Category Archives: Sex Education

Research-Based Realities

June 11 2007

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

America is in love with research.  Numbers grab our attention, statistics drive our decisions.

We collect numbers on everything.  We know from watching him that Magic Johnson is…well…magic on the basketball court.  But we are sure of it if we can chart his free-throw average.  We believe that Elvis was a music legend.  But we are convinced of it when someone lists his top ten hits and reports the sales revenue generated by his empire.

Fueled by computer technology, researchers have relegated nearly every subject today to binary code and statistical analysis.  Not surprisingly, our beliefs about sex, our sexual behavior, and the consequences of both, have been counted, input into computers, and crunched into numbers that have been sorted, scrutinized, analyzed, reported and debated.

Statistics on sex confirm what the ordinary person knows.  Teen sex is a problem.  We see the problem in our daily lives, but numbers and statistics define the problem.

Numbers and statistics also drive the work to cure the problems resulting from teen sex.  Give us a cure, we are told.  But make sure it is research-based.

This demand for research-based education is great news for abstinence educators.  Research gathered over the past forty years supports the truths taught in abstinence classes around our country.  Consider what research has proven:

  • STDs infect people even when condoms are used consistently and correctly.  Of the 25 common STDs today, several viruses and bacterium live on body areas not covered by a condom, including incurable genital herpes.  This helps to explain why one in six people over the age of 12 are infected with genital herpes.
  • Boys and girls are different.  For some unknown reason, of late, that has been in doubt.  But now we have research that confirms the different attitudes men and women have about sex, love and attachment.  We are different.  Truly.
  • Most men and women have personally experienced the power of sex to create a special bond.  But now we have research and science to explain why.  Oxytocin, released in the blood system during sex, creates an attachment between the lovers…whether or not true love exists.
  • Romantic breakups are hard enough for teens, but the emotional consequences of sex for our youth can be devastating.  We have always known that.  But now research has documented the link between teen sex and teen suicide rates.
  • If oxytocin, emotional stability, and freedom from STDs are not enough to justify abstaining from sex until marriage, we have even more research to motivate us.  A wide range of studies prove that married people are having the most sex and the best sex.  And marriage statistically provides the best outcomes for men, women and children…emotionally, physically and economically.
  • Parents have always felt that teens needed direction.  Research now confirms this.  Studies of brain development show that mature, analytical thought processes aren’t developed until the early to mid-twenties for most youth.  Teens need concrete and direction instruction from adults.
  • Research reported by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy tells us “There is some evidence to suggest that one of the reasons behind these trends is that more teens are taking a cautious attitude toward sex.”  Teens are ready to hear constructive education and receive support in maintaining sexual abstinence.

Abstinence education gives young people the truth about the consequences of teen sex…emotional, physical, social, and financial consequences documented by scientific research.

Research documents that young people are receptive to this information and are using it to choose to abstain from sex outside of marriage.  Best of all, even sexually active teens are choosing to return to sexual abstinence as the best path to health and well-being.

Finally, research proves that parents are the most significant factor in teen choices about sex and that parents support sexual abstinence as the best choice for their teens.  Abstinence education is a foundation of support for parents, providing the scientific and medically accurate facts confirming the wisdom abstinence until marriage.

Research-based education?  Abstinence education leads the way in providing the best message for securing the healthiest outcomes for our youth.  And research proves it.

If They Only Knew

June 4, 2007

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

I sit reflecting on a day of rounds in Washington D.C., talking with people who have the power to change what our children learn about sex.  This week, eight meetings with Congressmen and Congresswomen who will vote on funding needed to bring abstinence education to the children we all love.

I have talked with strong supporters of abstinence education.  And with fierce opponents.  In all cases, our talk has been cordial.  I welcome questions and try my best to supply answers, making a list of follow up reports and experts who might answer what I can’t.

Prepared with statistics and testimonials about the positive impact of abstinence education on our youth, I find these fall on the deaf ears of those members of Congress who have been poisoned by rhetoric from Planned Parenthood, NARAL, SIECUS, and the ACLU*. I try my best to convey the truths about abstinence education, but one simple thought is renewed at the end of each appointment…If They Only Knew…

If they only knew, if they sat in abstinence classes taught by the educators I know, if they heard the questions of the students, and the answers that follow, if they knew the hearts of the parents and teachers…if they only knew…there would be no way a conscionable person could deny this education to the children and parents who want it.

If they would sit in a class, hear presentations on the consequences of STDs for a teen…for adults…diseases impacting their lifelong goals and the future marriages and families most of them hope to have…

If they would listen to a lesson on teen pregnancy, the demands it places on everyone involved, the challenges it poses for teens in finishing a high school education, the struggles of a single mother providing for a child the attention and resources that two-parent families have at hand…

If they would participate in classroom activities and discussions where students share their hopes for the future, their dreams for happiness and their plans to make their hopes and dreams a reality…

If they would…then these Congressional policy makers would know why sexual abstinence is the singular message our youth need to hear, a message that points to the path that guarantees that the hopes and dreams of our teens will not be derailed by the consequences of sexual activity.

But they haven’t.  Many of these policy makers haven’t witnessed the realities of the very education they will vote on.  They haven’t seen the eager and thankful reception of abstinence education by teens who know the truth when someone takes the time to present it.

They haven’t…so I invite them.  Please, we would love to have you, our Congressional member, or one of the members of your staff come and visit our classes and see for yourselves.  If you see it, you will know the truth of what is happening in abstinence education, the truth and support given teens in choosing to remain sexually abstinent, securing their healthiest and happiest futures.  Please, we want you to see for yourselves.

There is precious little time for Members of Congress to see the realities of abstinence education before they vote on abstinence funding.  It is painful to think people who oppose abstinence education and vote against it may also be people who have never taken the time to see it in action for themselves.

If they only knew!

Stay the Course

September 26, 2006

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

New reports have been released, and the news is good for teens, their parents and our families.  The teen pregnancy rate in the United States has declined by 36% between 1990 and 2002.

Since 1990, when the teen pregnancy rate peaked at over 115 pregnancies per 1,000 females aged 15-19, the rate today has fallen below 75 pregnancies.  More good news follows.

While many preach the hopelessness of teaching abstinence to sexually active teens, the statistics prove otherwise.  Hopeless?  Among sexually experienced teens, the rate for teen pregnancies declined 28% during this time period.  It is concrete validation of what other research has shown…when teens reflect on their choice to become sexually active, they are more likely than not to regret it.

We have turned the tide in America.  We are on a new course, moving in the direction of healthy teens and a healthy future for our teens.  Yet, much work remains to be done.

Today, still, there are about 750,000 teen pregnancies annually.  The costs are staggering.

Sarah Brown, Director of The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy was in Phoenix this week to present an analysis of those costs.  For Arizonans, teen childbearing cost taxpayers at least $268 million in 2004…or $3,822 per teen birth.

Importantly, most of these costs are associated with negative consequences for the children of teen mothers…our next generation.  High costs for public health care, child welfare, incarceration, and lost tax revenue are all associated with children born to teens.

Add to this economic analysis the well-known costs of teen sex related to sexually transmitted diseases and the emotional and social consequences of being sexually active, and we know there is more work to be done.  The news is good.  It must be better.

When asked by her audience why other countries are more successful than the United States in preventing teen pregnancy, Sara Brown’s answer was straightforward.  In Asian countries where the rates of teen pregnancy are lowest, there is a strong cultural taboo against teens engaging in sex.  Not surprisingly, as these cultures begin to adopt western sexual standards, their teen pregnancy rates are rising.

Ms. Brown also expanded upon the need to restore cultural norms supporting sexual abstinence for teens.  She explained the importance of linking babies with healthy marriages.  The body of research today documents that healthy outcomes for children improve when they are born into families where mothers and fathers work together to raise them.

Can single parents be successful as parents?  Absolutely!  But when we consider society as a whole, we all reap the benefits of encouraging teens to delay sex…and childbearing…until they are ready to commit to a healthy, happy marriage.

Parents and educators are on a positive course correction.  Working together, we are restoring a common sense approach to sex, love, marriage and families…rebuilding a personal and cultural expectation that once was common place.

A lot of work has been done changing the course of behavior for teens regarding sex, but more has yet to be done.  Our message is on track.  Sex for teens is a risky behavior that produces unhealthy outcomes.  Or…said another way…for teens, sexual abstinence until marriage secures the healthiest outcomes for them physically, socially, emotionally and economically.

Our message is on track…our results are on track.  Now, we must stay the course.

 

June 5, 2006 – Kaiser Embraces Abstinence Education?

October 24, 2005 – TEENS AND SEX: How Many? So What?

 See Archives for past editorials.

Political Cures

September 18, 2006

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

There’s nothing like a political year to bring every possible cure out of the woodwork for every social and economic ill that befalls American society.  If America has a problem, there is a politician promising us a political cure to fix it.

Children in America are going to school without breakfast.  So politicians fixed this problem years ago by funding a national breakfast program, a fix that only works, as school nurses can tell you, for the parents who manage to get their children to school early enough to eat before the bell rings.

Children in Arizona today are waiting for taxpayers to vote on funding free pre-kindergarten health screenings for children up to the age of five.  Backers of this ballot initiative “contend that they are only responding to the reality of inadequate parenting.”

A current gubernatorial candidate proposes to fix high dropout rates…with a law extending the dropout age to 18.  This supposedly will fix the problem of aimless young people who lack the education and skills to help them become productive citizens.

At the other end of the spectrum, the same candidate has already put into place full-day kindergartens that keep young children away from home…and their mothers and fathers.   This is supposed to fix the problem of parents who do not have the time, money or interest in teaching their children the basics of learning and living that used to be taught…and learned…at home.

Around the country, mandatory sentencing laws have been passed to hand out stiff penalties to criminals, restoring safe streets and neighborhoods.  But this week in Hamilton County Juvenile Court in Ohio, Judge Thomas Lipps is delaying sentencing of a 15-year-old bank robber.  The “child” was convicted of aggravated robbery with a gun that netted $5000 used to buy drugs and toys for her and her adult companions.

Deliberating over “what is best for society and what is best for her,” Judge Lipps may choose for the “child” either prison time, remanding to the legal guardian, her grandmother, or assignment to a mental-health program.  Each of these options has been carefully crafted by politicians over the years as a “fix” for out-of-control teens.

And when these out-of-control teens graduate to being out-of-control adults, an entire system of prisons and third-strike-you’re-out no-release jail sentences attempt to bring a final solution to the whole mess…

…the whole mess, that is, except for the young children left behind, with fathers and mothers in prison.  Returning full-circle to where we began, these children will receive the dollars raining down from social programs intended to fix the fixes that didn’t work for the parents they don’t have because there’s a hole in the dike.

It might be hopeless except for the dedication of a class of politicians who understand that fixing the problems of society must go deeper than throwing money at the results of the problem.  We must look to the roots of the disease and plant our trees in better soil.

The once common understanding that secure homes are best built on the healthy, caring marriages of mothers and fathers rearing children together to become healthy, productive adults…this understanding is now being reinforced with a wide body of research that should be a wake-up call to politicians and voters alike.

We improve the lives of children when we build a social structure that reinforces healthy marriages.

We improve the lives of children when we teach them that the sex that produces babies belongs inside a healthy marriage where a mother and father are committed to each other and to their family.

We improve the lives of children when they understand that long before teen pregnancy becomes a problem, teen sex is the bigger problem that threatens their health and well-being…physically, socially, emotionally, and financially.

In every way that benefits children, programs and policies that support a restoration of healthy marriages and sexual abstinence for adolescents need to become the measure of a good politician with a plan that will truly make a difference in breaking the cycle of “problems that need fixing.”

Before you vote, be sure to ask your politicians…what problems are you fixing…and how?  If they cannot give enthusiastic support to policies aimed at strengthening marriage and promoting sexual abstinence, this is a sure sign that your hard-earned taxpayer money will end up hanging on the dead branches of a tree with rotting roots.

 

May 14, 2004 – Order in the Courtroom!

April 3, 2005 –  How’s It Working for You?

See Archives for past editorials.

Fear-Based Sex Education

September 4, 2006

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

Much has been said about fear-based sex education in the past few years.  And I finally think I have figured out what they are talking about.

Yes, there is a lot of fear out there in the world of sex education.  It literally leaps off the pages of newspapers as editors willingly print the sound bites fed to them by people who are afraid of abstinence education.  One gigantic fear, built on lots of big, big fears:

  • Fear of admitting to differences between men and women…hormonal, physical, and emotional differences.  Any hint that men and women see sex and relationships from different perspectives is denounced as stereotyping the sexes.
  • Fear about medically accurate information on fetal development.  Any hint that students might think the “blob” inside the womb is a baby…this is denounced as teaching a moral value.
  • Fear about medically accurate information on failure rates of condoms in preventing sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy.  This is denounced as too much information.  Fear-mongers prefer to wrap up all this information into one vague promise called “protected sex.”
  • Fear of typical use rates about the real failure rates of condoms and contraception.  This is denounced is the wrong type of information.  Fear-mongers prefer teaching the laboratory rates of failure which occur when a stainless steel machine wears a condom installed carefully by a dispassionate lab tech under bright lights.
  • Fear of defining sex as absolutely inappropriate for youth.  Instead, fearing to set a line in the sand, these “sexperts” have decided to let children decide for themselves when they are ready for sex: “Are you ready to have sex, dear?  Go ahead and think about it.  You decide.  Don’t ask me.  Are you mature enough?  You are mature enough when you think you are mature enough.  Don’t ask me.”
  • Fear of scrutiny on sex education lessons such as those that promote mutual masturbation, redefined as outercourse (as opposed to intercourse)…fear of parents and medical experts exposing this type of “education” as a violation of sound judgment and medically accurate truths about its high-risk nature.
  • Fear of concrete language which sets unambiguous standards based on unambiguous information about healthy sexual behaviors.  Instead, fearing fear itself, they prefer to hide behind vague, undefined terms such as saf-er-er-er-er sex…and “protected sex”…and the all-important “responsible sex,” terms that children, once again, are left to define for themselves.
  • Fear of letting parents have control of the health and well-being of their own children, these advocates of saf-er-er-er-er sex prefer to hide behind “confidentiality”.  This conveniently allows them to provide STD testing and abortions to students, without the knowledge of parents, never having to deal truthfully with what happens when saf-er-er-er-er sex is not saf-er-er-er-er sex.

And finally…when all else fails…the champions of fear can scrape all the way down to the bottom of the barrel of their fears and dredge up fear of religion.  They make sexual intercourse into a religious value.  They make marriage a religious issue.  They make everything a religious issue.  And not just any religion.

Tapping into the deepest fear of Americans, these fear-mongers promote the idea that supporters of abstinence education are members of a draconian conspiracy conceived by Catholics and adopted by Protestants to teach religion, to have kids genuflecting before they graduate.

Yes, fear is rampant in public discourse about sex education.  Afraid that their version of liberated sex will be revealed by medically accurate information as a threat to the health and well-being of young people, fear is the major tool used by those who spend every waking and sleeping moment figuring out ways to derail, disembowel, and disenfranchise those who support abstinence education programs.

The greatest fear of those who promote fear-based sex education is that the truth will get out.  Waving their arms, like scoundrels crying “fire” in a crowded theater, they are hoping parents and legislators will close their eyes and run away from abstinence education, in a mindless panic.  But, in the light of thoughtful discourse, truth will endure.  It always does.

Abstinence education promotes healthy attitudes about sex for young people, attitudes and behaviors founded on medically accurate information about sex and healthy relationships.  Abstinence education advocates that sex be reserved for a time in life when it will produce the healthiest outcomes for our children…and their children…sex at the right time, for the right reasons, with the right person.

If this is a message that generates fear, then you have to wonder if these fearful “sexperts” deserve the right to teach our children.

 

July 17, 2006 –  Curing a Disease that “Wasn’t”

 See Archives for past editorials.