LU Forum for Free Thought

Hi everyone. So I had an idea for a topic for this Friday. We seem to be having a lot of religion related discussions and I thought maybe we could try something new (we are after all about Freethought, skepticism, etc.) so here’s what I was thinking we could turn a critical eye towards:

Sex education (as in what we all had to go through in middle school/high school).

There’s a lot we could look at. For example, in 1997 the Title V Abstinence Education Program was put in place. Congress authorized $50 million of federally funds annually to promote abstinence education programs.

So some possible questions are: is abstinence only education the best choice? What about alternative approaches? Does it seem like there is a religious motivation for the abstinence only programs? What if an alternative program were introduced that did not touch on the “detriments” of pre-marital sex and discussed prophylactics? Is this even something that should be covered in school or left to parents? I don’t know, people can probably come up with things to discuss/debate about this. Here are some websites to get you started (I had trouble finding non-abstinence only websites. Hopefully people will be able to come up with arguments anyway?):

1) Whitehouse's website - Abstinence plan:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/02/welfare-book-06.html

2) Pro-Abstinence Website:

http://www.choosingthebest.org/about_us/index.html

3) (Biased) description of Title V Abstinence Education Program - National

Coalition for Abstinence Education:

http://www.sexrespect.com/FundInfo.html

4) Website promoting abstinence (Apparently boys 12- 16 are 4 times likelier to smoke and 6 times likelier to use alcohol than virgins! Girls are 7 times likelier to smoke and 10 times likelier to use marijuana! Yeah, it would be interesting to look over their sources and see how much of this is actually true):

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Abstinence/BG1533.cfm

5) China - Sexual ignorance article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4572859.stm


Anyway, if people really prefer a different topic for this Friday and send out enough emails saying as much, then we can just pick something else. Either way, hope to see you all at 7:00 this Friday in Riverview!

-Monica

Aloha!
 
First and foremost – if you’ve merely talked with me (and haven’t emailed me) up to now about going to Bjørklunden next week, let me know ASAP if you want to go *for sure* - I’m specifically talking to Monica, Michael, Mu, Tom, Christopher, Drew, and Steve (sorry if you told me already, but I’m in a very sleep-deprived state lately and can’t remember anything). I’m afraid I need firm commitments at this point!

Following this email, I will forward some material from the director of Bjørklunden – make sure and give it a once-over, particularly if you’ve never gone to Bj before. Also, I need to know ASAP (like, today) if you have any “unique dietary needs”… if you wait until the meeting, it may be too late! Read More...

We will be tabling at the Activities Fair at 9:30pm, September 19, 2006.