Sex Education Curriculum Debacle: The Gum Game
The Washington Post reported February 13 that Montgomery County Public Schools fired a contractor that had been providing abstinence speakers to the public schools. The contractor, Rockville Pregnancy Center, distributed chewing gum in an Einstein High School classroom last week, then encouraged the teens to chew gum previously chewed by their classmates. This was supposed to be a harmless and fun analogy to how peer pressure contributes to premarital sex and the spread of sexually transmitted disease. Most people think it's just plain gross and the school system's top health official has branded it unsanitary. Yet Rockville Pregnancy Center used this game in public and private schools in the area for nine years before it came to public attention.
A Montgomery County health education advocacy group, Teach the Facts, posted on its website, www.teachthefacts.org, a letter from the principal of the high school where the incident occurred. Einstein High School's principal stated that although the incident occurred on February 8, he did not learn of it until February 12 when Montgomery County public schools' central office brought it to his attention. In the letter, he said he was "appalled and aghast." He described the game as "inappropriate and unsanitary" and said "it should not have occurred."
In addition to the "gum game," there was also a "laxative game," not mentioned in the principal's letter. According to the Washington Post, the presenter handed out squares of chocolate for volunteers to eat, telling them that one of the four was a laxative. No actual laxatives were distributed. The idea behind this game was to demonstrate the inability to tell which sexual encounter will lead to an STD.
Rockville Pregnancy Center is an evangelical organization. The use of a religious contractor to teach a segment of the health education program is also being questioned by some local residents. According to the Washington Post, Montgomery County Public Schools stated that no religion was being taught in the classroom abstinence exercises.
The program that was offered by the Rockville Pregnancy Center is called "Worth the Wait." In its website, the pregnancy clinic has a three paragraph description of the program. The first paragraph refers to premarital pregnancies as resulting from "lifestyles outside God's will." The description of the program touts the benefits of "chastity" and offers those who have had sex a "second virginity."
Sources: The Washington Post, Tuesday February 13, 2007;www.rockvillepregnancycenter.org, www.teachthefacts.org.
Published by Carol Bengle Gilbert - Featured Contributor in Travel and Lifestyle
2010 Yahoo! Outstanding Contributor of the Year, Carol has consistently been designated a Top 100 Yahoo! Contributor Network writer. She received a 2008 People's Media Award for "Best Article." Web writing... View profile
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27 Comments
Post a CommentIncredible - they should applaude themselves for using creative techniques to get the kids thinking about who they are willing to share their body with and vise versa. I wish more schools would allow programs like this. The chocolate game is also really creative - I think it would work well with college aged students - and youd could actually use a laxative then! It might get them to really think!!!
i think the sex education should be discuss in classroom to ha ve a n enough knowledge about it. and the parents should cooperate to the teacher and tell theirn siblings not to give malice to the lesson about it.
whats up ma boo
When you swap gum with somebody, you're only getting the worst elements of being intimate with somebody else, unlike sex- that is no kind of comparison at all for the school board to even consider!
I think the premise here was a good one.. I just think that perhaps there's a more sanitary and conducive way to carry it out in order to illustrate the point!
Oh keeerist... do the people against this gum swap get a case of the vapors when thinking of their teen kissing someone? Same freakin issues. Is gum swapping kinda gross? Well yeah... but...
This is a really intresting article. Thanks. I wish more teachers would ask their kids to chew used gum.
I really don't know what to say to this one - - subject wise - - but it is well written.
BRILLIANT!!! I'm making my self a note for when my daughter is old enough to talk. Homeschool Lesson: 'Honey, see that cute guy? Go ask if you can have his gum.' I expect her to be tottaly grossed out by the idea, because I'm planning to raise my kids not to put anything of anyone else's into their mouths, (at least until they're married!). This was a very creative exercise. I bet the kids will remember it for a long time. I hope that memory protects them.
I love that idea. It really gets the message through about getting the germs and nastiness from all those people that chewed the gum, not just the last person who had it. Sure, it's a bit unsanitary if the kids actually chew each other's gum... but isn't it better than not teaching them, not getting through to them, and then they end up with various STD's because they didn't understand the concept? And I love the laxative game too. Really glad there wasn't actually a laxative there though... that could have been disastrous.