young female at a time. I say female, because men have to learn having babies is a sex-linked occupation. If they announce "we are pregnant" they're delusional. It's not to deny fathers an important part in their children's lives. It's just to be real about biology.
I read a headline which related that universities are going to provide cheaper sex education. What's that? Price of the pill reduced? Glad to have a college student to enlighten me.
I have written before that young women, and particularly young women from strict religious backgrounds, need mentors. Perhaps a well instructed teacher, a coach, a curious neighbor. Where families live by a code that makes it impossible to even mention sex, it is not likely that a girl has a chance to ask questions. If she tries, she'll be sidetracked into a curiosity turned to guilt for even thinking "that way." By the time the 50's came, most of us grown women were seething radicals. We had lived through the "repression" excuses and the undying love routine but still had no way of getting real information. History of Margaret Sanger and the Comstock Law, yes. Physiology and sexuality, no.
When my little neighbor girl, a sophomore in high school, told me that her girlfriend threw down a condom in front of her plate in the cafeteria and told her to use it, I laughed and wanted to know what she did with it. She said she was very embarrassed. I said I would have handed it back to her girlfriend and told her I didn't have a place to put it. She was more practical. She handed it to a sophomore boy at the table and he said he would give it to his older brother who could use it. (It came through a webpage where they gave samples.) There are no children who can't find out what sex is if they can get to a computer. They learn proper anatomical names. But who is to teach sexuality? JenLo? MTV? Eventually, my friend came to me and said she wanted to talk to me about sex. We talked. She thanked me and said she knew I would tell her and "they" wouldn't. This was hard for me because her mother is in a nursing home and had asked me to help with her Christian upbringing. I had from the start told the woman I was not a fundamentalist but I would do the best I could. I tell this long story, because there is a legal/ethical component to being a mentor. Never would I try to pre-empt the parents' rights to raise their daughter. It takes close contact with a child before puberty to make this work. I ask a question. Do pediatricians have doctor assistants? Are there really any school counselors who have good training?
Living here in East Tennessee, I feel there will be many generations before the Enlightenment strikes. But AFDC has a vested interest. With few abortions and adoptions, it's breaking the state coffers. A couple of years ago the legislature increased the cost of a marriage license, reducing it considerably if the couple brings in a certificate that they had marriage counseling, which usually turns out to be by the minister who will marry them. The unwed mother part is still not addressed.