Ini masalah di amerika di mana banyak anak umur belasan tahun telah hamil, dan upaya pencegahannya yang masih tetap diragukan melalui pendidikan sex . . .
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/casey/6299274.html Sex education wont stop teens from getting pregnant By RICK CASEY Some years ago I was driving by the Healy-Murphy Center, an inner-city school run by Sister Boniface ONeill and some other nuns in San Antonio. Its primary mission was serving teen mothers and pregnant teens. For the first time, I noticed one of those back-lit signs Coca-Cola used to give schools. It said, Go Trojans Go! By coincidence that night at a dinner party I sat next to a young man who taught at the school. I told him about seeing the slogan and asked him a question: Do the nuns get the joke? He chuckled, and said, You bet they do. That incident and Sister Boniface have been on my mind recently as Ive read stories about a bill introduced by Houston Sen. Rodney Ellis and San Antonio Rep. Joaquin Castro that would change the states mandate regarding sex education in schools. Currently, if a school district chooses to offer sex education, abstinence is the only method of birth control that is required to be taught. Further information on contraception is optional, and only after consultation with a Local School Advisory Council. The proposed law would require schools that choose to offer sex education to stress that abstinence is the only surefire way to avoid pregnancy and disease, but also to inform students in an age-appropriate manner of various methods of contraception and disease avoidance. Parents could choose to withhold their children from the program. Ellis says the current system isnt working. Thats an understatement. Texas ranks third in teen births per capita, behind the always reliable Mississippi and New Mexico, according to a recent federal report. And teen birth rates in the United States are by far the highest in the developed world -- 69 percent higher than second-place Great Britain. So is better sex ed, even as timid as the proposed law, the answer? Sister Boniface would have rolled her Irish eyes at the notion. Not that she was against sex education, but she knew it wasnt nearly enough. You need to understand that most of these girls want to get pregnant, she once told me. Some of them think it will help them hold on to the boy. And they think of it as something that gives them status, that makes them important. Sister Boniface has since gone to her reward, but Julie Crowe, manager of prevention and early intervention services at Houstons DePelchin Childrens Center, echoes the same wisdom. She said some of the pregnant teenagers she deals with are ignorant. Some, for example, have told her they thought douching with 7 Up after sex they would prevent pregnancy. But many want a baby. Many are thinking they arent going to be successful in other parts of their lives, in school or in a career, she said. Also, they dont see themselves getting married. But they think, Im a mother! Ive done something important. Whats the cause? Many Americans assume that teenage pregnancy causes poverty. But recent studies support both Sister Boniface and Julie Crowe. Poverty causes teen pregnancy, writes Harvard Medical Schools Janet Rich-Edwards in the International Journal of Epidemiology. Simply put, girls with prospects do not have babies. Crowe says one effective way of giving girls prospects is involving them in social service programs. A couple of summers ago we took a group of girls to work on a Habitat for Humanity house, she said. They were so proud of themselves for what they were able to do. It gave them a sense that maybe they could do things they didnt know they could do. If she had to choose, would she prefer mandated sex ed for teenagers or mandated community service? She hesitated briefly, then said: Id probably choose community service. [email protected] Brought to you by the HoustonChronicle.com
