Connecticut Local Politics

There’s a bill causing yet another dust-up over sex education percolating its way through the Capitol. Here’s what the bill would do:

The measure would authorize the state Department of Education to establish a grant program to pay for “medically accurate” health education for school districts that seek to participate. The state would provide $1 million for the program.

The word “sex” is not mentioned in the legislation and the grants would only pay for programs that follow state curriculum guidelines, which forbid discussion of abortion as an alternative to family planning.

But those provisions fail to mollify opponents. Theresa Krankowski, director of St. Gerard’s Center for Life, a Catholic pregnancy center in Hartford, said comprehensive sex education is incompatible with abstinence, which she said should instead be taught. (AP)

Abstinence-only education sounds great, of course, except that it doesn’t work. Nor does sex education actually encourage sexual activity, as some claim (trust me, watching your middle-aged science teachers put condoms on a banana is about the least sexy thing there is). Not that that’s going to stop opponents of the bill.

A high school teacher I once knew had what I thought was a good approach to the subject. She pushed abstinence as being the best solution, and the best way to avoid pregnancy, etc., but she made sure the students had all of the other knowledge they needed as well. That always seemed reasonable to me.

Hopefully legislators will not find themselves cowed, and think clearly on what has always been an emotional and divisive subject.

Source
“Proposed legislation sparks protest over sex education.” Associated Press 1 March, 2008.