Sexting for good
Submitted by Jane Brown on Sun, 01/01/2012 - 11:21am
Kids still have questions about sex that aren't getting answered in schools.
Sex education is a thorny subject for most school systems; only 13 states specify that the medical components of the programs must be accurate. Shrinking budgets and competing academic subjects have helped push it down as a curriculum priority. In reaction, some health organizations and school districts are developing Web sites and texting services as cost-effective ways to reach adolescents in the one classroom where absenteeism is never a problem: the Internet.
In Chicago, teenagers can subscribe to Sex-Ed Loop, a program endorsed by the district that includes weekly automated texts about contraception, relationships and disease prevention. Through Hookup, California teenagers can text their ZIP codes to a number and receive locations for health clinics.
North Carolina is lucky to have our own sexual health texting service, BrdsNBz, run by the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina, partially supported by our tax dollars. Hurray for us!
Can you get pregnant if you have sex underwater?
The former head of health education for a large NC public school system told me recently that the technology may change but the questions the kids ask remain the same. Let's give them good ways of getting accurate answers!
Who is the public official
Who is the public official that uses the joke, "my county is so poor we have to use the same car for Driver's Ed and Sex ed."?
I'm a moderate Democrat.
Whoever it is ...
very funny.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.