Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Sex Education Programs Promote Teen Promiscuity

By Joseph Collison

The United States experienced a new revolution in the 1960's—FREEDOM! No more "Medieval morality!" Feel good about yourselves! Do your own thing! Children must be free to explore their world! With abortion illegitimacy would cease and there'd be no more child abuse. "Every child a wanted child," was the mantra. It would be Paradise on Earth! And the glorious freedom of youth would be guaranteed by sex education and contraceptives. "Safe sex," it was called.

A BREAKDOWN IN MORALITY

But the revolution has borne bitter fruit. A headline in the Washington Post last year reported that "Police See No Crime in School Sex Incident." Readers were informed that "D.C. police yesterday ended their investigation into a sexual incident at a Southeast Washington elementary school, concluding that a group of fourth-graders left unsupervised for up to an hour on Monday had engaged in consensual sex."

Yes, you read that right. Fourth graders were engaged in "consensual" sex, now a problem among children nationwide. The Detroit Free Press reported that 46 percent of fifth graders in the Detroit schools say they've engaged in sexual intercourse! In Bridgeport, Ct., 55 percent of seventh graders are sexually active.

Consider two facts: (1) Washington was the first major city in the United States to incorporate mandatory sex education into their curriculum, and (2) Washington now has the highest teen pregnancy and abortion rates in the nation. These two facts are related and they explain why, according to USA Weekend, one in three American children becomes sexually active before entering the eighth grade.

In the decade following Justice Harry Blackmun's discovery of strange penumbras lurking in the Constitution, sex education was instituted in schools throughout the country. Teenage pregnancies skyrocketed from 190,000 to 430,000, though the teenage population remained stable. As researchers Joseph Olsen and Stanley Weed reported in the Wall Street Journal, "The impact on the abortion and total pregnancy rates was exactly opposite the stated intentions of the [sex education] program."

SEX ED WORLDWIDE

Of course, the connection between sex-education and pregnancy, though denied by contemporary mythology, should not have been a secret. Shirley Hatley had pointed out that it was common knowledge that "In 1956, when Sweden mandated sex education, the illegitimacy rate, which had been declining, rose for every school age group except the older ones, who did not receive the special education."

Later the Swedish experience was repeated in Denmark where "illegitimate births, which were supposed to drop, instead nearly doubled; abortion rates, which were predicted to fall with the ready availability of condoms and other contraceptives in grocery stores, actually doubled; venereal disease more than doubled; and divorces doubled."

That, of course, is exactly what happened in the United States. Thomas Sowell wrote in Forbes magazine that "Massive, federally subsidized sex education programs entered the American public school system during the 1970's.... Before these programs began, teenage pregnancy was already declining for more than a decade. This long decline in teenage pregnancy then reversed and teenage pregnancies soared as 'sex education' spread pervasively throughout the public schools."

Educators knew what would happen because sex education had always been part of their agenda. As early as 1963 Alan Guttmacher, president of Planned Parenthood, wrote that contraceptive information for teens would bring about an increase in sexual promiscuity. He later explained why they wanted sex education: "The only avenue the International Planned Parenthood Federation and its allies could travel to win the battle for abortion on demand [was] through sex education."

Several years ago a minority report of the U.S. House Committee on Children, Youth, and Families pinpointed what was at the end of that avenue: "Progressively over the past 25 years we have as a nation decided that it is easier to give children pills than to teach them respect for sex and marriage. Today we are seeing the results of that decision, not only in increased pregnancy rates but in increased rates of drug abuse, venereal disease, suicide, and other forms of self-destructive behavior."

SEX ED INCREASES SEXUAL ACTIVITY

We sowed the wind! Now we and our children have reaped the whirlwind! Not only have teenage pregnancies skyrocketed, so have abortions and divorces and venereal disease. Between 1960 and 1990:

Divorce more than doubled: up 133%

Single parent families more than tripled: up 214%

Teen suicide tripled: up 214%

Sexually transmitted diseases: up 245%

Living together without marriage: up 279%

Juvenile violent crime: up 295%

Births to unwed mothers: up 457%

Child abuse: up 500%

Abortion: up 800%

Educators knew then and know now that sex education sexualizes young children and increases sexual activity among them. A 1982 survey of 1,888 teenage women (reported in Planned Parenthood's  Family Planning  Perspectives) found that "prior exposure to a sex education course is positively and significantly associated with the initiation of sexual activity at ages 15 and 16."

Four years after that survey, William Barsiglio and Frank Mott listed "receiv[ing] education in sexual biology" among the factors causing boys to become involved in sexual intercourse at an earlier age. In the same issue Deborah Dawson emphasized that:

It is important to note at the outset that most researchers agree that sex education does not decrease the rate of teenage pregnancies or the incidence of sexual activity.... The final result to emerge from the analysis is that neither pregnancy education nor contraceptive education exerts any significant effect on the risk of premarital pregnancy among sexually active teenagers, a finding that calls into question the argument that formal sex education is an effective tool for reducing adolescent pregnancy.

As a matter of fact, she did report a "significant effect." Statistical models showed that "prior contraceptive education" increases the odds of starting intercourse at age fourteen by 50 percent.

Recently in the children's section of a large bookstore, I found It's Perfectly Normal, a popular elementary school sex-ed text written by Robie Harris, a member of the Planned Parenthood Board of Advocates. The book is highly recommended for ten-year-olds and contains the material recommended by the Connecticut Department of Education for fourth grade.

Over fifty graphic colored illustrations of naked boys and girls are used to discuss the normality of homosexuality and to teach little children about various sexual practices. The book shows little children how to masturbate and how to engage with others in sexual activities short of intercourse. It discusses contraceptives and illustrates how to put on condoms. It also lists nine reasons for having an abortion.

Changing Bodies, Changing Lives is probably the most popular sex-ed text in American high schools. It teaches that "Bisexuality is an openness to loving, sexual relationships with both sexes—our true nature," and graphically describes sexual practices of homosexuals. Another popular text is Learning About Sex, touted as "A must for all young people." This textbook blithely observes that "Sado-masochism may be very acceptable and safe for sexual partners who know each other's needs."

All texts recommend fornication. Learning About Sex also recommends adultery: "Some people are now saying that partnerships—married or unmarried—should not be exclusive. They believe that while a primary relationship is maintained with one person, the freedom for both partners to love and share sex with others should also be present." Even bestiality is on the approved list: "A fair percentage of people probably have some sort of sexual contact with an animal during their lifetime" etc. No need here to be more explicit.

Wardell Pomeroy, author of Boys and Sex and Girls and Sex also writes of "a loving sexual relationship with an animal," but Pomeroy is more interested in simple fornication. "Premarital intercourse does have its definite values as a training ground," he says, "like taking a car out for a test run before you buy it." He neglects to mention that the majority of couples who fornicate before marriage later divorce.

After reading such books, one can understand how the schools in New Haven instituted a program to provide condoms to fifth- and sixth-graders. But even then, one wonders why the obvious question was never asked: "If little boys in fifth and sixth grade are given condoms, how old are the little girls the condoms will be used on?"

So what are we to do? Parents would do well to listen to the United States Centers for Disease Control, which clearly states in their publication "Condoms and Their Use in Preventing HIV Infection and Other STDs," that abstinence education is the most effective solution to unwanted pregnancy and sexual disease.

LISTEN TO THE CHILDREN

And instead of listening to the "professionals," parents should listen to their children. Few young people really want to participate in the frantic, barren games engendered by contemporary society's obsession with sex. Recently Seventeen magazine and the Ms. Foundation commissioned a nationwide study of teenage boys and girls. Seventy-three percent of the girls said they would have sex only if their boyfriends pressured them. The boys complained that "... they are pressured by their peers to have sex and are considered wimps if they don't score." Eighty-one percent of sexually active girls said they were sorry they had become sexually active.

The last statistic agrees with a study by Dr. Marion Howard, a professor of obstetrics at Emory University in Atlanta, who surveyed a thousand teenage girls about what they most wanted to learn in their sex-education classes and found that 82 percent said they most wanted to learn "how to say no without hurting the other person's feelings."

Of course, sex educators are zealous in safeguarding their agenda. Last year when Congress appropriated $6.7 million to teach abstinence, the White House fought hard to block the appropriation. Yet every year federal and state governments spend hundreds of millions of dollars to teach sex to our children. The Title X Adolescent Family Life program, costing 200 million dollars a year, is but one of a number of federal programs promoting sex education and handing out contraceptives.

DECEITFUL NUMBERS

Recently the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services released figures documenting a drop in the teenage pregnancy rate in recent years! Immediately the Office of Population Affairs, the National Adolescent Reproductive Health Partnership, the Centers for Disease Control (publishers of the aforementioned pamphlet!) and Planned Parenthood rushed to TV cameras to extol the success of sex education and the use of contraceptives, especially condoms. It was their great vindication.

But they were being deceitful. In speaking of the dramatically fewer numbers of teen pregnancies, they failed to mention the "Birth Dearth." In 1980 the US Census found sixteen million teenagers 14 through 17 years old; in 1990 the Census found only thirteen million. There were fewer deenagers. When they also reported that the rate of teenage pregnancy has gone down, which is true, they failed to mention what the Consortium of State Physicians' Resource Councils detailed in "The Declines in Adolescent Pregnancy, Birth and Abortion Rates in the 1990's."

In "The Current National Picture on Teen Pregnancy," a report on the Consortium findings, Dr. Stan Weed revealed that condom use had indeed increased, but use of the more effective oral contraceptives had decreased to the extent that overall contraceptive use among teens was down over 12 percent. Furthermore, the Consortium study had separated statistics for the married teens, the sexually active unmarried teens, and the abstinent unmarried teens. Using these figures, Dr. Weed reported that the "birthrate per 1,000 sexually active [unmarried] females 15 to 19 has gone from 85.2 to 111.8 (between 1988 and 1995)—an increase of 31.2%. And this increase occurred during the highly acclaimed increase in condom use (and commensurate but less touted decrease in pill use)." (emphasis added)

Dr. Weed also noted that "The effort to make condoms more readily available through distribution programs has recently been tested in the Seattle Public schools. This social experiment demonstrated the fallacy of that approach. The results indicated that making condoms available to students did not increase condom use. Among students who had engaged in sex during the preceding 3 months, the percentage who used a condom actually declined from 57% to 51% among the Seattle students, and the decrease was much greater among students in schools that had clinics (and distributed more condoms) than among students in schools without clinics."

ABSTINENCE PROGRAMS

So how can we account for the decrease in teen pregnancy? Dr. Weed explained: "For the first time in recent decades, the trend of increasing numbers of teens engaging in premarital sex has reversed.... The shift towards abstinent behavior [includes] awareness and concern about AIDS and other STDs. Not to be ignored in this shift, however, is the large increase in the number of teens exposed each year to programs that promote abstinence as their central message. These programs have multiplied dramatically and account for a twelve-fold increase since 1986 in the number of teens exposed to a clear and direct message each year about  sexual abstinence . I am not aware of any other factor that might account for the shift towards abstinent behavior. (emphasis added)

There is no question that abstinence programs prevent teen pregnancy and abortion, but only if they're not diluted with contraception education. In Washington, DC, where "consensual sex" is accepted among fourth graders, 72 percent of girls are sexually active, but only one of 400 girls who participated in a "Best Friends" abstinence-only program became pregnant. The "Best Friends" abstinence program, started in Washington by Elayne Bennett, wife of former Education Secretary William Bennett, has since been successful in other cities around the country.

Father Paul Marx, the founder of Human Life International, wrote in Faithful for Life that "Sex desensitization turns youths into 'new age' sexual nihilists having no concept of the true nature of human sexuality. Physical sex becomes synonymous with love. Such indifferent, affectionless relations with indifferent sex partners makes sex meaningless and life empty. Affectionate feelings and the spiritualization of sex can only be learned in a loving, cohesive family setting. Affectionate love cannot be learned from a school textbook."

Jennifer Grossman summed up the problem in US News, "People are surfeited with sex and starved for love."