Sex Education

Do you remember how you learned about sex? I remember my mother sending away for some booklets. She told me to read them and said that after I read them she would answer any questions I had. I had lots of questions! My mother did not have all the answers, but I was better off than most of my friends. They got their information from their friends. One thing she impressed upon me was not to have sex because it would be simply awful to become pregnant and not be married. It would ruin my life and my and my family's reputation. It was the worst sin ever!- Abstinence education.

I learned about condoms from some boys in my class. My friend and I were baby sitting my little brother. My friend had told her boyfriend that we would be there without my parents. The boyfriend brought his buddy, and the two of them asked to come in. When I said no, and the door was locked. They filled up condoms with our water hose, held them up at the window and laughed a lot before smashing them on our porch. I thought they were balloons, but my friend explained that they were rubbers and if you wanted to have sex but not get pregnant that is what the boy had to wear. "Does it work?" I asked. " I guess so", she said "Or else he can just pull it out before he comes." Following that advice got a lot of my friends pregnant before we graduated from high school, but back in 1964 most of them managed to quickly tie the knot with the baby's father before the blessed event. Most had been given the same abstinence talk by their mothers, " Don't have sex before you get married. It's a sin and it will ruin your life and your reputation." I guess my mother was just scarier than theirs because I managed to get accurate birth control information before I had sex.

The reason for recounting this story is to support the need for comprehensive sex education in our schools. Students are going to learn about contraception even if we don't teach them about it in school. Shouldn't we give them accurate information? Fear isn't enough to protect them from STD's and pregnancy before they are ready to be parents.

Join the UUA and the UCC in urging Congress to pass the Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act. States should not be forced to turn away federal funds because they refuse to teach abstinence only. Our children deserve to have all the facts when they are making some of the most important decisions in their lives.

There is an excellent article written byCynthia Kuhn in UU World about the OWL(Our Whole Lives) Program, the curriculum developed by the UUA and UCC.