From: nelson_p@apollo.hp.com (Peter Nelson)
Subject: Re: Passing out Condoms  (Was Re: Better Off Than Four Years Ago NOT)
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 14:56:14 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Chelmsford, MA

In article <1992Aug26.045511.19175@athena.mit.edu> jfed@athena.mit.edu (Jude G Federspiel) writes:
>
>In article <BtJL2I.K4z@apollo.hp.com>, nelson_p@apollo.hp.com (Peter Nelson) writes:
>|> In article <1992Aug25.131123.24352@crd.ge.com> doel@crd.ge.com writes:
>|> >  We should encourage the kids to refrain from the dangerous behavior.
>|> 
>|>   Again, ---> HOW? <---.   And I mean "how" that actually works 
>|>   most of the time.   Condoms have a certain failure rate but they
>|>   work most of the time.   Everything I've read, heard, or witnessed
>|>   with my own eyes suggests that even the best parental guidance has
>|>   a higher failure rate than condoms.  
>|> 
>
>I'll tell you.  It's so simple it's almost funny.  You start when the child is
>very young.  You teach the child sex before marraige is wrong, dangerous, and
>can have catastrophic consequences.  You show them (eventually we'll get a 
>generation that can do this) by example that a loving married couple has just
>as much sexual fun as an unmarried pair.  You teach them that although sexual
>urges can be pretty strong during teens and pre-marital years, it's just
>another thing you have to wait out.  Too few Americans have the discipline to
>do this.  Kids just have to be taught it's not wrong to take a stand, to differ
>from the crowd.  (a lot of teen sex is the result of peer pressure to be
>sexually active).  Voila!

 ( I had to take a driver's test before gaining the right to drive.  We
   ought to require a reading test before granting the right to post )

 *As I said*   **-->NOBODY<--*  is denying that the above would be 
 preferable to getting the schools in the act.   But:  IT JUST AIN'T
 HAPPENING!   And nobody has a clue how to make it happen.

 Now maybe Federspiel thinks that every kid in America is Theodore
 Cleaver and lives at 123 Maple Street, Happyville USA with two loving
 parents who have time to give him the guidance and attention he needs
 and the only mischief he ever gets into is of the "cute" variety, et
 cetera.

 In the real world 60% of all black babies are born into single 
 parent families; 25% of *all* US babies are so born, a huge percentage
 of families have both parents working full-time and they barely have
 time to feed and clothe their kids; another huge percentage of kids
 grow up in families beset by divorce, alcoholism, drug abuse, and
 other problems.    And on top of that the mass media bombard kids 
 every day with messages promoting sex.   

 So when Felderspiel says, "you teach them" or "you show them",
 above, to WHOM does "you" refer?   The parents?  See the above 
 paragraph.   

 Federspiel may live in Toon Town, or in Never-Never land where
 the scariest threat is an alligator with a clock in his stomach
 and children never grow up, but in America kids grow up entirely
 too soon.   Kids in Never Never land are happy without parents
 but real children need parenting and they're not getting it!  
 The schools are a poor excuse for a father and a mother but in
 the absence of the real thing what does Federspiel suggest?  



---peter
 
 


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