BORED this summer?? WE'VE GOT THINGS TO DO!

The following is a MySpace bulletin targeting bored teens posted by one of our staff...

Everyday I see some new teen post something like this on their status:

• BoReD.
• ....ummm....yeah. NOTHING to do!
• Staring at the wall. Txt me!

So, I get the message. You're bored. During the school year you have no free time because you're booked with homework and extracurricular activities.

But in the summer everything seems to slow down.

Some of you think you're too old for camp. Others think you're too young for a job.

So you sit at your computer and tell everyone you have nothing to do.

Well - I've got a couple of GREAT IDEAS for you then!

1. Go to our website. We've got a whole section devoted to bored teens. check it out here!
   
   
   
2. Do you like reading? Do you like the thought of being featured on our website? Click here to find out how to do both!
3. Get outside! Have you gone to 8 Great Tuesdays, the beach, or the free movies at the park? More great ideas are listed here.

There's no excuse for being bored! Find something to do!!

Sexting 101: Miami-Dade schools may be first to teach danger

By Kathleen McGrory

The Miami-Dade school district wants to be a national leader in combating teenage ''sexting,'' the practice of sending sexy or nude photos over a cellphone.

On Thursday, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said he would like to work with government and law enforcement agencies to develop a cutting-edge School Board policy -- and preach the dangers of sending racy pictures.

''This is to protect kids, to make them aware of the legal implications of some of their virtual transactions,'' Carvalho said.

Because ''sexting'' can be considered pornography, young people who send pictures of themselves or their classmates can be charged with a felony.

In Pennsylvania, six teenagers were recently hit with child pornography charges. A teen in Brevard County was forced to register as a sex offender.


If approved by the School Board, the Miami-Dade district's approach to sexting will be comprehensive, said Assistant Superintendent Ava Byrne.

First, school officials will develop a curriculum to be initiated this school year educating students about the issue. The lessons will be designed for students based on their age, Byrne said. Younger students, for example, might learn about the appropriate use of technology, or respect for themselves and their peers.

Additionally, teachers will receive special training, Byrne said.

Parents will be involved, too. The district plans to develop special strategies for them.

''Parents may not know how to initiate the conversation with their children,'' Byrne said.

Mindy Gould, who heads the Miami-Dade Council of PTAs/PTSAs, said she welcomes the opportunity to work with the district on the issue.


''As parents, we have to realize this is something that's going on,'' she said. "I'm glad the district is taking a strong position.''

Sexting is rampant among U.S. teens: One in five said they had sent nude photographs or videos of themselves, according to a survey by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

What's more, about half the teenagers surveyed said it was common for sexually explicit photos to get passed around among friends.

Teenagers -- and preteens -- communicate with each other through text messages. Many send photos of themselves to their friends.

In Miami-Dade, district policy allows kids to have cellphones in schools, but they must be turned off during classes.

The school system is one of a handful raising awareness about sexting, Carvalho said.

In Broward County, the school district's code of conduct warns that use of a camera phone may result in additional consequences beyond confiscation if used to take pictures that are pornographic or obscene.

Broward School Board member Robin Bartleman brought up the issue earlier this year at meetings on the code of conduct and asked that the district make an effort to educate students on the consequences of sexting.

''They shouldn't be doing it anyway,'' she said. "They need to know that there are serious penalties.''

The Miami-Dade School Board will take a formal vote on the proposed policy at its meeting Wednesday.

If the policy is approved, the district will also begin conversations with local law enforcement and government agencies to review the existing laws. School system officials hope to put together policy recommendations, too.

Marriage celebrated in YouTube smash hit!

ThinkMarriage.org Blog

posted by Michele Olson

If you are on the Internet at all, or watch TV, by now you have seen the unexpected video of what appears to be a normal wedding ceremony except the bridal party dances down the aisle…and culminates with the groom and bride doing the same thing. I saw it last week for the first time and twittered it and laughed my head off. I watched it at least five times because I loved it so much.



This all took place on June 20th in a St. Paul church at the beginning of Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz’s wedding. With You Tube now boasting 1.75 million hits and growing and multiple TV appearances, how people proceed down the aisle may never be the same.


A Saturday Washington Post article talks about the whole story including the fact that they claimed to have only one rehearsal. You can watch the video and read the story here.

Congrats to the fun, gutsy couple who made their wedding their own and wanted to express to their family and friends the joy they were feeling about entering into marriage. Perhaps they have opened the door to more people expressing their personalities in small or larger ways as they express their love in the wedding ceremony.

This is a great boost for how to enter a wedding. Now…what could we do in a compatible way to get people as excited about the marriage in a huge viral move?

How about spreading the word about our :15 sec to a Better Marriage Webisodes. You can access them right here in the right hand column of our blog or at http://www.thinkmarriage.org/

Do you think we could create the same kind of buzz if everyone reading this just started sending them all over the place? Let’s try!

Journalists Link Rising Teen Pregnancy Rates to Bush Administration

Rates of teen pregnancy, STDs rose during 2006-2007. Does this mean abstinence education isn't working?

by Ruth Moon

July 23, 2009

The rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases in the U.S. rose steadily during the Bush administration, U.K. newspaper The Guardian reported earlier this week.

The Centers for Disease Control press release mentions three statistics as “signs that progress has halted in some areas” (the full report is here):

• Teen birth rates increased in 2006 and 2007, following large declines from 1991-2005.
• Rates of AIDS cases among males aged 15-24 years increased during 1997-2006 (AIDS-related data reflect people with HIV who have already progressed to AIDS.)
• Syphilis cases among teens and young adults aged 15-19 and 20-24 years have increased in both males and females in recent years.

U.S. News and World Report's Bonnie Erbe responds to the statistics by directly blaming Bush and the "Christian Right," while The Dallas Morning News's Tod Robberson offers tips for how to educate teens about sex, and Time magazine adds perspective by examining the numbers specifically for young women in foster care.

Not all the data in the release are new; The New York Times reported on some of it in 2007, where Robert Rector, a senior fellow with the American Heritage Association, connected low levels of education with a desire for motherhood without marriage.“We should be telling them that for the well-being of any child, it’s critically important that you be over the age of 20 and that you be married,” he said. “That message is not given at all.”


The Guardian article reports, “Although the CDC does not attribute a cause, groups that support comprehensive sex education have seized on the report as evidence of the failure of religiously-driven policies that shy away from teaching about contraception in favor of emphasizing avoiding sexual contact.”

Most headlines link the Bush administration with the rising pregnancy and STD rates. This brings up the question: If the three things are linked, why did teen pregnancy rates continue to drop for the first five years of Bush’s tenure before rising in his sixth year?

Maybe there’s a good answer for this — if so, please leave it in the comments.

The Guardian quotes Kristi Hamrick with the conservative nonprofit American Values as saying:

“It is ridiculous to say that a program we nominally invest in has failed when it fails to overcome the most sexualized culture in world history. Education that emphasizes abstinence as the best option for teens makes up a minuscule part of overall sex education in the United States.”

In other words, pregnancy rates increased because we were not pushing abstinence education hard enough, and we need to work harder.

What do you think?

Read the original post here

TIME for a Sober Look at Marriage

Posted on the Heritage Foundation blog
In Family and Religion

This week’s TIME magazine cover story, Unfaithfully Yours, dramatically laments the collapse of marriage:

“There is no other single force causing as much measurable hardship and human misery in this country, as the collapse of marriage. It hurts children, it reduces mothers’ financial security, and it has landed with particular devastation on those who can bear it least: the nation’s underclass,” writes Caitlin Flanagan.

Flanagan’s clarion call is backed by demographic trends that have now reached a point where nearly four of every ten babies is born out of wedlock and only half of all teenagers live in intact families. Cause for alarm is also found in a bevy of academic studies revealing the impact of the dissolution of the nuclear family on the life prospects and well-being of adults and their children.

Research has clearly shown the physical, emotional, and fiscal benefits that married couples experience, as well as the devastating impact that the decline of the intact family has for the next generation. Compared with peers living with both biological parents, children and youth in other family structures fare worse in terms of academic achievement, mental and emotional health, and problem behavior. A father’s presence and involvement can make a lasting difference in a child’s prospects for life.

A married father is more likely to be involved with his children–as Flanagan quotes our own Robert Rector– while unmarried fathers are “soon out the door” when the demands of family life inevitably occur.


Surveys have indicated that American adolescents’ attitudes toward marriage tend to be hopeful (76 percent said that the institution of marriage and family life are “extremely important” and 81 percent said that they expected to marry), but trends in their favorable attitudes toward cohabitation and premarital sexual activity belie that hope. Research indicates that cohabiting couples are more likely to experience divorce in a subsequent marriage and premarital sex is likewise related to an increased likelihood of divorce.

A study sponsored by the US Department of Health and Human Services, “Pathways to Adulthood and Marriage,” reveals that the quality of parents’ marriages has an impact on what youths anticipate for their own future, declaring that “Teens’ expectations of what a romantic relationship should be are undoubtedly influenced by the romantic relationships of their parents.” The downward spiral of the nuclear family is, thus, likely to continue, unless the concept of marriage is once again linked to personal responsibility, obligation, and a willingness to sacrifice. In Flanagan’s words,

“The fundamental question we must ask ourselves at the beginning of the century is this: What is the purpose of marriage? Is it—given the game-changing realities of birth control, female equality, and the fact that motherhood outside of marriage is no longer stigmatized—simply an institution that has the capacity to increase the pleasure of the adults who enter into it? If so, we might as well hold the wake now…The current generation of children [is]watching commitments between adults snap like dry twigs and observing parents who simply can’t be bothered to marry each other.”

Read the original post here.

How do you break up? A Telus mobile ad gives options...

The Future is Friendly?
By Wendy Shalit
July 18, 2008

A TELUS mobile poster recently caught my eye. It was a simple subway ad asking the question, "How do you break up?" Here were my options, according to Telus: "Text, email, call, messenger?" Then at the bottom, without any trace of irony: "Telus. The future is friendly."

Apparently, not friendly enough. Call me old-fashioned, but what happened to breaking up in person? I mean, it's great that Facebook gives me an update whenever "So-and-so is no longer in a relationship with so-and-so," but this always makes me worry that this is the same way so-and-so found out she'd been dumped in the first place.


Lately, I've gotten a slew of Facebook messages connected to breakups-by-text, and so I'm wondering: How do people handle this, emotionally? When someone "unfriends" you on Facebook, there is no real way to retaliate; there's no option to "Mark As, I Didn't Want to be His Friend Anyway'" or "Mark As Enemy." And that's annoying enough, but take a relationship with intimate feelings and potentially intimate body parts involved, and I would imagine that the feelings of rejection are multiplied a thousandfold if someone merely texts you "buh-bye!"

What do you think? Is this really appropriate and I'm missing something? I can see how someone might delude himself into thinking that he's tech-savvy because he's breaking up via a text message. But maybe he--or she-- is just emotionally repressed.

Here's a spoofed version of the Telus ad:

Makes a point, doesn't it?

Subscribe to the Good Girl Revolution here

The Best form of "Life-Control"

Enough said.


To hear more positive messages for our youth, check out our website: www.wc2ed.org

AC Green and the Abstinence Message

Examiner.com article: Why Choose Abstinence?
By: Tabitha Butler
July 17, 2009

I was flipping through the channels and I landed on TBN. The host was interviewing this guy with a afro. Upon further observation, I noticed it was A.C. Green, the former NBA player.

A.C. Green is known for his great basketball skills but also for his stand on abstinence. He spent 16 years in the NBA and not once did he engage in sex...an incredible feat.


The TBN interview was very intriguing because he spoke of the importance of abstinence education for our youth. He has a foundation called the A.C. Youth Foundation. It's about building character, building strong minds and strong bodies, winning and losing with dignity, teamwork and sacrifice. Among many other things, he provides programs that ignites dreams and promotes an abstinence program that says it's okay to wait until marriage.

He created an activities book entitled Game Plan, which uses a positive, sports-themed approach to understanding the benefits of abstinence. The eight-session program helps teens to formulate a game plan for their future and helps them to decide for themselves that abstinence is the healthiest choice.

What better way to promote abstinence than to live your life in that same manner!
Thanks A.C. Green!

Check out reasons to wait...given by the children in his foundation!

Click here to support the A.C. Green Foundation

Click here to read the original article from the Examiner.com

Response to: Schools Should Give Kids Free Contraceptives

Abstinence Education Is the Key
by Moira Gaul, Family Research Council

After 30 years of implementation and evaluation, there is no compelling evidence of contraceptive distribution and instruction programs having had a sustained and meaningful effect on "protective" behaviors—that is, "consistent and correct condom use" in classroom-type settings.

As a public health intervention method, contraceptive programs have simply failed American youth: An STD epidemic currently exists amongst young people. One in four teenage girls nationwide has an STD, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the U.S. continues to have the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world; and the toll from the negative psychological sequelae associated with adolescent sex is having an impact on mental health and the pursuit of life-goals.



Decreasing teen sexual activity is key to decreasing poverty, since single parenting is strongly linked to poverty. Research shows that the younger a teen starts having sex, the greater risk of pregnancy. A 2002 study from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy found that almost half of all girls who have sex before age 15 get pregnant. The distribution of contraceptives does nothing to promote healthy relationships, healthy family formation, and marriage, where a greater probability for economic stability exists.

As well as increased risk of non-marital pregnancy, substance abuse and poor academic achievement are associated with teen sexual activity and can affect school drop-out rates. According to data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, those who were sexually active were three times more likely to be depressed than those who were abstinent. By contrast, teens who abstain from sex enhance their abilities to achieve short-term and long-term life goals.

Young people deserve a whole-person approach, including physical, emotional, and psychological dimensions. The primary prevention strategy, or risk-avoidance abstinence approach, provides for a health paradigm in which youth are better able to develop during adolescent years and from which society will benefit.

http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2008/07/schools_should.html

Local Nonprofit Launches Character Curriculum

The Women's Care Center of Erie County, Inc has recently launched Carington's Wild Character Adventure (CWCA), an innovative and exciting character education curriculum designed for Kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, and 4th grade.

Years of research, development, field testing and refinement have resulted in the production of the CWCA curriculum!

The CWCA curriculum reflects key components of the Resiliency Wellness education model:

• Skills for life
• High expectations
• Meaningful engagement
• Opportunities for connectedness and bonding

Carington the giraffe leads the “wild” adventure! Children discover the value of character by exploring exotic and domestic animals, each creatively paired with a key character trait.

To take part in the adventure or to find out more: http://www.characteradventure.com/

A closer look at: Britain Tells Teens Sex OK

In today’s local Erie newspaper there was an article entitled Britain Tells Teens Sex Ok. Sound shocking? Just wait until you read more about their new approach to sex education.

Rather than taking what the writer would consider the “traditional approach” to sex education by discussing the dangers of STDs and therefore the importance of condoms for children, our European counterpart has taken an even more unabashed approach. Britain has declared sexual activity not only as acceptable behavior, but what’s more a pleasurable expectation all teens deserve.

The National Health Service in the city of Sheffield produced a booklet called “Pleasure” “which has a section called "an orgasm a day" that encourages educators to tell teens about the positive physical and emotional effects of sex and masturbation, which is described as an easy way for people to explore their bodies and feel good.”

After reading that particular section of the article, I was aghast. Why have Americans continued to acclaim that Europe is more “advanced and progressive” than the US? With teen pregnancy numbers masked by abortions rates, we foolishly believe their approach will result in less physical consequences for our teens, not to mention emotional, social and spiritual ramifications.

For those who have ever been in a relationship, you know that to be a truly great lover one must be selfless and devoted to the pleasure of the other to be fully satisfied in the end. The approach Britain is heralding has the great potential to encourage selfish and self-gratifying infantile lovers who will be continually unsatisfied.

Why would we encourage casual sex among youth when the research evidence shows only harmful consequences of such activity? The consequences do not end with pregnancy and STDs, but continues with increased depression and suicide attempts, increased chance of living in poverty and depending on welfare, increased school dropout and expulsion, less stable marriages, and lower academic achievement (read more here).

What’s more, brain research has shown us that oxytocin and vasopressin, the “feel good hormones” released during sex have huge implications in bonding two people together. Dr. McIlhaney and Dr. Bush, in their book Hooked: New Science on How Casual Sex is Affecting Our Children write:

"An individual who goes from sex partner to sex partner is causing his or her brain to mold and gel so that it eventually begins accepting that sexual pattern as normal. For most people this brain pattern seems to interfere with the development of the neurological circuits necessary for long-term relationships that for most people result in stable marriages and family development. The pattern of changing sex partners therefore seems to damage their ability to bond in a committed relationship."

No wonder our divorce rate is so high! We encourage teen sexual activity and rely on contraceptives as means of avoiding consequences and completely condone the activity among teens as the expected norm!

As thinking citizens we must turn and run from Britain’s model and instead encourage and support models that instead build healthy individuals and stable marriages and families if we are to have any hope for our already crumbling society.

Read the original article here:
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009307159951

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8 Traits of Teens Who Abstain From Sex, by Dr. Bernadine Healy

Do you think your teen has what it takes to be successful? To be marked by character and academic achievement? What if I told you that those things are intertwined with students choosing to delay pleasurable outcomes, such as sex, until marriage? To read more, click the link below...


(Excerpt from "8 Traits of Teens Who Abstain From Sex," a US News blog)

Most parents, whatever their own background or personal maturity, still want their own high-schoolers to be abstinent.

Encouraging abstinence—maintained or regained—should be the goal of all teens. In fact, by the measure of recent sexual behavior, rather than virginity, close to 70 percent of high school students are abstinent. And many teens who are not currently abstinent are succumbing to peer pressure, real or virtual. (A Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that a third of sexually active teens were not so sure about it, and roughly a quarter said they were doing "something sexual they didn't really want to do.")

High school abstinence is associated with better physical and mental health across socioeconomic groups, no matter how much you torture the statistics. Teens themselves will tell you that they have stayed away from sexual intercourse because of their own fear of pregnancy (which new data suggest is on the rise, with teen births up in 26 states) and sexually transmitted diseases, not because they're weird or antisex. And there is plenty of evidence that being able to make an abstinence decision is linked to less depression and suicidal thinking.

Kids who can make abstinence decisions do better in school, too, even when the comparison group was matched for social background and the desire to pursue education. Abstinent teens are far more likely to attend and graduate from college than those who are sexually active, based on an analysis of the NIH-supported National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health by Robert Rector and Kirk Johnson, researchers at the Heritage Foundation. Seems obvious: less distraction and more time to study.

But maybe it's more. The researchers identified eight personality and behavioral traits that were associated with both abstinence and academic achievement—traits that to some extent may be inborn but can also be taught and reinforced regularly at home and at school:

1. Future orientation, with a focus on long-term goals
2. Willingness to postpone current pleasures for larger future rewards
3. Perseverance, as in the ability to stick to a task or commitment
4. A belief that current behavior can positively affect the future
5. Impulse control, including ability to control emotions and desires
6. Resistance to peer influence
7. Respect for parental and social values
8. Sense of self-worth and personal dignity

The right kind of sex education of our young is really about more than sex. It's about raising the kind of people we all want to be.

Babysitting - Effective Birth Control

(You know, being a parent is actually a lot harder than it looks)

Have you ever had to stay home and watch your younger sister or brother? What about canceling your weekend plans because you had to babysit and earn some money?

I often babysat during middle and high school, both for money and for my brothers and sisters. At the end of the night though it was always such a comfort to know I could give the child (or children) back to their parents and return to my teenage life.

However, some teens today are being forced to skip adolescence altogether and are instead being launched into adulthood with all the ensuing responsibilities. Feeding, diapers, cost of formula, strollers, car seats, not to mention doctor visits and lack of sleep and social life.

Sound like fun? Nope. That's because being a parent is not a picnic - it is hard work - yet it has its rewards. But parenting for adults comes in the safety and support of a loving marriage, where both husband and wife can share the responsibilities of the child.

Too often teens are single parents or parents whose juvenile relationship is on the rocks with the stress that a child always brings.

So when you’re babysitting next, do this for me. Think hard about what life would be like if you can't give the child back at the end of the night.

Is it a life that you want for yourself one day - I hope so. But when you're ready. When you're married. When you've prepared a home of love for the child to grow up in.

Is it a life that you want for yourself TODAY? That's only a question that you can answer.

Devoted dad key to reducing risky teen sex

A new study was released this June that highlights something commonsense would tell us, but that now science backs up. Involved parents, particularly fathers, are crucial for the development of healthy children. Specifically, this study focused on the relationship between parent involvement and sexual activity of teens.

A review of the findings were reported on MSNBC.com (click here to read it). Check out this remarkable quote from the article:

Parental knowledge of a teen's friends and activities was rated on a five point scale. When it came to the dads, each point higher in parental knowledge translated into a 7 percent lower rate of sexual activity in the teen. For the moms, one point higher in knowledge translated to a 3 percent lower rate of teen sexual activity. The impact of family time overall was even more striking. One additional family activity per week predicted a 9 percent drop in sexual activity.

So, how do you reduce your child's chance of being sexually active, running the risk of contracting an STD or getting pregnant? Talk to them, be involved in their lives...CARE! And what's more, eat dinner together and devote time to spend as a whole family.

Do these things, and commonsense (and now science) tell us that your child will have greater chances at a happy and healthy life!


Information on the study:

Fathers' and Mothers' Parenting Predicting and Responding to Adolescent Sexual Risk Behaviors (p 808-827)
Rebekah Levine Coley, Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, Holly S. Schindler
Published Online from the Journal of Child Development: May 15 2009 6:57

The Slight Edge Principle for the Overwhelmed Student:

Guest Blogger Patti Fitzgerald, Presentation Specialist for the WC2ed.

Success! How do we define it? How do we achieve it? How do we get that slight edge that launches us well?

Success is not defined by the amount of money you gain or the letters after your name. It includes all areas of life including but not limited to relationships, health, sports, music, adventure, faith, etc. It’s about doing life well.

High school students are constantly encouraged to envision their futures. They are asked on a frequent, almost daily basis, “What do you want to become?” It is a great question. I heard a comedian once say that the reason adults ask teenagers this question all the time is because they are looking for ideas. The reality is that this question and the thoughts it provokes can sometimes become overwhelming. So how do we set ourselves up to succeed in our future endeavors? I recently read some great advice in the book Success for Teens.

A daughter heading off to college nervously asked her dad, “How am I going to do well in college, how am I going to stand out?” Her father’s advice outlines the slight edge principle. “Show up for your class everyday, and do the things your professors tell you to do, you’re going to beat 50% of the people by just doing that.”

Discipline yourself in the small things and the payoffs are huge. We always think that there’s a short line. I know I frequently try to find the short line at Walmart, and then hear the price check announced in my line. There are no short lines and no short cuts. Big things happen when a multitude of little things come together. When you feel overwhelmed, just continue doing your daily tasks well, and you will discover the path to true success!

(check out: http://www.successfoundation.org/ for more information about the book and other teen resources)

India Refuses to "Sell Condoms" in Schools - Then why do we??

Friday June 12, 2009


Indian Government: Sex Education “Has Absolutely No Place” in Our Schools - It “Promotes Promiscuity”

By Hilary White

NEW DELHI, June 12, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Indian government has rejected western-style sex education programs, saying they do nothing to solve the problem of teenage pregnancy but only exacerbate the problem by promoting sexual promiscuity.

A government report on the matter was issued in response to a citizen-launched petition against a decision by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) to start sex-education in schools. The program had been touted as a means of preventing the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Materials for teachers and facilitators in India included explicit details about “alternative methods” of sex, including anal and oral sex, presented as a means of avoiding AIDS.

According to the government, the curriculum prepared with material from UNICEF, had “shocked the consciences” of the country and was described as “quite frightening.” If implemented, the report said, it would “promote promiscuity of the worst kind.” The report was issued in March by a committee of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament, and says that the introduction of sex education in India’s schools should at least be delayed until the issue has been fully debated in public.

The Indian government’s reasoning stands in sharp contrast to that of the West, which, in reaction to steadily increasing rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, has invariably increased access to free contraceptives and abortion and exposed ever-younger children to more explicit sex education.

The testimony of witnesses and petitioners upon which the report was based was a stinging critique of the effects that such programs have had in the countries that have embraced them. The petitioners told the committee that the proposed curriculum would “strike at the root of the cultural fabric of our society that had been nourished over the millennia.”

If implemented, the petitioners said, the program would “corrupt Indian youth and lead to collapse of the education system.” Over all, they said, such programs are nothing more than an “education to sell condoms” that will lead to the creation of an “immoral society” and to an increase in single-parent families.

The report accused the HRD ministry, in its efforts to quash the petition, of using “technical jargon and euphemisms” in order to downplay the fears of the petitioners.

So explicit was the material in question that in the process of their submissions to the committee, petitioners had been asked not to give a PowerPoint presentation because the committee was “not comfortable with it and [it] could be embarrassing especially to the lady Members and other lady staff present.”

Petitioners had pointed to the increasing rate of teenage pregnancies in other countries, noting that in France, schools are equipped with nurses to distribute “contraceptive pills” to girls the morning after “unsafe sex.” The report also noted the situation in the UK, in which schools are “connected to abortion centres to terminate teenage pregnancies.”

Pratiba Naitthani, a co-petitioner and teacher, told the committee that “nothing was safer than abstinence till marriage.”

To read the full report, click here.

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09061202.html