Sex Ed

Ted Strickland has announced that he will be cutting abstinence only sex education as part of his budget.

As a libertarian, I have no qualms about cutting anything in education. Teachers have enough problems teaching the three r's, I wouldn't be adding the additional burden of teaching social health issues on them, especially when it's such a personal subject for so many.

However, I do find the hypocrisy for liberals on this issue amazing. Liberals are out front demanding that the public education system teach abstinence from cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, dangerous driving, trans fats, soft drinks, etc. but not sex.

Take this quiz, what are the health consequences of smoking?... potential for emphysema, cancer, cardio-vascular disease, yellow teeth.

Now replace those health costs with the potential for HIV/AIDS, HPV, Hepatitis, Syphilis, Gonorrhea, or unwanted preganices? That's not even counting the mental health costs of ill advised abortions, wrecked relationships, etc.

Now the question..... would you be more or less interested in teaching abstinence from smoking if these were the potential health consequences from smoking?

I'm not naive, kids are going to do things we tell them not to do. Hell, I had more than my share of underage beers and a few joints along the way but that doesn't mean that we can't be straight with kids about how sex can have injurious consequences.

My Mother had a saying that always stuck with me "If you think you're mature enough to have sex, then you're mature enough to be a father and raise a family and it won't be in this house." That went right along with "If you're mature enough to drink and drive, you're mature enough to figure out how to get out of jail because I won't be doing it."

The point being, we don't teach our youth that with mature freedoms come mature responsibilities. Actually, more than half the adult population hasn't even figured it out yet.

It occurs to me that the reason so many people don't want children taught sexual abstinence is because they don't want to model it. It's just too cool to go bareback with a stranger.