It’s common knowledge that educators are utilizing abstinence-only education at far too high a frequency. Numerous data studies have proven that the states where exclusively abstinence-based education is taught have the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the nation, including Alabama, Mississippi and New Mexico.
However, while I fervently believe that abstinence-only education is wrong and should be taught alongside mandatory comprehensive sex education in public schools across the nation, teaching abstinence is one thing. Teaching that sex makes you a less valuable human being is something else entirely.
Unfortunately, in some parts of the country, this is what sex education has come to. This week it came to light that the Canyon Independent School district in Texas is teaching a curriculum of abstinence-only education that not only capitalizes on refraining from any and all sexual activity before marriage but also utilizes visual props of used toothbrushes and chewed wads of gums.
These props, according to ThinkProgress.org, demonstrate to students that pre-marital sexual activity makes people “used,” or “not new.” In our society, used things are cheaper. Used cars may still be reliable, but they aren’t flashy. Used means hand-me-down, tired or worn-out. iPods and coffee tables and Playstations can be used.
However, people can never be used in this sense, and should never be referred to as such. Used means it can be sold for less than face value, last chance! Best offer! Price reduced by half! When value and self-worth become intertwined with sexuality, and sexuality with marriage, nothing but confusion and shame can come forth.
Technician staff columnist Nicky Vaught wrote about the myth of virginity a few weeks ago, and for more information regarding our society’s ideas about purity, see his piece, “The mythology of virginity.” Though teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection rates are important to address, it is just as crucial to teach that sexual decisions make us human, not anything close to worthless.
