to have sex. In reality, it is
equally likely that adolescents will engage in sexual activity and simply not
use condoms, since they have been told that they are not effective.
The worst of the programs is Worth the Wait. It asks students to sign a pledge
promising to abstain from sexual activity until marriage, ".as this is the only
proven way to protect myself from out-out-wedlock pregnancy and STDs." However,
in 2001 the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development released a
comprehensive study of almost 100,000 teenagers who had taken a virginity
pledge. The study determined that after 18 months most broke the pledge and
engaged in sexual intercourse, and since they didn't plan on doing so, a
majority did not use contraception. Clearly, encouraging teenagers to pledge to
abstain from sex until marriage puts them at an increased risk of contracting
sexually transmitted diseases.
These supposed sex education programs pose a number of significant issues. The
Bush administration is violating the separation of church and state, as
guaranteed by the First Amendment, by spending federal tax dollars on the
programs. And the curriculums provide false and misleading information to many
high school students. A competent sex education program furnishes adolescents
with factual, unbiased information and encourages them to make smart choices.
These programs do neither.
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Gene C. Gerard taught American history at a small college in suburban Dallas, and is a contributing author to the forthcoming book “Americans at War,” to be published by Greenwood Press. His previous articles have appeared in Political Affairs Magazine, Dissident Voice, The Free Press, OrbStandard, Intervention Magazine, The Modern Tribune, and The Palestine Chronicle
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