Ethics

Abstinence-Only Sex Ed: So Easy, a Clown Could Do It

By Ed Brayton

Stacie Murphy has a brilliant and important article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette about how absurdly easy it is to become a "certified abstinence educator." So easy a clown can do it:

I passed the test. I am now a Certified Abstinence Educator.

I have no medical background, no public health training and no teaching certification, but according to the Abstinence Clearinghouse I am now qualified to go into schools across the country and teach your children "everything they need to know" about sex -- just like Derek the Abstinence Clown.

Derek, whose videos have been floating around the Internet for a few weeks now, works for an Ohio organization that gets federal tax money to provide abstinence-only education. He tells kids that they should avoid pre-marital sex because it's like juggling machetes, and then he illustrates the danger by, well, juggling machetes.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on April 01, 2009 (boomark / email).