SOI = Signs of Intelligence

Well, at least we know the kids in Maine will know what a condom is... and what it is for.

AUGUSTA — Maine has stopped accepting federal funds for an abstinence-based sex-education program, in part because federal guidelines do not allow any of the money to be used to teach so-called "safe sex" practices.

Heheh. Score one for the anti-15th-century brigade.

The downside of this is that health teachers in the 47 states that do accept federal funding will only be allowed to teach how to have a healthy sex life within marriage, and teach students only to practice abstinence until then. That's it. They will be allowed to describe all of the STDs that people can acquire from having sex, but will teach that the only way to avoid those diseases is abstinence (or marriage). That's it. They will be allowed to talk about uteri, ovaries, trimesters, conception, vas deferens, but won't mention a single way to prevent all of these different parts from getting together to form a baby... except abstinence. That's it.

"Now go out into the world boys and girls, and stare at each other longingly for the next 4 years."

Well, hopefully today's kids have enough common sense to know what a condom is and how to use it. They certainly won't be learning about it in school.

p.s. I looked through the sites that mention "Does abstinence education work?", and aside from sites like heritage.org, one of the chief proponents of abstinence education, most middle-of-the-road sites seem lukewarm to the idea, like this place. This site claims a "government report" from 2002 says that abstinence education has not been proven to have any effect. (Although I do agree... it is hard to figure out how well it is working after such a short period of time. Now, in 2005 would be a good time for a middle-term study, and probably in 2008... after a full 6 to 8 years of the program... then would be a good time to make a full claim on abstinence-only education's effect.) However, "not been proven to have any effect" is probably not the best news one would want to hear if one believes that abstinence-only education really, really works.

Well... I do have one piece of data that we can go on: What state has the lowest incidence of teen pregnancy in the country? Maine.