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Question of the Week 17

My school hands out condoms. If kids are going to have sex, isn't it important for them to practice safe sex?

Breakpoint Parents Guide 1

The answer begins with a clear statement: Handing out condoms in school, especially without any counseling and without parents consent, gives students no inducement to do any serious thinking about sexual activity and its risks.

I agree with that statement, that counseling is required and parents must be informed.

The answer continues with: Studies show that teens do care what their parents think. They are receptive to moral guidance. Sex-education programs that teach morality have been well received.

I agree with that statement as well. Teenagers are in the transitional stage to adulthood and the continued development of proper moral values is very important, building on the foundation begun in childhood.

The BreakPoint answer concludes with: You can talk to your teenagers about how unwise (and morally wrong) it is to have sex before marriage. You can point out that free condom distribution in the schools is misguided and endorses a point of view that can only make worse the problems these programs propose to remedy.

Unfortunately I am not aware of any study that has confirmed that abstinence education is productive. These programs rely on fear to seek the desired goal of no sex among teenagers and the teenagers are usually smart enough to see through the slanted misrepresentations.

Whether anyone likes it or not, sexual intimacy is more prominent in our culture than ever before. This emotional bond that accompanies the physical act is important to the health of a marriage.

The problem is that teenagers are too young to make the legal commitment to marriage and they are often too immature for the emotional commitment to another. However their hormones are raging and they are bombarded with sexual innuendoes from many media.

Society must educate its youth about the dangers of unprotected sex as well as the inherent responsibilities with dealing with other human beings. Sex is a physical act that requires the conscious decision by both to participate - so either partner can always say 'no' at any time. In addition to sex being a way for two people to physically share their love for one another, it can also result in a number of serious consequences: pregnancy and a variety of sexually transmitted diseases. These consequences are why sex education is so important for our youth. Moral values are also significant because each person must recognize the inherent rights of everyone else, that no person can ever harm or steal from another.

If youth are properly educated they will be able to deal with the cultural pressures from the media. Society must recognize that in any group of teenagers, some will be more mature than others. The youth need the education to develop the coping skills for these pressures. I would expect that any school that intends to distribute condoms to its students will have the proper sex education programs already in place before any condoms are available to that program's graduates.

The original link in case the article ever returns to Breakpoint:

(http://www.pfm.org/Content/ContentGroups/BreakPoint/Columns/ Worldview_for_Parents/200311/Question_of_the_Week17.htm)


created - Dec. 2004
last change - 12/31/2004
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