Sex Ed

This post is inspired by an article in Texas Monthly (May 2008 ed.). The article is about sex education and the battle over whether or not sex ed. should include information on safe sex and STD prevention (ie.. condom use) or be abstinence only education.

In a perfect world, I think we can all agree that maintaining abstinence until marriage is the best policy. However, I think we can also all agree that this isn't a perfect world, so we are probably better served dealing with the real world. In my view, sex education that only speaks to abstinence is completely unrealistic. Furthermore, I think it could be effectively argued that it isn't sex education at all. If I tell my son, "Hey, don't have sex until you are married," where is the education in that?

Am I going to encourage my son to abstain from sex until he is married? ABSOLUTELY! But, I'm not foolish enough to believe that temptation might not get the better of him, at some point in his adolescent life. So, while I am going to encourage him to abstain from sex, I am also going to educate him about practicing safe sex. And this may come as a shock to some people, but we shouldn't be leaving the education of our children (sexual or otherwise) solely up to the schools anyway. You and you alone are responsible for what your child does or does not learn.