tagged w/ Sex Education
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Speed cameras are a scam, Ohio judge rules-Sex education becomes the new battlefield over abortion-SCOTUS-Backed Surveillance Law Built on another Bush lie.-Police: Teacher Forced Student To Perform Lap Dances In Class-Study: Bee Venom Kills HIV-Florida Cops Raid Disabled Activist Hours After She’s Linked To Marijuana Bill-New theory ‘rewrites’ Stonehenge history-Susan Rice in line to become Obama’s national security adviser, say reports-NYPD Officer Secretly Photographed Doing Good, Purchasing Homeless Man $100 BootsSpeed cameras are a scam, Ohio judge rules-Sex education becomes the new battlefield... more
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While most U.S. public schools start sex education in the fifth grade, sex education will be coming to Chicago kindergartners within two years as part of an overhaul of the Chicago public schools sexual health program.
The new policy, which the Chicago Board of Education passed Wednesday, mandates that a set amount of time be spent on sex education in every grade, beginning in kindergarten. Chicago has the third-largest public school system in the country, with 431,000 students.
“It is important that we provide students of all ages with accurate and appropriate information so they can make healthy choices in regards to their social interactions, behaviors and relationships,” Barbara Byrd-Bennett, the CEO of the Chicago Public School System, said in a statement. “By implementing a new sexual health education policy, we will be helping them to build a foundation of knowledge that can guide them not just in the preadolescent and adolescent years, but throughout their lives.”
Under the new policy, the youngest students – the kindergartners — will learn the basics about anatomy, reproduction, healthy relationships and personal safety. Through the third grade, the sex-ed lessons will focus on the family, feelings and appropriate and inappropriate touching. In the fourth grade, students will start learning about puberty, and HIV. Discussions will emphasize that the virus cannot be transmitted through everyday contact such as shaking hands or sharing food.
From the fifth through the 12th grade, the emphasis will be on reproduction, the transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS, and other sexually-transmitted diseases, bullying and contraception, including abstinence.
For the first time in Chicago, sex-ed instruction will cover sexual orientation and gender identity. Students will be introduced to terms and definitions associated with sexual identity, including those related to heterosexual and LGBT populations, in an effort to bring awareness, promote tolerance and prevent bullying, said the school board.
Parents or guardians of students can opt out of the sexual health education program if they so choose.
Developed by the Chicago Public Schools Office of Student Health and Wellness last year, the policy was designed to align the Chicago public school system with the standards in President Obama’s national HIV/AIDS strategy.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/02/28/chicago-passes-sex-ed-for-kindergartners/While most U.S. public schools start sex education in the fifth grade, sex education... more
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OK, you harlots and fornicators, let’s get something clear right off the bat. This column’s examination of Christianist sex education books is a serious look at the cultural attitudes of the Religious Right, not just an excuse to snicker at the crazy fulminations of the late Hugh F. Pyle of Panama City Florida, the author of Sex, Love, & Romance: Sex Education from the Bible.OK, you harlots and fornicators, let’s get something clear right off the bat.... more
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As abortion hits UK headlines with calls to cut the time limit again, Dr Ellie Lee sets the record straight on what should be a personal choice for women and doctors, not a legal matter, not a matter for science or MP predilections and posturing. This timely ‘on the sofa’ discussion is a must for everyone concerned with where this debate is heading. In a civilised society Dr Lee explains, we need to make it possible for everyone to act according to their needs and views. In practice she argues this requires the decriminalisation of abortion and she tells us, the Sarah Catt case provides a cast iron argument for that. Not everyone will agree the stage at which life matters she points out and not everyone on the sofa agrees with Dr Lee. Yet, her compelling insights leave us in no doubt that her approach would make it possible to cater for women’s needs and doctors' preferences without imposing on anyone.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oqc4LYw3Ux4&feature=relmfuAs abortion hits UK headlines with calls to cut the time limit again, Dr Ellie Lee... more
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Explain why you don’t wear a flag pin on your pajamas, or that the 10 Commandments and the Bill of Rights are entirely separate documents, or why you believe Barack Obama is an American citizen to a rabid conservative and they’re likely to ask, “Why do you hate America?”
My question for them is, “Why do you hate sex?”Explain why you don’t wear a flag pin on your pajamas, or that the 10... more
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Yes, let’s just kick them out, deny them an education, and slut-shame them all at the same time. Three birds, one stone.
http://veracitystew.com/?p=40479Yes, let’s just kick them out, deny them an education, and slut-shame them all... more
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I’m not a woman nor do I pretend to know what it feels like to be one. However, I’m fairly certain that when a woman finds out she is pregnant she doesn’t say, “Gee, I think I’ll have an abortion. I’ll invite my girlfriends. Maybe grab a salad and spend a little time at the spa before we go for drinks. It’ll be fun.”I’m not a woman nor do I pretend to know what it feels like to be one. However,... more
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I gotta say, for a group of people so enamored with the process of procreation, they sure hate how babies are made. I guess they think they were delivered into their parents’ care by the Vlasic Pickle stork, and at this rate, that’s what the poor kids of Tennessee will be left believing.
http://veracitystew.com/?p=33609I gotta say, for a group of people so enamored with the process of procreation, they... more
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SHARE far and wide! -- The most ridiculous (and unintentionally funny) anti-Planned Parenthood video you will ever watch...
The video explains that Planned Parenthood is actually like a drug dealer that attempts to get teenagers addicted to sex by filling their minds with stuff like “penis lollipops,” “vagina cakes,” and “vulva puppets.”
http://veracitystew.com/?p=30831SHARE far and wide! -- The most ridiculous (and unintentionally funny) anti-Planned... more
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WWH- What did you say your name was?
54-year-old woman experiences amnesia during sex, confounds researchers
Patients may unwittingly trigger the transient global amnesia by raising the pressure inside their abdomens, depriving the brain of oxygen and blood.WWH- What did you say your name was?
54-year-old woman experiences amnesia during... more
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Slice them where you will, any collection of psychoanalysts is as mad as a parliament. Novelty beards, whirling eyes, twitches, deranged clothing, tics, jitters and habits you wouldn’t want to go into. ButSlice them where you will, any collection of psychoanalysts is as mad as a parliament.... more
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Home / News / National / National
NYC to mandate sex education in public schools
StoryDiscussionNYC to mandate sex education in public schools
Associated Press | Posted: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 8:10 am | (0) Comments
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.Mandatory sex-education classes are returning to New York City public schools for the first time in nearly two decades.
The New York Times ( http://nyti.ms/nwxKG8) reports that middle and high school students will be required to take sex-education classes beginning this year.
The curriculum includes lessons on how to use a condom and the appropriate age for sexual activity.
The new mandate calls for students to take one semester of sex education in 6th or 7th grade, and again in 9th or 10th grade. Children as young as 11 will participate in discussions on topics like pregnancy and the risks of unprotected sex.
Parents will be able to have their children opt out of the lessons on birth-control methods.
The classes can be incorporated into existing health education courses.
Read more: http://poststar.com/news/national/nyc-to-mandate-sex-education-in-public-schools/article_f079aa82-4a7a-575b-865b-ce23a7fc7e81.html?mode=story#ixzz1UdC9ARzGHome / News / National / National
NYC to mandate sex education in public schools... more
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CNN...
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/07/27/cameroon.breast.ironing/index.html?hpt=hp_c1
Breast ironing tradition targeted in Cameroon
From Nkepile Mabuse, CNN
July 27, 2011 8:53 p.m. EDT
Click on photo to play video
Activists fight breast ironing tradition
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(CNN) --
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Every morning before school, nine-year-old Terisia Techu would undergo a painful procedure. Her mother would take a burning hot pestle straight out of a fire and use it to press her breasts.
With tears in her eyes as she recalls what it was like, Terisia tells CNN that one day the pestle was so hot, it burned her, leaving a mark. Now 18, she is still traumatized.
Her mother, Grace, denies the incident. But she proudly demonstrates the method she used on her daughter for several weeks, saying the goal was to make her less desirable to boys -- and stave off pregnancy.
A study found that one in four girls in Cameroon have been affected by the practice.
The U.S. State Department, in its 2010 human rights report on Cameroon, cited news reports and said breast ironing "victimized numerous girls in the country" and in some cases "resulted in burns, deformities, and psychological problems."
There are more than 200 ethnic groups in Cameroon with different norms and customs. Breast ironing is practiced by all of them.
Some mothers use hot stones or coconut shells to flatten their daughters' breasts.
Doctors believe improved diets have resulted in young Cameroonian girls going through puberty early. Many of them are also becoming pregnant early.
Terisia became pregnant at 15. Her child died at birth.
She told CNN that breast ironing doesn't work. She hates the practice and wishes her mother had instead talked to her about sex and preventing pregnancy.
Grace Techu argues that if it weren't for the breast ironing, Terisia would have become pregnant at an even younger age.
Techu has four daughters, and she used the procedure on the first two. The third avoided it because her breasts are growing at an acceptable rate, Techu says, and the fourth girl is still too young.
Mothers who want their children to finish school before becoming parents have resorted to this drastic measure, and many see nothing wrong with it.
In 2006, a German nongovernmental organization exposed the practice, which at the time was done mainly in secret.
Now, charities have embarked on campaigns to educate mothers in Cameroon that sex education -- not breast ironing -- is the solution to ending teenage pregnancy.
Dr Sinou Tchana, a gynecologist in Cameroon, has seen breast glands that were destroyed. She also saw one case of cancer, though she says it couldn't be established whether the ironing caused or only exacerbated the cancer.
"One mother came with secondary burns because the stone she was using to do this breast ironing burned her," Tchana says.
One of Tchana's patients is a 23-year-old whose scars are still painful 14 years after her breasts were ironed. She has joined the effort to confront mothers about the effects of their actions.
The challenge for all those trying to stop the practice is reaching parents like Techu in villages before a ritual that they say is motivated by love shatters more lives.
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CNN's Josh Levs contributed to this report.CNN...... more
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This is a poem I wrote about abortion, the pro-life/pro-choice debate, and the points that I think we are missing when we talk about abortion. You can read the poem here as well:
http://www.writerscafe.org/writing/newyorkglow/737875/This is a poem I wrote about abortion, the pro-life/pro-choice debate, and the points... more
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Loosely based on the dark tales of H.P. Lovecraft, “Late Bloomer is a compelling and humorous short film about 7th grade sex ed class gone horribly wrong.”
Official selection at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Director: Craig Macneill.Loosely based on the dark tales of H.P. Lovecraft, “Late Bloomer is a compelling... more
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When it comes to making policy decisions, science seems less and less popular these days. David Nutt was sacked as the UK government's chief drugs advisor for publicly stating what science had already proven: that tobacco and alcohol are more harmful than marijuana, ecstasy and LSD.
Too often our society lets fear dictate how we deal with our children's inevitable exposure to sex and drugs.
In an ideal world, teenagers would wait until they were more firmly settled psychologically before experimenting and making adult decisions about sex and drugs - due to the complications and risks that such decisions inevitably bring with them. However today's reality is a culture where children are exposed to adult themes at younger and younger ages.
In America we teach abstinence-only education in the hope that by not teaching kids harm-minimizing techniques such as birth control and contraception, they will simply not have sex. Unfortunately, there is now concrete evidence that this doesn't work. Studies show that, following a decade-long decline 'U.S. teen pregnancy rates have increased as both births and abortions rise.'
http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2010/01/26/index.html
As a teenager most of my friends' parents were strong abolitionists. If any of them had found out their son or daughter were smoking the occasional joint or having sex, they would have permanently grounded them or even kicked them out of the house. Needless to say this didn't stop them. So what can parents and teachers do to help teens mature into young adults who make responsible decisions?
Maybe if someone taught them how to minimize risks when imbibing mind-altering substances in the same way one learns about units when drinking alcohol. Maybe if schools taught about emotional and physical intimacy (and of course, contraception) alongside lessons on physiology and sex.
What passes for 'sex education' in America is, frankly, disgraceful. For over a quarter century, the federal government has supported abstinence-only education programs that censor information to youth. America still has the highest rate of teen pregnancies in the developed world, 1.5 times the teen pregnancy rate of Britain (the highest in Europe.)
The United States’ teen pregnancy rate is over five times that of the Netherlands, over four times that of Germany, and over three times that of France. The obvious explanation is that young people in the United States are significantly less likely to use contraception than youth in these European nations.
These statistics come as no surprise when you look at the number of programs that teach abstinence-only-until-marriage: an unrealistic, morality-based agenda that ignores the fact that virtually all Americans have sex before marriage (a fact that has been true since the 1950s). Amplify Your Voice, a sex-education and youth-education organization, has published several videos featuring animated bears discussing real abstinence-only lessons being taught in classrooms. Losing one's virginity as a girl can be difficult enough, never mind with lessons like these at school:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoIeXgCfwNI&feature=player_embedded
The organization says the "chewed up candy" exercise is from AC Green's Game Plan, an abstinence-only program endorsed by the former basketball star that is used in many public schools in Illinois. The "Spit in a Cup" exercise is from "Why Am I Tempted," a program which received funding under President Obama's Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative (TPPI) to be taught in schools in Florida.
These programs censor information about contraception and condoms while stigmatizing and shaming students who have already had sex. Never mind the fact that they discriminate against LGBT youth by at best ignoring them altogether - or worse, promoting homophobia by teaching students that homosexuality is deviant and immoral.
Drug education is also in the dark ages. From the Economist:
"Until recently the dominant approach was Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE), a programme developed in Los Angeles in 1983 and quickly exported to the rest of America. Cops would arrive in schools, sometimes driving cars confiscated from drug-dealers, and tell 11- and 12-year-olds about the dangers of illicit substances. They drew little or no distinction between marijuana and methamphetamine. Teachers liked DARE because they felt uncomfortable tackling the topic themselves, and because they got a break. Parents liked it because they felt their children would listen to police officers. Unfortunately, they did not. "
http://www.economist.com/node/13234144
Studies are constantly conducted to see if drug education is effective in preventing drug use. Maybe researchers are asking the wrong question. Accepting that the urge to alter one's consciousness is actually a universal human (and animal) drive (see http://www.amazon.com/Intoxication-Universal-Drive-Mind-Altering-Substances/dp/1594770697), we should be looking at how that can be accomplished safely. If kids were taught about harm reduction, the potential for compulsive use and addiction, how to make sure you don't exceed the correct dosage, etc. would we not stand a better chance of eliminating unnecessary deaths from drug abuse?
But of course when it comes to drugs, we're even farther away from this ideal than we are with sex. For at least most people agree that it's natural for teenagers to want to start experimenting sexually, whereas our society can't seem to accept drug experimentation in adults, never mind teens.
This mindset, based on stigma, judgement, stereotypes, and puritanical denial of basic human urges, can do nothing but make the situation worse. Teens see the hypocrisy of adults drinking alcohol and then telling them not to 'do drugs'. They see their friends getting stoned and not turning into junkies. They find out their parents once experimented too.
So it's their turn to experiment - and that's exactly what they do. During this naive experimentation kids consume impure substances purchased on the street, combine drugs that shouldn't be mixed, overdose because they didn't know how much they were taking. But who was there to teach them?
At the same time, young adults inevitably explore their sexuality, either with or without guidance from the adult world in regards to physical precautions that can be taken and the emotional implications of becoming intimate with another human being.
Parents' strict prohibitionist attitudes backfire as they're no longer on the list of people their kids can talk to about these new and sometimes overwhelming experiences. They lose touch with their own children. Their ability to retain influence and stay involved during this crucial time in young adulthood all but disappears.
At the end of the day, the problem is that the majority of adults are not comfortable with their own sexuality or history of drug-taking, and they're certainly not comfortable imagining their kids doing the same thing they did when they were younger. If parents don't start growing up themselves, why should they expect their kids to?
Read more at www.thedailytransmission.comWhen it comes to making policy decisions, science seems less and less popular these... more
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When it comes to making policy decisions, science seems less and less popular these days. David Nutt was sacked as the UK government's chief drugs advisor for publicly stating what science had already proven: that tobacco and alcohol are more harmful than marijuana, ecstasy and LSD.
Too often our society lets fear dictate how we deal with our children's inevitable exposure to sex and drugs.
In an ideal world, teenagers would wait until they were more firmly settled psychologically before experimenting and making adult decisions about sex and drugs - due to the complications and risks that such decisions inevitably bring with them. However today's reality is a culture where children are exposed to adult themes at younger and younger ages.
In America we teach abstinence-only education in the hope that by not teaching kids harm-minimizing techniques such as birth control and contraception, they will simply not have sex. Unfortunately, there is now concrete evidence that this doesn't work. Studies show that, following a decade-long decline 'U.S. teen pregnancy rates have increased as both births and abortions rise.'
http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2010/01/26/index.html
As a teenager most of my friends' parents were strong abolitionists. If any of them had found out their son or daughter were smoking the occasional joint or having sex, they would have permanently grounded them or even kicked them out of the house. Needless to say this didn't stop them. So what can parents and teachers do to help teens mature into young adults who make responsible decisions?
Maybe if someone taught them how to minimize risks when imbibing mind-altering substances in the same way one learns about units when drinking alcohol. Maybe if schools taught about emotional and physical intimacy (and of course, contraception) alongside lessons on physiology and sex.
What passes for 'sex education' in America is, frankly, disgraceful. For over a quarter century, the federal government has supported abstinence-only education programs that censor information to youth. America still has the highest rate of teen pregnancies in the developed world, 1.5 times the teen pregnancy rate of Britain (the highest in Europe.)
The United States’ teen pregnancy rate is over five times that of the Netherlands, over four times that of Germany, and over three times that of France. The obvious explanation is that young people in the United States are significantly less likely to use contraception than youth in these European nations.
These statistics come as no surprise when you look at the number of programs that teach abstinence-only-until-marriage: an unrealistic, morality-based agenda that ignores the fact that virtually all Americans have sex before marriage (a fact that has been true since the 1950s). Amplify Your Voice, a sex-education and youth-education organization, has published several videos featuring animated bears discussing real abstinence-only lessons being taught in classrooms. Losing one's virginity as a girl can be difficult enough, never mind with lessons like these at school:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoIeXgCfwNI&feature=player_embedded
The organization says the "chewed up candy" exercise is from AC Green's Game Plan, an abstinence-only program endorsed by the former basketball star that is used in many public schools in Illinois. The "Spit in a Cup" exercise is from "Why Am I Tempted," a program which received funding under President Obama's Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative (TPPI) to be taught in schools in Florida.
These programs censor information about contraception and condoms while stigmatizing and shaming students who have already had sex. Never mind the fact that they discriminate against LGBT youth by at best ignoring them altogether - or worse, promoting homophobia by teaching students that homosexuality is deviant and immoral.
Drug education is also in the dark ages. From the Economist:
"Until recently the dominant approach was Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE), a programme developed in Los Angeles in 1983 and quickly exported to the rest of America. Cops would arrive in schools, sometimes driving cars confiscated from drug-dealers, and tell 11- and 12-year-olds about the dangers of illicit substances. They drew little or no distinction between marijuana and methamphetamine. Teachers liked DARE because they felt uncomfortable tackling the topic themselves, and because they got a break. Parents liked it because they felt their children would listen to police officers. Unfortunately, they did not. "
http://www.economist.com/node/13234144
Studies are constantly conducted to see if drug education is effective in preventing drug use. Maybe researchers are asking the wrong question. Accepting that the urge to alter one's consciousness is actually a universal human (and animal) drive (see http://www.amazon.com/Intoxication-Universal-Drive-Mind-Altering-Substances/dp/1594770697), we should be looking at how that can be accomplished safely. If kids were taught about harm reduction, the potential for compulsive use and addiction, how to make sure you don't exceed the correct dosage, etc. would we not stand a better chance of eliminating unnecessary deaths from drug abuse?
But of course when it comes to drugs, we're even farther away from this ideal than we are with sex. For at least most people agree that it's natural for teenagers to want to start experimenting sexually, whereas our society can't seem to accept drug experimentation in adults, never mind teens.
This mindset, based on stigma, judgement, stereotypes, and puritanical denial of basic human urges, can do nothing but make the situation worse. Teens see the hypocrisy of adults drinking alcohol and then telling them not to 'do drugs'. They see their friends getting stoned and not turning into junkies. They find out their parents once experimented too.
So it's their turn to experiment - and that's exactly what they do. During this naive experimentation kids consume impure substances purchased on the street, combine drugs that shouldn't be mixed, overdose because they didn't know how much they were taking. But who was there to teach them?
At the same time, young adults inevitably explore their sexuality, either with or without guidance from the adult world in regards to physical precautions that can be taken and the emotional implications of becoming intimate with another human being.
Parents' strict prohibitionist attitudes backfire as they're no longer on the list of people their kids can talk to about these new and sometimes overwhelming experiences. They lose touch with their own children. Their ability to retain influence and stay involved during this crucial time in young adulthood all but disappears.
At the end of the day, the problem is that the majority of adults are not comfortable with their own sexuality or history of drug-taking, and they're certainly not comfortable imagining their kids doing the same thing they did when they were younger. If parents don't start growing up themselves, why should they expect their kids to?When it comes to making policy decisions, science seems less and less popular these... more
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Feminists-gender equality at last.
Levity apart it is a fact that women are slow to be aroused and have greater passion for Sex than me.
Difference is that they do not advertise.
Also appearing to be reluctant and disinterested is one of the tools of evolution to have the opposite sex interested for longer period of time.
http://ramanan50.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/man-seeks-protection-from-sex-mad-wife/Feminists-gender equality at last.
Levity apart it is a fact that women are slow to... more
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