Alaska curriculum
Bookworm on Sep 02 2008 at 7:30 pm | Filed under: Sarah Palin, Sex
I’m having a very hard time finding out what the sex ed curriculum is in Alaska schools. Although Palin advocates abstinence, what are the public schools teaching? It appears from the article that they’re teaching full sex ed, with an emphasis on the virtues of abstinence.
A couple of things. First, that’s exactly the same curriculum in my Blue neck of the woods, and that’s because the parents demand it. They want the kids to know have a sound scientific knowledge about the birds and the bees, and the ways to prevent little birds and bees from coming along, but they want the schools’ emphasis to be on no sex.
Second, if Palin’s daughter really did receive a comprehensive curriculum, one could argue that teaching about sex and birth control, with a mere emphasis on abstinence, doesn’t work. After all, she got pregnant.
The same article says that the schools in Alaska don’t provide birth control, something with which I heartily concur. Kids can pick up birth control at any grocery store (condoms for him, sponges for her, not to mention spermicides for both), and the school should not be in the business of putting its imprimatur on teen sex.
So it sounds to me, not as if the Palins failed their daughter, but as if their daughter might just be another casuality of public school sex training.
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RE: “So it sounds to me, not as if the Palins failed their daughter, but as if their daughter might just be another casualty of public school sex training.”
Oh, bull. Parents get them first , last, and in the middle. There’s plenty of time for parents to teach sex ed to their kids the way they want it told. Be the first to tell them. That puts the school on the defensive.
Palin’s daughter got pregnant because she and her boyfriend chose to do what “felt good,” not because they didn’t know where babies come from. They knew the odds of getting pregnant from an act of coitus were in their favor. Either they gambled and lost, or their birth control failed or was improperly used.
also, bristol palin was taught in the manner that the gov. wanted…ABSTINENCE ONLY! her school system adhered to that and it was reportedly reinforced in the home. why do you think the palin’s lived there.
sheesh
peace
RE: “So it sounds to me, not as if the Palins failed their daughter, but as if their daughter might just be another casualty of public school sex training.”- Book
As a woman who became pregnant at 17 during my freshman year at a Catholic college, I’d guess that there could be a dozen possible reasons why she made the choice she did (In my case, my mother died 3 years before, leaving me adrift).
Obama pointed out that his mother had him when she was 18, and since my own story had a happy ending, I dont see this as the end of the world.
What bothers me about many pro-lifers, however, is that they dont seem to care about the child after it’s born.
Not surprisginly, Palin slashed funding to help teenage moms
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/02/palin_slashed_funding_to_help.html
http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19&id=4245
This reads, at least in one area school, that comprehensive sex ed was taught.
Alaska Schools Discuss Whether Exempting Kids from Sex Ed is ‘Unconstitutional’
http://tinyurl.com/5gyj7e
Though not specifically mentioned, comprehensive sex ed is implied.
Bookworm –
I thought the same thing. I am a big advocate of sex ed with a heavy emphasis on abstinence and then a TRUTHFUL sex education: photographs of what STIs do to a body, especially a woman’s body, in the long run, and reading about the experiences of people who have contracted STIs. It makes a believer out of people.
It is fair to say that “abstinence only” doesn’t always work but if the sex ed we’ve had in the public schools for the last several decades worked, wouldn’t we have less teen pregnancies and STI transmissions now?
Helen – I agree that parents who are involved with their children do have them first and last. But I would argue that our children are so buffetted by popular culture and questionable information provided in the schools that parents are at an extreme disadvantage. In general, I just don’t think that these outside forces had such overwhelming control and influence on kids 40 years ago.
Dagon – You nailed it: Sarah Palin moved to Alaska shortly after she was born and continues to live there because of the school’s sex ed program.
You are funny!
Deana
umm rock, bristol palin didn’t go to any of those schools. the principal of her school “isn’t sure” if they teach abstinence-only or not. that’s telling.
what is known is that she was taught that at home.
peace
I think people are misinformed about her views. I read that she believed in sex education, but not extreme sex education, and that abstinence was the best birth control, NOT abstinence only. As a mother of five she probably is not dumb about that. I cannot quote where I read it but it seemed believable. Nevertheless, sex education has been rampant since I was in school over 50 years ago and the rate of teen pregnancy just goes up. Kids are shown the glamour of sex on every video they watch, glamour, fun, etc., not the realities of what it means and that is technically procreation.
sorry ruth,
she’s is vehemently abstinence-only:
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/01/1320417.aspx
peace
ruth,
AND her husband was a member of a seccessionist group until 2002.
answering those questions are gonna be…..tough.
peace
http://www.eed.state.ak.us/tls/schoolhealth/curriculum.htm
From theMatanuska-Susitna Borough
School District
Daily Living Skills Health 3………….0525/0526
Prerequisite: Active IEP
Grade: 11 Credit: 1
This course is designed to increase students’ awareness of hygiene, social skills, anatomy, sexuality, safety, and nutrition. These courses are designed to meet the individual needs of the student in the area of health, and help the student to work toward IEP goals and objectives based upon Alaska State Standards and/or Alternate Standards.
http://www.matsuk12.us/FileLib/HSPOSUpdated01-2008.pdf
There are other classes that discuss sexuality.
Warning: PDF
From page 61 of 91
dagon you are spewing absolute manure that you can only be getting from the nutroots. Palin has been a member of the Republican Party continuously since 1982. That bit of trash has been dusted up.
Last night on Brit Hume’s program Mort Kondracke made a wild statement about the how the pregnancy of Bristo Palin demonstrated the failure of abstinence only education. He justified his claim on a statement that the Alaskan government had requested a grant for this. Well, as most people are well aware the abstntence only movement is very recent. I seriously doubt that it has been implemented in any school for very long–if at all. I wrote to Hume and told him journalistic integrity required they investigate to learn what curriculum was actually taught in the school during Bristol’s time in attendance and report on his program this evening. They did not, of course.
As I indicated a bit earlier, it is easy to blame the parents. Unfortunately, every trend in our society over the past few decades has been to lessen the influence of parents on their kids. This has been driven by the government and the entertainment industry. dagon you are the hypocrite.
dagon –
Your quote only shows that she does not support EXPLICIT sex-ed programs.
She may very well have supported abstinence only education. I don’t know. I’m merely pointing out that your quote doesn’t really prove what you think it does. Did she want general sex ed in addition to abstinence? I truly don’t know.
Deana
Here are some links to Alaska’s curriculum/standards that might help:
http://www.eed.state.ak.us/tls/Frameworks/health/standa.htm#key7
http://www.eed.state.ak.us/tls/SchoolHealth/pdf/Curricula.pdf.
http://www.eed.state.ak.us/standards/
I believe explicit was the word I was searching for when I said extreme. I am sure that was the meaning I was trying to get across. I take explicit to mean how to do descriptions of hetero, gay and lesbian sex. A manual of how to do, not a this is what works to prevent disease and pregnancy.
Also she definitely has been registered as a Republican since 1982. that other fallacy has been debunked. It seems the right has gotten as good as the left in doing internet searches to stop rumours.
Who cares what Palin’s daughter’s particular case was!! There have been multiple reports by the CDC, the UN WHO, and a multitude of other health organizations that have definitively shown that abstinence only programs do not work, and the best predictor of teenage pregnancy is access to information and means of contraception. Get over the ideology and the anecdotes and learn how to analyze the data, lest you talk total nonsense. There are reams of statistics on this stuff, which can be used to make more intelligent policy decisions than relying on the sensationalized, human interest story of one governor’s daughter. My goodness. No wonder we have the politicians and government we do. Voters have no idea how to posit the right questions or measure the problem. We have what we deserve.
Actually, I’m beginning to wonder whether ANY form of sex education is doomed to failure for the vast majority of teens. It appears teen pregnancy has been occurring throughout all of human history.
You can try an abstinence-only message; you can try a sex-manual only approach with free contraception available in vending machines in the school lobby; you can try any mix of the two with an emphasis wherever you want it; are you really sure it matters? There are abstinence-only teens who make that work (in that they don’t get pregnant); there are sex-manual teens who make that work (in that they don’t get pregnant). But in either case, their numbers appear to be quite small compared to those who DO get pregnant.
So let me go out on a limb and say: In our culture of wildly permissive sexuality, there isn’t any sex-ed approach that is actually going to work, for the vast majority of our teens. It feels good, they’re gonna do it, and in the tried and true tradition of all American teens, they are immune from death and all other consequences! – and therefore, they end up getting pregnant.
I think the decisions of the Palins to support Bristol should be taken as a moment of maturity and grace. Good for them.
dg said:
From The Guttmacher Institute:
Read the report here:
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/2006/09/12/USTPstats.pdf
dg said:
I agree with dg on this one.
Abstinance should be included in discussions of sex education along with discussion of birth control, std’s, etc. Kids are under tremendous pressure to have sex– most of it by peer pressure and the media– records, mtv, movies, etc. They need the message that it is not only OK, but abstinence affords the best, in fact only, guaranteed way to prevent std’s and pregnancy.
Given that same pressure, kids should be told about contreceptives, etc.
If explicit sex education is a code word for teaching homosexuality, that really isn’t part of the equation and I can’t see how her position on that had anything to do with the pregnancy issue being discussed.
>>Not surprisginly, Palin slashed funding to help teenage moms>>
Your information is incorrect.
“Covenant House’s IRS Form 990 ( http://www.guidestar.org/pqShowGsReport.do?partner=justgive&npoId=332976 ) shows the funds that Paul Kane describes as “slashed” was over a threefold increase ( http://24ahead.com/blog/archives/007978.html ) from the government funds they received from all sources in 2006 (FY2006 ending 12/31/06).”
>>If explicit sex education is a code word for teaching homosexuality, that really isn’t part of the equation and I can’t see how her position on that had anything to do with the pregnancy issue being discussed.>>
My guess is that you’re probably right.
I guess you _could_ say that homosexuality is the ultimate form of birth control…so it would be effective in preventing pregnancy…!
There are reams of statistics on this stuff, which can be used to make more intelligent policy decisions than relying on the sensationalized, human interest story of one governor’s daughter- dg
This is what the public wants and expects.
The cable news stations are in competetion for revenue, and they’re just giving us what generates ratings.
News stations are now competeing with the National Enquirer and US Weekly for political “scoops.”
My kids recently graduated from government high school. Their verdict: rather than promote abstinence, current drug and sex-education programs actually encourage kids to experiment. Neither they nor their friends were impressed with either.
>>Neither they nor their friends were impressed with either.>>
Maybe they’re using reverse psychology???
Naah. I didn’t think so either.
dagon
also, bristol palin was taught in the manner that the gov. wanted…ABSTINENCE ONLY! her school system adhered to that and it was reportedly reinforced in the home. why do you think the palin’s lived there.
sheesh
peace
That’s just dagon’s private little fantasy world about domination. He wants the Left to dominate, so obviously Palin must be dominating things the same way. Very funny.
Devx, they had teenage pregnancies in Victorian England as well. And their society was ostensibly prudish. What people do not understand is that in societies like Victorian England or the America that conservatives pine for, the sexuality goes underground and becomes even more extreme. I have a friend, a professor of English at Harvard University (sorry, Bookworm), who is an expert on pornography in Victrorian England; he tells me that it would make Larry Flynt blush. Another example: Japan is more prudish than America currently, with less sexuality tolerated in the media; however, Japanese college students are far more sexually active than Americans, according to polls and media reports that I have seen. They do have fewer pregnancies, however, which I believe is because there is no resistence to wider availability of contraception. I’d be curious what others know about this.