Abstinence update!

There’s a phrase that I’d never expected to use in my entire life.  It could be one that gets used more often if this issue keeps coming up though.  Maybe I need a cool graphic to go with it.  Oooh, maybe a theme song.

Is It Enough To Abstain

Does it Work?
Atlanta's public schools have used PSI since 1985. Program Director Maria Mitchell says formal evaluation reveals the following results:

• Seventh-graders who have completed PSI are five times less likely to become sexually active in the eighth grade.
  
• Follow-up studies show students in the program are also one-third less likely to become sexually active a year later.
  
• By twelfth grade, one-third of participating girls are less likely to become pregnant.

In Cincinnati, the program has operated in the public schools for more than eight years, sponsored by the Adolescent Clinic at Children's Hospital Medical Center. Citywide program director Christopher Kraus says, "PSI is teens becoming part of the solution rather than the problem. It's teens taking responsibility for themselves and their world. This contradicts the negative image most people have... that they're incorrigible, self-centered, even sociopathic." Each year, Kraus trains 80 Teen Leaders, kids on the same wavelength as their peers in fashion, music, appearance -- and, of course, in knowing what's cool. They're believable, effective messengers.

Read the whole article, its rather interesting.  I think that this is only part of the solution of the grander problem of the sexual proclivity of the youth in the U.S., as someone continually reminds me when this issue comes up, “You’re not going to stop it from happening.”  You’re right, we’re not going to stop it, but lets try to find the best way to keep it to a minimum if at all possible.

And lets keep this in mind also.  Timken High School is just one high school.  There are thousands across the United States involved in abstinence-only education.  I’ll grow more concerned about it when this high pregnancy rate is shown to be in more than just one random school.