Just say no to "Why kNOw"

    I had a very sheltered upbringing. My parents were leaders in our outgoing and near-zealous church, and they sent me to a private Christian school where I received my indoctrination. As such, abstinence-only sex education is very familiar to me. In health class we learned the powers of deodorant and the basics (stress: BASICS) of anatomy. And I learned more about sex itself from my extremely precocious best friend.

    Luckily, I was a late bloomer, and I was mature and knowledgeable enough to avoid the sort of mistakes that Texas teenagers are making these days. Texas has a dismal track record in teen pregnancies as far as national numbers are concerned (it ranked third), and most of the other states with the highest rates also boast a conservative slant. With such evidence against this program of denial, is it any wonder then that the debate surrounding ab-only sex education rages on?

    Smith's article introduces a study undertaken by the Texas Freedom Network to expose some of the inadequacies of Texas's current programs with names like "WAIT Training" and "Why kNOw." The study shows the misstatements and lies, the religious scare tactics, and messages of shame being presented to young Texans, and it expresses TFN's hopes for a better system. The article shows that these are the reasons why this legislative session is questioning the current curriculum, and why citizens should pay close attention. For those of us that escaped the horrors of an AISD education, the article is a wake-up call to the ignorance being propagated and the lies being taught to our children.