A small victory in a swing state

[Warren Stupidity]

Hollis NH - 5/13/2005 Hollis Brookline Journal

"Sex ed materials 'too judgemental'
Schools will no longer use speaker from Bible-based group
Vincent Gerbino
Hollis Brookline Staff.

HOLLIS-a speaker from a religious based organization that promotes teen sexual abstinence will no longer be invited to speak at the schools here.

Sex education materials provided to the school by STOP (Students Taking On Purity) are too judgemental about sexual behavior particularly in the area of abstinence, said Carol Mace, the Hollis Brookline school district curriculum coordinator."

Parents, it seems, were outraged when their children related what crap was being foisted on them by STOP. It was the whole abstinence boatload of bullshit, including massive misinformation about condom failure rates and irrelevent anti-abortion diatribes. Naturally information about abstinence failure rates was entirely missing :-)

All politics is local. We all need to get involved, we all need to stand up and speak out against the madness. We will be pleasantly surprised to learn how many others share our views.

[libodem]

1. Glad to hear this

somewhere a wake-up call has been answered. I've always thought sex-ed should be a little more 'critical thinking' vs 'you'll burn in hell' if you step over the line. Thanks for sharing a hopeful note.

[cestpaspossible]

2. details?

I curious because your comment talks about misinformation, but the article does not give that as the stated reason -- they say it was 'too judgemental'.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. Oh I visited the web site.

http://www.nhstop.org/stop%20presentation.htm

Plus I have three kids in the school system and the first time one of them told me what was being told to them I just about fell off my chair.

The article in the HB-journal didn't get specific at all, other than to say that one of the parents objected to some of the anti-abortion stuff the lady-taliban was spewing.

Go see for yourself, although I hate bumping their hit count :-(

[cestpaspossible]

5. Example

2. Balloon exercise (illustrates untrustworthiness of condoms).

a. Before you introduce this activity, secretly poke a hole in one balloon.

b. Depending on the size of the audience, use 1-3 balloons randomly to students. Ask them to blow them up for you to help you out.

d. While they are blowing them up, start up some simple discussion with the rest of the class until someone says their balloon has a hole in it. Act embarrassed as if you didn't know that this was the situation. Tell them to do the best they can; try to cover the hole with their finger and keep blowing, etc.

e. Instruct those students with the inflated balloons to tie theirs off.

f. Begin the debriefing with the students by asking them what they thought the point of the activity was.

g. Explain to them that what they just observed was an illustration of one of the problems with condoms.

No, that's an illustration of someone lying.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. yup

What I find amazing is that they have this sitting on their web site as if there is nothing wrong with it.

[ewagner]

3. A small victory

but an important one...it can be "modeled" and used elsewhere....

[MuseRider]

6. Every small victory

means a lot. Every one. Thanks for posting this.

Locally is where we build our support and it is always good to know when we win something.