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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Poet who wrote (2600)	1/23/2001 6:54:57 PM
From: Bill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Sheesh, only took you two days to blurt that response to my question out. Wasn't so hard now, was it?

To: Poet who wrote (2600)	1/23/2001 7:11:25 PM
From: hobo	Respond to of 82486

btw... did you notice that you got a "grub" ? some interesting comparisons between the USA and Brazil re: Sex education. Abortion Family Planning Contraceptive use Health Rape Sterilization aborto.com a sample: _________________ "Abstinence-Only" Curricula An organized national movement has arisen to promote the mandatory usage of "abstinence-only" curricula in place of comprehensive, accurate, and non-sectarian sexuality education curricula. Some of the most well known "abstinence-only" curricula are: Sex Respect; Facing Reality; Me, My World, My Future; Sexuality, Commitment and Family; Family Accountability Communicating Teen Sexuality; and Responsible Sexual Values Program. Voltar ao Topo The ACLU opposes the mandatory use of "abstinence-only" curricula in public schools because these curricula infringe upon constitutional freedoms. The curricula are laden with religious prescriptions for proper behavior and values, a violation of the First Amendment's guarantee that public institutions will not impose a state religion. Sex Respect, for example, uses religious publications as its reference sources. Employing "nature" as a synonym for "God," this curriculum advises students that "nature is making some kind of a comment on sexual behavior through the AIDS and herpes epidemics." It also provides a highly moralistic condemnation of abortion, urging a teenager confronting an unplanned pregnancy not to "get an abortion to kill the baby." These curricula infringe upon constitutional rights of free expression because they censor essential information about human sexuality and reproduction. They often discuss contraceptives only in terms of failure rates, which may be grossly exaggerated. Family Accountability Communicating Teen Sexuality reports a 9-18% failure rate for oral contraceptives, whereas studies place the actual failure rate for first-year users under 22 years old at 4.7%. The "abstinence-only" curricula also conflict with Fourteenth Amendment protections against discrimination. Their content reflects bias on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, marital status, race, and class. Me, My World, My Future, for instance, advises that "age, religious affiliation, economic background, educational background or aspirations, ethnic background, [and] peer group" are important criteria in selecting a date. Restrictive "Stress Abstinence" Legislation In conjunction with the spread of "abstinence-only" curricula, many state legislators have sponsored bills that require schools to "stress abstinence" in their sexuality education courses. Because abstinence from sexual activity is the only 100% foolproof way of avoiding pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease, comprehensive sexuality education programs appropriately stress abstinence. All instruction about alternative preventive measures begins from the premise that abstinence is the best prevention. However, some of the new proposals seek to stress abstinence to the exclusion of all other information. Some even seek to impose a "word-count and stopwatch" approach, which would specify how much time must be devoted to abstinence in every class session. This attempt to micro-manage the classroom is counterproductive because it crowds out other needed information and stops genuine education from taking place. Teachers cannot truly educate if they are given a script to read and told that they cannot deviate from it to discuss students' questions. Such legislation or mandates also require school districts to incur heavy costs in replacing curricular materials already in use, draining schools of scarce financial resources.