On the tails of Truthbrary's
RantRave "We want to 'indoctrinate children'" I have a further rant. I'm motivated to the subject because our children face the same emotional turmoil we confronted. And it isn't going to get easier for the next generation, either. Kids and teens get guidance from adults who create an educational system. This difficult issue of sex and education has happened in every culture, from the Plains Indians to Iran's version of democracy. Young grow up. Their culture indoctrinates and educates them into how to get along in their culture. Someplace along their growing path sex happens and their culture continues.
One of the issues has always been sex and we shouldn't expect that to disappear into thin air just because we have modern technology. My point here is this. Why don't we take a look around and find cultures that work pretty well in this area that Truthbrary rants about. And then copy those effective ways into our own culture.
This method of copying what works is done with technology and government and other things. China and Japan both reverse engineer products, technological products. With government and big business support, both countries take a piece of working technology and find how it works. And then they build the thing themselves. Democracy, the most common form of government today, originated in Greece, was refined in America and has been widely is copied. It more or less works, certainly better than dictatorships. People copy successful things. I propose we find a culture whose sex indoctrination or education actually works. And copy the things that work.
Fine idea, hey? But here is the problem with this idea. How do recognize good sex education? How can we look at a country or culture and see that its sex education works? What measurement can compare one country against another?
Teen births, sexually transmitted disease, and abortion rates, mental diseases spawning from early sexual experiences, child sexual abuse, quantity of young unmarried mothers, and early marriages that don't last, are indicators. All of these can be compared from one country to the next country if good statistics are kept. Good education might minimize all of these while poor education would have the opposite effect.
It is beyond the scope of this article to study these statistics. But it could make quite a good college paper. What I do have for you is a young reporter's statement. "European policies and programs have dramatically lowered teen birth, sexually transmitted disease and abortion rates." Melissa Harris is speaking of the period of time from 1968 to 2002, just after living and traveling in Europe for six months. Her article cites specific countries, gives some of its history and documented improvements. About The Netherlands she says: "In fact, parents were often among the first people Dutch children told when they became sexually active." She was speaking of Dutch teens, if you read her article the context is clear.
But wherever we have open dialogue between teens and adults, we have a better situation. Because the opposite of good communication with parents is bad communication, hidden and secreted teen actions. In America if a teen becomes pregnant, it is pretty much expected that someone be blamed and possibly punished. But ongoing communication with parents is an important indicator, but many things together make up a culture's attitude. The European system educates teens so they behave more responsibly. Blame and punishment are not part of the equation instead; a widespread and more wholesome communication exists.
A case in point that I know very well; a college freshman became pregnant, confessed in tears to mommy, and after a lot of emotional turmoil, had a secret abortion. If you have chatted on the Internet you have probably encountered similar situations. The solution I ask you to look at is at cultures that work. Where teen pregnancies are much less common, where there is a sunnier approach to sex education. So please, read the article and make a comment.
Sex Education in Europe vs the United States