Quick! spot the church-run country
In this week's news,
Chile has decided to provide contraception--including EC--free of charge to women over 14.
Meanwhile, a Maryland school board has recently forced revisions to its schools' sex education curriculum, to make a video of a condom demonstration "more clinical". From the Kaiser article: "You don't have a cute little blonde and a cucumber," Michelle Turner, president of CRC [Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum], said, adding, "It's not MTV. It's very factual and clinical. There are no frills or fluff." The new version involves a wooden penis model, two hands, and an offscreen narrator. Because heaven knows we wouldn't want the students to PAY ATTENTION to the health video or anything. I know that students are always racing out the door to put on condoms after I've covered that segment of our curriculum. Or not.
In a sad moment, I realize I probably won't be able to show my favorite condom demonstration video for quite some time. Injoy Video makes a Sex Smart for Teens series (one of the few health education videos that's worth the money), and their contraception video includes a clip called "The Condom Hunter", which is a takeoff on Steve Irwin's "Crocodile Hunter" persona. It's accurate and complete, it's hilarious, and it will probably cause lots of classroom tangents about stingrays and the sudden and unfortunate death of Steve Irwin if I try to show it any time in the next six months. And then in a few years, the clip will be meaningless to anyone who watches. I hate noticing one more cultural moment separating me from the students. Perhaps it's time to go do some research.
Chile has decided to provide contraception--including EC--free of charge to women over 14.
Meanwhile, a Maryland school board has recently forced revisions to its schools' sex education curriculum, to make a video of a condom demonstration "more clinical". From the Kaiser article: "You don't have a cute little blonde and a cucumber," Michelle Turner, president of CRC [Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum], said, adding, "It's not MTV. It's very factual and clinical. There are no frills or fluff." The new version involves a wooden penis model, two hands, and an offscreen narrator. Because heaven knows we wouldn't want the students to PAY ATTENTION to the health video or anything. I know that students are always racing out the door to put on condoms after I've covered that segment of our curriculum. Or not.
In a sad moment, I realize I probably won't be able to show my favorite condom demonstration video for quite some time. Injoy Video makes a Sex Smart for Teens series (one of the few health education videos that's worth the money), and their contraception video includes a clip called "The Condom Hunter", which is a takeoff on Steve Irwin's "Crocodile Hunter" persona. It's accurate and complete, it's hilarious, and it will probably cause lots of classroom tangents about stingrays and the sudden and unfortunate death of Steve Irwin if I try to show it any time in the next six months. And then in a few years, the clip will be meaningless to anyone who watches. I hate noticing one more cultural moment separating me from the students. Perhaps it's time to go do some research.
4 Comments:
Bill Maher had a pretty good segment a few weeks ago that your post reminded me of. A GAO report concluded that the Gov't's anti-drug ad campaign had done no good. Maher's comment was that the ads were so plastic that they were a joke (he then proceeded to show a sampling of his own suggestions, which were quite funny). I'm finding our cultural norms/political correctness - whatever you want to call it - have about as much to do with reality as Hollywood does.
Glad to see you guys posting again!
Tweed
By
Stockton & Tweed, at 8:55 AM
Abortion is illegal in Chile, but their supreme court got the message that Plan B is not abortion.
Ever since that decision came down in Chile I've been getting a steady stream of hits from Latin America regarding Plan B.
The people that they've been interviewing on tv still seem to think Plan B is abortion, and of course their interviewers don't seem to know the difference.
By
jp 吉平, at 11:10 AM
Random girl that googled 'condom hunter' and found you:
We watched that video today. Good lord. Lots of information, yes, but well, to be kind, not what I was expecting.
By
Anonymous, at 10:14 PM
Although finding real condoms on the railroad track of East Oakland can be educational, we never intended The Condom Hunter to be used as curriculum. That's what Jesus Panties was for. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN0_VMykEaE Thanks for the kind words, though.
By
Reverend Brymo, at 6:39 PM
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