Sex Education?

Education is the most important thing our government does because it will literally determine the future of the United States.

So what else is new? Just about everyone running for office has said something like that. Some have actually done something about it after being elected. Some have degraded the quality of education after being elected.

One of the sore points about our educational system is the subject of sex education. "Congress has allocated millions of dollars for abstinence-only sex education, which excludes any mention of contraception, family planning, or disease prevention," says the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Inc. Federal Candidate Questionnaire. If true, and this charge seems credible, it is an abomination.

The purpose of education is to teach our young people what our civilization has learned over the years. This is very important. As philosopher George Santyana said, "Those who cannot remember history are condemned to repeat it." Education is how our society shows its newest members the mistakes we've already made. This part of education is as important, if not more important, than the three R's.

Voters are all adults. There is no reason to avoid discussing a part of life that is as central as sex. Nearly all adult humans participate in sex. In fact, habitual avoidance of sex is often taken as a sign of mental illness - when it's not part of some religious observance. Our kids will participate in sex sooner or later. They will be much happier and much better off if they know what they are doing and how to protect themselves.

Limiting sex education to a very small subset of what might be taught is a particlarly pernicious thing to do to our kids. It won't keep them from learning about sex in spite of our efforts. They'll learn about sex by sharing (mis)information amongst themselves. They'll learn from all the good "educational material" in the media. They'll learn by experimenting with sex themselves, at whatever cost. They'll learn about sex no matter what we do.

Importantly, the kids will eventually learn that they've been lied to about sex. They will conclude that since they were lied to about sex, perhaps they were lied to about things other than sex. For example, things like drugs. This will undermine the rest of the education we've spent so much time, money and effort to provide. It will happen because we've tried to keep them from learning something they're going to learn anyway.