The "sex ed. debacle" (generations, drugs, CNN, independent)

[teatime]

I've just seen the first sleazy attempt on CNN to use Bristol Palin as the poster child for the need to pass out contraception to teens. Not only is this disgusting but it's simply a panacea and a false argument.

As a teacher, if I had a dollar for every time one of my students who either got an STD or pregnant told me, "But we used condoms!" I could retire in comfort. Likewise, the pregnant girls who complained, "But I was on the Pill!"

Providing and teaching contraception is NOT a panacea. It is NOT as effective as these ostriches claim. Great Britain has the HIGHEST teen pregnancy rate in Europe and the schools teach and provide contraception. In Britain, the Pill and the Morning After Pill are available without a prescription. So, WHY isn't it working?

First of all, because teen-agers are impulsive. They act on the moment. If they want to "go for it," they don't necessarily want to stop and take care of themselves. It's not as easy as slapping on a condom. Don't believe me? Read the instructions on a box of condoms sometime. I took a box in and read all of the instructions with my students one day. I asked them if they followed every step to the letter. They put their heads down and said a collective, "Noooooooooo."

Secondly, one has to be VERY aware of the drug interactions that make the Pill less effective. Are teenagers necessarily going to do that research and carefully read about drug interactions? How many ADULT women get pregnant because they didn't know that antibiotics reduce the efficacy of the Pill? Can we expect that every time a teen is put on a prescription drug she is going to have the foresight and maturity to ask or find out if it reduces how well the Pill works?

Thirdly, teens have a sense of immortality. They can't fathom that something bad, deadly or life-changing will happen to them. Their joie de vivre is both refreshing and maddening. It's why so many get hurt or killed in drunken-driving accidents; why so many get messed up on drugs; and why some of them get pregnant. You can present them with ALL of the facts and you can warn them at every opportunity but they don't "get it." Until they or their friends find that their luck has run out.

And, even then, they will find differences, no matter how slight, between how they behave and how their friends who lost their gambles did. I'll never forget the conversation I had with one young lady who told me that she and her boyfriend were sexually active but she would NOT get pregnant like her friend did. "We're careful," she said proudly. "We use TWO methods of birth control." I said that was good and asked which ones. "Well, my boyfriend always makes sure he pulls out in time and THEN, I sit up right after sex, just in case, so the sperm can run out." Sigh....I had a long talk with that young lady.

What's the problem? Their bodies are telling them one thing and society is giving them a lot of mixed messages. Society sees them as consumers and treats them like independent adults to get them to spend. Little girls' fashions look like mini-streetwalker costumes often times. Society teaches them to be sexy and tells boys that they aren't men until they score and score as often as possible.

On one hand, we free teens from responsibility, give them lots of stuff, but then we expect them to be in school until they are 22 and train for a career. In previous generations, teens were working hard and had families. We've gone from one extreme to another.

I don't know what the answers are. But I do know that pointing fingers doesn't solve the problem. Different countries and cultures have a variety of approaches but, as far as I know, no one has figured out the perfect solution.