Usually Mac uses this blog to rant, but today its my turn!
We're in VA again (which is beautiful and lovely) and today while we were out running around doing errands we had talk radio on. The announcer on the radio was talking about a middle school in Portland, Maine. It seems that there has been an increase in pregnancies among middle school aged girls (17 pregnancies in 4 middle schools over the past few years) and so a school in Portland, Maine has joined the ranks of one in Baltimore, MD and Seattle, WA in making birth control available to children in middle school. That's right they are giving children 11-13 birth control, condoms and other contraceptive devices ... and while parents have to consent to their children attending the medical clinic, they are not allowed to know what happens there with their child -- confidentiality and all that.
Ok, so children are having sex ... we must make it safe for them, right? WHAT?! Has no one stopped to ask the question as to WHY children, yes that's right CHILDREN, not young adults, or teens, are having sex? Have we stopped to examine the culture these children are being raised in where it is permissible for kids to have sex? No, we simply make it easier or them!
Now i know that there are many in this society that would call me all sorts of names for thinking that sex and marriage go together, and sex should only happen in the context of marriage, but regardless of that.... i think most people would find the idea of children having sex disgusting. And quite frankly, i think that a society that condones such behaviour is at best irresponsible.
Children 11-13 are children and we should be protecting their innocence. Its still an age where girls play with barbies (or at least i did), and maybe guys play with G.I Joes. They are starting to realize that the opposite gender may not have as many cooties as we had originally thought. Over all the world is good, life is happy (though school work gets in the way), and recess is the highlight of the day. Shouldn't we as adults be protecting that reality for children? Allowing them to be kids for as long as possible, because we know this world will take their innocence soon enough?
As i think about my good friend's almost 10yr old daughter, it pains me to think that in just a couple years, if she went to the right school, she could be getting the pill. It is frustrating to think that kids think that sex is an appropriate pass time. Why has this happened?? How do we turn the tide and let kids be kids again? Perhaps this is evidence that the amoral teaching of sex ed isn't working the way educators thought it would and maybe, just maybe, telling kids to wait is not a bad thing? Kids should be kids, not engaging in activities to make more kids....
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