I remember vividly that same slideshow in junior high. It was quite disturbing to see the girls laughing at each picture and the guys looking like they’re going to puke.

I was re-introduced to this slide show last year when I substitute taught a high school health class. It’s three times worse than the one I saw before and the discussion is much more open (i.e. graphic). It amazes me that a kid would come out of that having any inclination to be sexually active without seeing their partner’s medical records. (which they tell them to always do beforehand but who really would? I can’t thing of a more inviting turn on than to insist my girlfriend prove to me she isn’t a diseased whore!)

Fregramis,
I totally think we should link CO2 emissions with premarital sex, even if the science doesn’t back it up. It will at least make the debate interesting again, right?

Jack,
I’m all for raising a standard as well. I just don’t know if abstinence-only education is the best way to go about it.

jjohnsen, Saraphine, Meg, Cheryl,
Very good thoughts all, most of which I completely agree.

Teaching kids how to have sex without teaching them rules of conduct is like teaching a kid how to use a gun without teaching them gun safety. It is stupid, risky and downright dangerous.

There are basic things everyone can agree on, religious or atheist, when it comes to sex (e.g., there are risks associated with the activity, certain types of behaviors associated with it are self-destructive, there are criminal activities associated with it, relationships built primarily on it are going to fail, people want to manipulate you with it or for it for their personal gain or satisfaction, etc.). These are not matters of moral debate, they are the present reality we face and can be addressed dispassionately as a matter of behaviors people engage in. And we can, as a society discuss them in a straightforward manner that does necessarily engender public/social/religious strife over content. But, people dont want to. It is not a matter of cannot, it is a matter of will not.

burning with Hillary

That would be a great name for a post-punk band. Their debut album would be “It Breaks a Village”.

Instant gratification is the disease…sexual activity is only one (yet very serious) symptom. Under public pressure, McDonalds got rid of the Super Size campaign. Hurrah! Gore demands we cut back on greenhouse gasses or our grandkids will drown. Here Here! You simply imply maybe teenagers ought to cut back on sex consumption. Gasps of incredulity. The laughter ensues with tomatoes flying.

I wonder if attitudes would change if we could link massive carbon dioxide emissions or a risk of heart disease to sexual acitivity before marriage?

IMO, one of the terrible negatives of “free-love” is that it promulgates the doctrine that desires, wants, passions, urges, or what-have-you, are to be easily gratified — as if such gratification were an intrinsic right of being alive and human — that no one can tell us what the hell to do.

This plays right into the depression question–

Anything that works upon the psyche in such a way so as to cause one–already in the throes of depression–to feel limit in the expression of one’s “true self” will exacerbate the problem. And certainly, there is nothing like sex (for most) which causes one to feel liberated in the expression of one’s “true” feelings.

The problem with using fear, is sex before marriage isn’t the boogeyman we treat it as. We may want to believe teenagers aren’t ready for it and it will ruin their lives, but the truth is there are teenagers that handle it just fine. It’s morally wrong, that should be enough to help our children understand they shouldn’t be doing it.

I had a lot of students in my women’s studies class who have come through the abstinence-only program in our state who have *a lot* of bad things to say about their experiences with it (and it wasn’t just because they didn’t want to be taught morality in school).

Ha. ha. Very funny.

You guys must not have seen the same slide-show I saw in my middle school health class. It was basically a guided tour of the wonderful world of STD’s.