Teenage myths about sex and HIV

"State officials are worried -- and rightly so, if you ask me -- that the myths are popping up because of the state's abstinence-only sex education programs. I guess if you don't tell kids how to prevent HIV and pregnancy, they'll come up with some creative ideas on their own."

I hope you aren't genuinely suggesting that teens are unaware that condoms prevent pregnancy and diseases. I promise you that teens know they are supposed to use condoms.

It's interesting: On one hand, "progressives" say that teens need sex ed because of the hypersexualization of the culture. Yet, with all this hypersexualization, these same progressives believe that teens haven't heard the word "condom" uttered.

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Yes, I assure you these teens ALL know what a condom is and why it's a better contraceptive than marijuana.

I have nothing against mentioning contraceptives in school in the 9th grade health class or whatever. And I do not believe this was not provided to these dumb asses in Florida. I would be against wasting tax dollars on anything more comprehensive - incidentally, including "comprehensive" abstinence education. Teach kids to respect themselves and that self-respect can't exist without personal responsibility. You don't even need to mention sex to teach that. How about letting them experience real consequences if they fail to do their schoolwork? Then when they hear "you're gonna get PREGNANT if you do x (which must obviously be taught in school as it is a basic biological fact - assuming there are still any kids over the age of 6 who don't know a pregnant teen and how she got that way)," maybe they will understand what they need to do AND act on it.

By the way, studies have shown that marijuana impedes mens' fertility. That said, anyone stupid enough to rely on that as contraception has a lot bigger problems than a lack of contraceptive information. The term "forced sterilization" keeps popping into my mind . . . I mean, if we want the government to step in and resolve these people's problems for their own good . . . .

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OK, I give up. It's obvious that today's kids are just stupid. Blithering idiots. There is something in the water, the air, the non-organic food, whatever. Their parents are lazy, their teachers are idiots, the government is insane. What was obvious to youths generations ago, before sex and drug education existed in the schools is way over the heads of today's youth.

This is a national catastrophe.

It's time to close all the public schools. Either they are failing at their jobs or our kids are not intellectually qualified to attend them.

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My second post was inspired by Justin's post, in case you are wondering why it seems to conflict with my first post.

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"State officials are worried -- and rightly so, if you ask me -- that the myths are popping up because of the state's abstinence-only sex education programs. I guess if you don't tell kids how to prevent HIV and pregnancy, they'll come up with some creative ideas on their own"

Well, some people will believe anything!

Haven't we had sex ed in in our public schools for at least 25 or 30 years? And haven't teens been incredibly stupid about sex during every one of those years? And haven't abstinence-only programs only recently come into vogue in the public schools (I suspect Catholic and other religious schools have always gone the abstinence route)?

I don't think I'll bother reading this blog entry any further. Oy.

And if you think it's just teens who are stupid about sex, check this out!
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Can_you_get_pregnant_a_few_days_after_ovulation

These are adults (I assume, anyway) who actually think that they *do* know about pregnancy.

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Justin - I imagine that, during your work with youth, lots of teen girls present with tampon-insertion dilemmas. And lots of teen boys come in to find out why they chafe during masturbation; surely they don't have the wherewithal to use lube. Certainly you have "demonstrations" for these types of things, similar to the banana/condom demonstration. If not already available, I also suggest a zit-popping demonstration.

Kudos to you and your organization - incompetent teens everywhere thank you!

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QUOTE: that the myths are popping up because of the state's abstinence-only sex education programs. I guess if you don't tell kids how to prevent HIV and pregnancy, they'll come up with some creative ideas on their own.

Of course this makes no sense since abstinence IS the ONLY way to prevent (sexually transmitted) HIV and pregnancy.

Condoms and birth control both fail. And while I actually have no problem of telling the TRUTH to children about sex and birth control and disease, I have a huge problem of sex being presented to teens as something without consuequence if you just use condoms and birth control.

Either way -- I'll be the one to discuss all of that with my children and far earlier than 8th grade.

But aside from all of that, it IS amazing how ignorant a lot of adults are when it comes to birth control and sex.

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The "sex ed" that my school provided in health class, nearly 20 years ago now, consisted more of an anatomy lesson than anything else. Sure, they talked about pregnancy and diseases and other things, but they never really connected the dots. Let's just say I figured out how tab A and slot B really work from reading my mom's romance novels in jr high. If someone didn't have that specific knowledge, and were in that position at such a young age, I can't see how talking about some abstract idea of "abstinence" would prevent anything.

The one thing they did do right was to bring in a speaker a couple of times (maybe twice in jr-high/high school) who talked about all of those crazy myths and why they're so plain stupid. He was not a teacher in the school--maybe that's why he wasn't afraid to say the word "condom" in front of us--I would guess he was some sort of counselor who worked with a lot of pregnant teens. He had a laundry list of wacky ideas on birth control that his patients/clients/subjects had mentioned over the years--including rubber gloves (5-for-1, dont you know), interesting uses for cocacola or motor oil, a variety of positions for during and after, etc. I found the whole presentation very amusing--the guy was a great speaker and had us all paying attention and laughing. But, it was eye-opening also, and empowering. I wish more of our sex-ed had been presented that well, and I wish more schools would at least provide that much.

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Justin, for what it is worth, I agree with you, in both of your posting.

As someone pointed out, yes, condoms and birth control fail. Why? Most of the time due to user error! If people were taught how to use these things properly there would be less failure.

Sure, teach kids about abstinence, but why not teach them eveything else with it? I don't see why some people are so afraid of their children being educated. They are going to have sex at some point in their lives regardless of how you feel about it.

SLK, what are you talking about? "Obvious to youths generations ago?" Right, generations ago no one was ignorant or uninformed. They all just magically knew these things and every parent was responsible and taught their kids all they needed to know since they knew it all perfectly and correctly. They never caught a disease or had an unwanted pregnancy or believed some stupid thing about sex, pregnancy, or birth control. Just like in Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver, etc.

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So let me get this straight...

These future Leaders of America, who send hundreds of text messages a day, who hold conversations on MySpace, Facebook and via e-mail, who research everything from the size of Britney Spears' "bits" to bomb-making, and who regularly find ways to hack around computer content filters set up by parents, libraries and schools...

These kids can't do one of the following?...

1) READ the label on the bleach bottle that says, "POISON - DO NOT INGEST!" (and in case they don't know what "ingest" means, it further reads: DANGER! HARMFUL IF SWALLOWED!")

2) look up the effects of bleach on the Human Body

But no. You're right - ABSTINENCE ONLY TEACHING is the problem here.

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It seems to me that "The System" that everyone seems to be in such awe of here is a dismal failure. Not only at Sex Ed, but at basics. As I pointed out in a post on a similar topic, every package of condoms has a set of instructions included. Every bottle of bleach has a label. R-E-A-D T-H-E-M.

Or has your sacred System forgotten to teach the kids how to read, too?

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Uuummm.... I know of a lot of teens who think that you can't get pregnant the first time you have sex or while menstruating or if the girl is on top or....I could go on and on. I knew girls in my high school who thought that douching right after sex would keep them from catching something. The stuff teens will believe constantly amazes me and if their only source of information is their peers...well, that just scares me.

There are quit a few teens running around without a clue. Just because your own parents taught you the facts, just because you figured them out on your own, just because your school covered them all and just because you will teach your child(ren) everything does not mean others have been so lucky.

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You know, Jennifer, you may have hit the nail on the head, but not in the way that you had hoped.

"Just because your own parents taught you the facts, just because you figured them out on your own, just because your school covered them all and just because you will teach your child(ren) everything does not mean others have been so lucky."

And here's the point - We live in a country that was founded on the principal of people making their own decisions, and accepting the consequences of those actions.

Somewhere back around WWII, the Federal Government decided that IT could make those decisions better than the Average Joe. In came Social Security, Welfare, and a whole host of other "Let's Fix Everybody's Problems" social programs. Fast forward these many years, and ALL of those programs are failing in one way or another. Social Security is going bankrupt, Welfare rolls are increasing by leaps and bounds, and the Feds are telling us, once again, that we are 'entitled' to "free" healthcare.

Where am I going with this? Here:

Every single day, we abdicate a tiny bit of our own responsibilities - as parents, as students, as caretakers of ourselves - suddenly, it's not *my* job to teach my kid about sex, or to read, or to examine all sides of a situation and think about the consequences before acting. This is why this discussion, and many others on this board, frustrate me so.

It is not the school's place to teach my kid, or any other kid, how to properly put on a condom. I am willing to concede that perhaps it is their job, in the context of a health class, to discuss STD's, and pregnancy.

But honestly, I knew, at the age of FOUR, that I shouldn't be drinking bleach. EVEN A CAPFUL. I knew at the age of ten that smoking anything was harmful, and I shouldn't be doing it. Mountain Dew? Well, I'm an addict there, but common sense tells me that if someone tells me that it's going to prevent pregnancy (or anything else), I'm going to question that statistic.

And yes, when I was a teen, I heard all the 'urban legends' of which many of you speak - you can't get pregnant the first time, you can get pregnant through oral, etc., etc., etc. And I, too, was more than a bit embarrassed to ask my folks about it. You know what I did? I went to the library and looked it up.

WHY is that such a foreign concept???? Why do we simply assume that if we don't shove this stuff down the throats of all school kids, at younger and younger ages, that they're not going to learn it? There are only six and a half (teachable) hours in a school day, and the more time you take up with "Social Teaching", the less time there is for Academic Teaching - which is more important?

Teach them to read, and you give them the world. Think about it.

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Ok, I am 18. I graduated high school last fall. I am a virgin, but none of my friends are, or anyone I know. Abstinence has to be taught better in schools, especially in the south. But seriously, I have never heard a single of these myths and don't even think the kids in special ed would believe them. My mother explained sex to me very technically when I was like 9. Then in 6th grade they gave a good class, answering questions and mostly talking about puberty. In 8th we had rice (as opposed to egg) babies. Diseases and stuff were mentioned, but it didn't matter, because everyone knows about STDs and pregnancy and how to prevent them. Kids aren't naive.
Back to the point, kids know what condoms are, they know not to drink bleach, they know how you get pregnant, but in the long run, it's the values instilled into them. YOU CANNOT GET PREGNANT OR GET AN STD IF YOU DON'T HAVE SEX!

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