Thursday, February 19, 2009

"Back when you were young"

Gary is taking health at the charter school and it is making him crazy. He periodically has to rant.

It is abstinence only everything. Don't have sex until you are married, don't ever drink, don't use drugs, don't smoke. Here are some reasons why you should do none of these things. Got it? Okay, moving on. Gary gets frustrated because so many of the kids are sheltered to the point where they don't know anything. In class one of the kids asked how you could get HIV. The teacher refused to answer the question. So Gary did. Today Gary was angry because they weren't telling them anything about how to recognize addiction and how to find recovery programs.

So we listened as we drove.

And of course he got to the sexual abstinence part. He told us how ridiculous abstinence only education was. And then he said:

"Okay, maybe back when you guys were young, you know in that age, maybe then abstinence would work, but now...Why are you laughing?"

"Hun, we were born in the sixties and were teens in the seventies."

"Oh, yeah."

Then later, over dinner, "You know, we studied your time in school!"

Yep that's me...I hale from a distant age, knowledge of which can be found only in history books.

5 comments:

  1. A couple of years back, American Girl introduced Julie, a new historical doll. Julie was 10 years old in 1974.

    Sigh. Historical, like Addy from after the Civil War, Kit from the Great Depression, Felicity from colonial times...

    But it certainly is fun looking at Julie's accessories and reminiscing, which is probably what American Girl was counting on in the first place.

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  2. Approximately a year ago I heard something about "oldies" playing in the radio so I get ready to listen to some 50s music when they started playing 80's music (my music!)...I couldn't get over the fact that they were calling 80s stuff "oldies" - when did I become an "oldie" - ugh.

    Eos (Google is acting up again!)

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  3. I remember a few years ago hearing a station refer to it as Retro 80's. I almost swerved off the road! The 80's retro.. no way. I don't remember learning how to put a condom on in health class, but I believe that it was a combination of abstinence and VERY general birth control prevents pregnancy. This was before it was certain about how HIV is transmitted.

    Coming of age in the 80's and not knowing about HIV, I think in this day and age that purposefully withholding information about how to prevent HIV should be treated as negligence. This information can literally be the difference between life/death. Kudos to Gary for speaking up.

    I think Gary should take a copy of the article about Bristol Palin talking about abstinence only education. I mean really if she says it's bogus then maybe the right should listen.

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  4. ROFL! My standard line to my kids is "back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was a little child. . . "

    The stance on the part of the school is disturbing though. Not answering a direct question????

    I know writing isn't Gary's thing but since the class is something he is feeling passionately about, maybe a letter to the editor of the local paper, or the school paper would be worth considering?

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  5. You want to get really ticked off at abstinence-only education? Take a look at this part of your tax dollars at work: http://www.missthemess.com/party/index.php (hat tip to feministe: http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2009/02/13/abstinence-only-ed-sez-you-cant-rape-a-slut/)

    Kudos to Gary!

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