A Turning Tide?

There was an interesting article in the Dallas Morning News yesterday about the effectiveness of abstinence-only sex education in the public school system. Then this morning there was another in the news section of AOL. Here is an excerpt from the AOL article.


What if abstinence-only programs actually work?
That's the question facing educators this week after a groundbreaking study found that students who take classes emphasizing abstinence are less likely to have sex than those who take classes teaching safe sex.
Although the effectiveness and virtues of sex-ed versus abstinence-only curricula have long been the subject of fierce debate in American schools, the federal study, published in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, is the first of its kind to suggest that programs encouraging students to abstain from having sex altogether are successful.
Just under half of the students in the study who received sex-education classes that included information about contraceptives went on to have sex in the next two years. But only one out of three students in the study who received abstinence-only education did.
Researchers say the long-term study, which followed 662 African-American public middle school students between 2001 and 2004, is significant. John Jemmott, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who headed the study, told The Washington Post, "I think we've written off abstinence-only education without looking closely at the nature of the evidence. Our study shows this could be one approach that could be used."


I remember when the push began for an abstinence-only alternative to the so-called sex education curriculum in public schools. The ones on the liberal left ridiculed it as an archaic approach that had no place in modern day America. Maybe the tide is starting to turn a little bit with this solid scientific research that shows the effectiveness of encouraging abstinence. It's not a matter of teaching young folks that this is God's way, but it's more of a common sense approach that educates them about the risks and consequences of sexual activity outside of marriage. It seems that when young folks are educated about such matters, most of them are smart enough to choose wisely.
Of course, I believe God's way is the best way in this as well as in all other matters of life. It is amazing how much trouble and heartache people could avoid--and how much better their lives could be!--if they would seek to follow God's instructions for their lives. Thanks for reading while I've been up on my soapbox a bit. Follow God's instructions and have a great day today, a great life, and a great eternity!

"Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it." (Matthew 7:24-27)