Sex Aug 28, 2013 at 4:00 am

How Teen Sex-Ed Has Undergone a Brilliant and Rapid Revolution

Comments

1
An interesting article but I was a little distracted by the repeated assertion that racism is a big part of this issue. At least, I didn't feel the article really explained any relationship between teen pregnancy and racism.
2
Excellent article! As someone who teaches healthy sexuality and healthy relationship education in high schools and middle schools, I feel really lucky to work in a state like Oregon that takes such a progressive, open approach to addresses these things in accurate, non-shaming ways.
3
How many students in Oregon (the entire state) receive Comprehensive Sexual Health education - grades 4 through University? If so, what curricula is the school using, how many hours of edu a year does the student receive, and is the instructor trained in the subject?
5
Carol--there's not a lot of data on this, really. It varies widely by area, and there is no standardized curriculum used (and best practice would actually recommend NOT using a standard curriculum throughout the state. It's important to be population and community specific when it comes to prevention). A fellow at OHA did a survey of what's being taught in terms of sexual health education throughout the state, what the standards are, and how comfortable teachers feel teaching it two years ago; I'd recommend contacting Jessica Duke for the results of the study. Oregon does, however, have some of the most comprehensive sexual health and healthy sexuality benchmarks and standards in the country; how well they're being implemented does vary, but I think the point of this article is to highlight how far Oregon has come in terms of policy; practice sometimes takes awhile to catch up.
6
"the dark years"...is that really the phrase you wanted to use?
8
Statistics are undeniable, there has been a clear improvement, especially as far as teen pregnancies... but let's not kid ourselves, there is still so much we could do.. Every time we talk about comprehensive sex education the conversation stall on whether Sex Ed programs say too little or too much..

To those who say that saying to much in Sex Ed programs would put wrong ideas in our heads I would say this: 1) Those ideas are already there, trust me, Sex is everywhere, TV, Movies, Music (did u see Miley Cyrus on MTV the other night?, have you ever listened carefully to rap music??).. 2) Do you really think that not giving info about sex has ever stopped anybody from becoming sexually active or having a sex life??

We need clear information on the various aspects of sex and sexuality not just a biology lesson and the list of the bad things that could happen to you if you have sex... It's not the school's job to do that but it's up to our parents?? Let's be honest again, we are not Dutch, it would be nice to have that kind of relationship but generally that's not the case..

So without enough information.. what most people do, they learn by doing and hope for the best!!

Lately I found out this mobile app: My Sex Doctor and I really love it! it give you a lot of information about sex and sexuality in a very simple language... I am sure this is not the only one of its kind.. To me this is the way forward, bypassing school sex ed!! If you want to check it out: http://mysexdoctor.org
9
OR is 31/51 for teen pregnancies. Difficult to correlate to edu when it's not being measured in any way - and little to no edu is being taught in elementary school, and middle school edu is very limited and often taught by PE teachers. It's not much better in high school, where youth voices are discounted and requests for on-site condoms are denied.

Additionally - HHS grants for Abstinence Only edu continue http://www.acf.hhs.gov/hhsgrantsforecast/index.cfm?switch=grant.view&gff_grants_forecastInfoID=65841
10
Great article. It's good to hear some good news for a change... It's a good start hope it continues and improves with the full implementation of Obamacare. Saw you on the PBS news roundup. Thanks for mentioning this article.
11
Where are Asians on that graph? Aren't there more Asians than Blacks in Oregon now? Racism!
12
Can't say I agree with this idea that there is ever a good teen pregnancy. If you aren't old enough to have a beer you aren't old enough to have a child, and even if they do it intentionally it isn't something to celebrate, the outcomes for parent and child are just too much worse than for older parents to be able to say anything good about teen pregnancy.

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.