Chapter 3: Red Light, Green Light
-abstinence education encourages waiting
-SIECUS "Abstinence. Just sloppy research.” Bill Smith, director of public policy
-Smith admits that it is better for young people to wait to have sex in high school (eliminate the word abstinence) wordplay semantics
-truth: comprehensive sex education messaging is that young people should explore their sexuality as a natural process
SIECUS word play:
“Adolescents should be encouraged to delay sexual behaviors until they are physically, cognitively, and emotionally ready for mature sexual relationships and their consequences.”
-SIECUS website points kids to a pamphlet, All About Sex
-SIECUS website points to sites like scarleteen and gURL.com which informs kids about their sexual rights
1995:
-SIECUS released report containing consensus of national sexual health organizations
-Policy makers and professionals were urged to adopt “a new approach to adolescent sexual health.”
“Too much public policy debate has focused on helping adolescents abstain from sexual behavior, especially intercourse, rather than the complex dimensions of adolescent sexual development.”
-Planned Parenthood provided guidelines for Sex Partners
-SIECUS and Advocates for Youth endorsed the website positive.org
“There are lots of safe and fun ways to get off, which you probably won’t learn in school. You can do many of these things all by yourself as well as with others, and you can talk about them even if you don’t want to do them. Don’t feel like you have to do everything on this page, but don’t feel like anything is automatically off limits either…”
-Comprehensive Sexual Education-gives the decision solely by the teen, removes adults, so the teen determines their “ready or not” status
-Parents are removed as a role of guidance or expertise with their own teen
-teens need parenting not easy access to condoms, birth control, websites, and medical authority telling them they can keep everything secret from their parents
The “Facts” of Life:
-schools have more authority and influence over your teens if they have their way
-schools portray themselves as experts that teens can rely on for trustworthy advice
“Children are sexual and think sexual things,” Mom and Dad must “accept the honor their child’s erotic potential” (Talking With Your Child About Sex: Questions and Answers for Children from Birth to Puberty by sex ed matriarch and SIECUS founder May Calderone
-SEICUS president, Debra Haffner, writes that teens need to know “that they cannot swallow, ejaculate or have oral sex during Menstruation. If these topics seem too embarrassing to discuss, consider how awkward it would be helping your teen with oral gonorrhea or, worse, HIV.”
***parents can calmly but firmly put up a big red light for their sons and daughters regarding sexual behavior during adolescence
Teens are not Miniature Adults, in Mind and Body:
-brain maturation does not end in early childhood; it simply pauses for some years
-brain maturation restarts with vigor at the onset of puberty
-during the 2nd decade of life there is a period of “explosive growth and restructuring”
-due to the massive transformation, adolescence is a period of life with distinct vulnerabilities and opportunities
-adolescent brain functions differently from an adult’s
-Advocates for Youth lie “most teens, ages 13 to 17 attain cognitive maturity–the ability to make decisions based on knowledge of options and their consequences”
“The normal adolescent brain is far from mature or operating at full adult capacity. The physiological structure of the adolescent brain is similar therefore to the manifestation of mental disability within an adult brain.” (Daniel Weinberger, MD, NIMH)
It’s not a lack of information-It’s a lack of judgment:
“There is substantial evidence that adolescents engage in dangerous activities despite knowing and understanding the risks involved.” (Dr. Steinberg)
Dr. Dahl uses a powerful metaphor:
“An adolescent is like a fully mature car that’s turbo-charged, but its driver is unskilled, and his navigational abilities are not yet fully in place.”
-legislatures ban the death penalty for juveniles “for social and biological reasons”
“Teens have increased difficulty making mature decisions and understanding the consequences of their actions.”
-the American Psychological Association, “continue to bring forth existing and new data on the limits of adolescent reasoning, judgment and decision making.”
Wrong:
-premise for teaching “safe sex” is based entirely on the assumption that teens can think through complex issues, plan ahead, and consider consequences
-teens must have to determine their “readiness” for a “mature sexual relationship”
-sex education tells teens “only you know when you’re ready”
-sex education tells teens if you are taught the skills you can be a sexually responsible teen
Girl’s bodies are not ready:
-girls have another underdeveloped structure that increases their vulnerability, in addition to their prefrontal cortex
-the cervix is not fully developed, so increases a girl’s vulnerability to sexually transmitted infections
-the cervix of an adult is more difficult to infect than the cervix of a teen
Biology Says” Wait!
-delay sexual behavior, not for moral reasons, and not for emotional reasons, but for medical reasons alone
-teen sex activity is high risk, especially for girls