"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Purity Ring Proves to Be No Chastity Belt

It turns out just saying no to sex before marriage more likely ends up meaning just saying no to condoms when sex eventually occurs--which proves that the neo-puritan sex education practice is not only ineffective but downright dangerous to the lives of teens. From WaPo:
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 29, 2008; Page A02

Teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do, according to a study released today.

The new analysis of data from a large federal survey found that more than half of youths became sexually active before marriage regardless of whether they had taken a "virginity pledge," but that the percentage who took precautions against pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases was 10 points lower for pledgers than for non-pledgers.

"Taking a pledge doesn't seem to make any difference at all in any sexual behavior," said Janet E. Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose report appears in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics. "But it does seem to make a difference in condom use and other forms of birth control that is quite striking.". . . .


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