One of the illusions about comprehensive sex education is that it is, well, a comprehensive treatment of the science of human sexuality. Dr. Miriam Grossman, who has upfront and personal knowledge of the psychological and physiological challenges of sexually involved collegians from her years as a campus psychiatrist at UCLA, does more than beg to differ with the reigning orthodoxy. She shows the difference between good science and contemporary sex education in her new book You’re Teaching My Children What? She’ll summarize her conclusions at a Heritage Foundation lecture today at noon.
Grossman’s experience with the inexperience, in terms of actual medical understanding, of “experienced” college coeds prompted her to delve into the web sites of the leading comprehensive sex educators, from Planned Parenthood and SIECUS (the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States) to Advocates for Youth and Columbia University’s Go Ask Alice. What she did not find there is as interesting as what she found. Instead of accurate treatment of such issues as condom effectiveness and the high health risk of particular sexual practices, the sites are replete with exhortations to adolescents to ‘explore” their sexuality – ideology rather than information.
Perhaps most compelling is the disparate impact Dr. Grossman documents for girls and women from today’s “hook-up” culture. The topics range from the heightened cellular-level susceptibility of adolescent girls and younger women to sexually transmitted infections and diseases, to the biochemical ingenuity of the expanded range of viruses and bacteria today’s supercharged Petri Dishes of behavior have nurtured, to the rapidly bending fertility curve that many 20-somethings have been schooled to believe does not exist. Grossman does not shy away from either the medical realities or the moral implications, but her primary message is to the sexual messengers: tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
It’s a message that young people, the subjects of a massive national experiment in sexual liberation, urgently need to hear. Even more, it’s a messageSe that the cultural mangers of that experiment need to heed.
Our entire culture is being transformed from it's foundation upward – and it is NOT a good change! Parents take note, be informed and protect your children from this destructive ideology. God have mercy on America.
We REALLY need to have teens, whose hormones are ALREADY raging, "explore their sexuality".
We were all young. You cannot stop sex.
It is a value system.
What we CAN DO is be honest about unintended consequences. Visuals are more effective than lectures.
Show kids what sexually transmitted diseases LOOK LIKE in their advanced stages. Tell them and show them the damage to internal organs.
Show them that some people DO DIE.
Scared Straight? It won't work for all but I'd bet it will help.
As a professional sexual health educator and curriculum specialist (www.sexloveintelligence.com), I feel the need to comment on Dr. Miriam Grossman's book.
Dr. Grossman is off on many of her points against sex education and what it is about. She see's it as a danger to young people! Comprehensive Sex Education is deeply needed in our sex-saturated world – many educators, schools, parents, and communities are doing their best to provide what is a critical aspect of health education to their students and children.
If you choose to read Miriam Grossman's work, please also ensure you take the time to review amazing resources like: http://www.advocatesforyouth.org; http://www.sexualityandu.org; http://www.optionsforsexualhealth.org
just to name a few
Sincerely,
Julia M. Saunders, M.Ed.
Vancouver, BC, Canada
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