Well Texas is seeing the fulfillment of another ancient Chinese (or is it Armenian?) saying that I heard long ago “Beware what you ask for because you just might get it.” Besides being first in the nation in insurance premiums, first in the nation in electricity costs, Texas now leads the nation in the number of teenage pregnancies.And Texas asked for it.
The Texas Board of Education, whose chief function is approval of statewide school textbooks, can take full credit for this latest turn of events. From a 2004 Christian Science Monitor article:
“On Friday, two messages came through loud and clear as the [Texas] State board of Education voted on a new list of approvedhealth books: That abstinence should be taught without any textbook discussion of contraception. And that the books should be explicit about marriage as a union between a man and a woman.”
In Texas we take our religion very seriously. It pervades every facet of government. This would be a good thing if it were about the teachings of Jesus, but it’s not about that. It’s about the teachings of Jesus’ evil twin. The one who says the human body is a dirty filthy thing, and don’t never ever do that nasty evil sex thing outside of wedlock.
So when Texas schools fail to instruct its teenage population about ways to engage in sexual activity without the consequences of pregnancy or transmission of STDs, what else results but national leadership in teens being blessed with pregnancy?
But who can blame our state school board? Aren’t they just going about fulfilling the first verse of our glorious state song? In case you’ve forgotten or live in some foreign land like California, here is the first verse.
Texas, Our Texas! all hail the mighty State!
Texas, Our Texas! so wonderful so great!
Boldest and grandest, withstanding ev'ry test
O Empire wide and glorious, you stand supremely blest.
1 comment:
And now you know why I don't swim in public pools anymore. So many teens think that if you have sex in a swimming pool, you won't get pregnant. With the number of resulting pregnancies, there has to be 30 gigabillion other things swimming with me. My Goddesses, when I was working on my health education minor in 1972 at a Texas university that still had a curfew in the dormitories and only one sex per dormitory, one of my mandatory classes was Sex Ed. My instructor was a no-holds barred woman, Ariadne love her. She taught us more than I learned in any A & P class, AND how to properly present it to teens who would giggle or hold their laughter til snot flew out their noses 20 feet. And for what?? It's no wonder we have so many teen pregnancies....our kids are so horribly horribly ignorant about sex. There are some heavy-duty consequences of that ignorance.
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