Teaching Chastity
* “Backlash to Teaching Chastity” (Column One, Feb. 15) cynically ridicules and implies ineffectiveness of a concept which has hardly been tried, namely that children should not be sexually active, and they need to be taught that they should not be sexually active.
What has been tried with nearly $3 billion of taxpayers money over the past 20 years is the promotion of contraception among teens, and its remedial corollary--abortion advocacy. Your article fails to mention that this massively funded approach has resulted in the United States having among the world’s highest rates of unwed teen-age pregnancy, abortion and among the world’s fastest rising rates of sexually transmitted diseases.
California’s Education Code (Sec. 51551) requires that sex education in elementary, junior high and high school curricula emphasize abstinence as the only 100% effective protection against pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. It goes on to require that young people be taught that they should abstain from sexual intercourse until they are ready for marriage, that they honor and respect monogamous heterosexual marriage, and that they control their behavior with self-discipline, responsibility and an ethical respect for themselves and others.
It appears that Acacia Middle School in Hemet has chosen a curriculum that complies with California’s Education Code. I wonder how many other school districts have done so, and are aggressively and enthusiastically teaching abstinence.
TOM OWENSON, Executive Director
St. Anne’s Maternity Home
Los Angeles
* I was very alarmed after reading your article on the controversy surrounding the “Sex Respect” program being taught in some of our schools.
Just imagine the consequences if these right-wing religious fanatics were to succeed with this dangerous, subversive program. What would happen to our country if our young people came to understand that sex is most meaningful (and safest) when shared by adults in a committed relationship who are able to accept the responsibilities involved? What if they came to see themselves as intelligent and capable people who are able to control their impulses to achieve a healthier and more productive life?
Most frightening of all, what if they actually developed values regarding sex and morality?
LINDA SNIDER
Seal Beach
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