Saturday, August 26, 2006

Again - bans do not work

Here's a story from an Ohio High School where one in seven girls is pregnant. The school has preached abstinence-only. Like any other type of ban, it hasn't worked. Bans do not work. More likely, they have an opposite effect to the desired.
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9 comments:

Oswald Bastable said...

I wonder what some of the ratio's about NZ skools are?

8:02 AM
Anonymous said...

Lindsay why do you buy into that crud?

There was no "abstinence only" sex ed at that school, Timken High, since 2001 and even then it was voluntary.

A really important thing to teach children is self discipline in all areas of life, including their sexuality. But this attracts incredible hostility especially from the left who loath the very concept of people being responsible for their own actions (which is what is abstinence education is trying to reinforce.

Your linked feminist diatribe has focused on a depressed inner city school in a county with a huge rate of teenaged pregnacy to propagandize against teaching children sexual morality and respect for their bodies.


What the hell if it feels good just do it. Someone else will pick up the pieces when it goes wrong.

The ‘irresponsible’ should get blame

Ohio Education Official Urges Return to Abstinence Programs

12:22 PM
Anonymous said...

Good for you for exposing this regressive drivel Lindsay.

Let there be no doubt: “Pro-life” groups are not about maintaining or promoting life. They’re about controlling your sexual choices, including your contraceptive choices.

3:24 PM
Lindsay Mitchell said...

Andrei, You know I am all for personal responsibility - safe sex.
Like it or not, demanding no sex is unrealistic.

3:45 PM
Anonymous said...

This is a topic of some interest to me Lindsay.

It's the intellectual dishonesty that surrounds the issue of abstinence education and virginity pledges that I don't like. I know you've posted on this before and I've commented on this topic before on this blog.

On this post your link is dishonest. The school involved is in a decaying rust belt town, few if any of the children involved have been given abstinence education. I tried to show that with the links on the previous comment.

The story itself is about a year old now and all sorts of hypothesis have been put forward to explain the anomalously high rate of teen pregnacy for that school. As the first link I posted shows though this rate of teen pregnancy is not anomalous for the city that it is in.

The cultural environment and parental expectations of teenagers have more to do with teen pregnancy rates than any educational program would be my guess.

And it is the cultural environment that people like the author of your link seek to manipulate with their distortions.

What I do know is that children who have taken virginity pledges do have a far lower rate of unwanted pregnacies but I suspect that these people were receptive to these ideas to begin with and live in families and communities that are supportive of these ideals.

5:07 PM
Anonymous said...

Andrei out of fairness to Lindsay, I agree preaching abstinence will stop teenage pregnancy, in alot of cases because they've from poor neighbourhoods and have had a tough childhood. I don't disagree with teaching children self-discipline, but it's unrealistic to expect it to make much difference for a child whose got alot of other problems. As Lindsay states teenage pregnancy is higher in lower decile schools, do kids from lower decile schools have less self discipline than higher schools I don't think so less prospects, less self belief maybe.

Gloria

9:09 PM
Anonymous said...

Sorry that was meant to read:
Andrei out of fairness to Lindsay, I agree preaching abstinence will not stop teenage pregnancy, in alot of cases because they've from poor neighbourhoods and have had a tough childhood.

Gloria

6:42 AM
Anonymous said...

There is an old saying you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

You can teach kids abstinence, some will be receptive, some wont, some will lie in between.

You can teach kids how to put condoms on a rubber penis and blather on about STDs until the cows come home. Some kids will be receptive some wont.

Fact of life.

The kids who get pregnant STDs etc haven't listened one way or the other.

The trouble is kids who are receptive to the condom on the rubber penis is the panacea for all the worlds ills might also be chastity message - get my drift.

Now if the chastity message was as ineffective as the gender warriors who created Lindsays link claim there would be no need to lie about it would there? And they have had to resort to lying to make their case.

7:42 PM
Lindsay Mitchell said...

I wonder where the other 600-odd DPB mums were hanging out, Brian? That's how many are registered at the Wainui office. They'd have over a thousand kids between them. I suppose they keep Trevor's local economy ticking over.

2:58 PM

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