Kansas Board of Ed. erases conservative sex ed policies

Source: Associated Press

TOPEKA, Kansas (AP) -- The Kansas Board of Education on Tuesday repealed sex education policies enacted last year, the latest move by the moderate majority to undo efforts by conservatives when they dominated the board.

One rescinded policy recommended that schools stress abstinence until marriage, while the other urged school districts to get parental permission before students could attend human sexuality classes.

On a 6-3 vote, the board replaced the policies with one that recommends "abstinence plus" sex education programs and leaves it up to the state's 296 school districts to decide whether to get parental permission.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/05/09/kansas.sex.ed.ap/index.html

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First replacing mythology with science and now this? I don't want to prematurely celebrate but this is Kansas! A cultural canary in the mine perhaps? If so the wind is definitely starting to blow at our backs.

in a southerly direction, we have a lot of garbage in Oklahoma that needs to be swept out of state.

Guess that would really suck for Texas, eh?

Well, they have to get a little grief, after all they inflicted us with *, Tom DeLay, and a few choice others! (My apologies to Dems in Texas, I know you deserve better representation, I'm in the same boat. Can you say Inhofe?)

And let's not forget those upstanding GOPers from Texas Cornyn and oh, what the hell is her name? (Brain freeze.) You know the one: big blonde hair, Republicon through and through...it'll come to me later.

Edit: Kay Bailey Hutchison - how could I forget!?!?!?

Edit: Changed title so as not to upset the overly-sensitive among us.

:sarcasm:

...that a bit insensitive in light of the tragedy there.

But I think you're really stretching to read that into what I wrote...

We shouldn't go looking for reasons to be offended.

I live in Oklahoma, which is just as bad as Kansas when it comes to tornados, so I live with that threat quite often as well. Nevertheless, I changed what I wrote because I don't want to upset anyone.

If it isn't tornados, it's earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanos, etc. Seems no place is safe from natural disasters.

I have a lot of friends in Kansas, and Kansans are wonderful, helpful people. They will pull together and get on with their lives the best they can.

I am sending good thoughts to everyone in Kansas.

Sorry I truly didn't even think about it, and I'm from Kansas: Born in Wichita and lived there for 24 years before graduating from Wiohita State (I don't know if they still call it "the" Wichita State (that was after my time).

No Nat. Guards to help them through their tornado disasters..then no support for worthless Bushie educational programs...

On an episode of The West Wing, Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) renamed it "everything but".

There is nothing wrong with Abstinence and it's something that should be stressed during these classes. But practicing abstinence shouldn't be a religious reason but when you think about it - a health reason. If you're practicing Abstinence then there is a greatly reduced risk of getting an STD, AIDs or Pregnant.

But I think we've all been a horny teenager at one time (unless you happen to be a teenager posting here at DU - then you know what I'm talking about). Abstinence isn't going to work all the time therefore safe sex practices need to be taught

so they would want to know about birth control use during marriage. Unless they want 10 kids...hmmm?

I said to stress abstinence first but also teach about birth control. I also stated that Abstinence should be taught as a good health reason not a religious reason

I don't know if you have heard of the "Purity Ball" where dads take their daughters to a ball where they dance, and the daughter takes a vow to remain "pure." (As if being sexual creatures somehow makes them "impure") Some of these girls have said that they never even kissed a boy before getting married and some have been interviewed saying what an horrendous experience sex has become for them after getting married.

Men should be taught about love and sex together and how to be sensitive to a woman's needs and vice-versa as well.

I don't know if you have ever seen the movie Kinsey but I think that gives you a very good idea of all the ways ignorance about a fundamental human function can lead to misery for people. From masturbation to the first night in the marriage bed sexual experiences are frequently painful for those ignorant of sexuality--sometimes in ways that blocks a joy for the rest of these people's lives.

Parents.

The only known effect of Abstinence Only programs is people that feel gukty about having sex. I suppose that, in and of itself, is a victory for the conservatives, because people that feel guilty about themselves are much easier into manipulating into being hypocritical about other things.

It wasn't all that long ago when Kansas was a hotbed of revolutionary lefties.

Read my article on it on one of my websites:
Scopes Revisited?: The Kansas Board of Education's 1999 Decision on Evolution
http://www.teacherblue.homestead.com/scopes.html

When people get busy and inattentive, the wingers sneak onto the Board of Education and mess stuff up. Then Kansans notice what has happened, and the sane ones get embarrassed and upset. Then the moderate wing of the Kansas Republican party runs a pro-evolution primary candidate against the winger, and whether a Republican or a Democrat wins the election, the balance on the Board of Education swings back toward sanity. Then people get complacent, thinking it's all fixed, and the wingers sneak in again.

It keeps happening because the wingers are ALWAYS looking for a chink in the wall to get through. They never, ever stop trying to push their agenda, and they know that when people get busy and distracted they can always pull another coup and do a lot of damage before they get caught again.

Here is the last paragraph from my piece:

The Kansas Board of Education's decision was a wake-up call to Kansans of diverse political persuasions, and it got them to the polls to vote for BOE candidates who would restore macroevolution to the state's testing standards. But people are busy--and perhaps a little lazy, too. The public will probably doze off again, until some other widely publicized political decision reminds them that it is dangerous to neglect our responsiblity to participate in the political process.

You might like to read the whole thing, because many people mistook what the Board of Education actually did in 1999 (and this time). They didn't break down the front door. As with abortion, they sneak in through the side door.

I preached this info way back when. Very few understand the real issue here.

matter of requiring that Intelligent Design be taught or that evolution not be taught. People just don't understand how these people operate, which is why they keep blindsiding everyone.

standards. So it was NEVER an issue here.

too many teenagers pregnant or sick with STD's. I wonder if the syphyllis rate had gone up in KS?

The earth is still only 6,000 years old. A nice first step, but Kansas is still lurching toward the Dark Ages.

running against him. Don't know how serious those plans are yet though.

Since we took the class as a 6 week section in all science classes our freshman year, she told us if any one of us got pregnant or got someone else pregnant before we graduated, she'd go back and change our transcripts for that 6 week section to an "F".

but the threat worked. No high school pregnancies in my graduating class!
That threat made sense, though. If pregnancy happened, you failed sex ed.

I'd credit the lack of pregnancy to nobody WANTING to get pregnant and KNOWING how not to get pregnant.

Again: threats are generally (a) bullshit, (b) ineffective, and (c) counterproductive.