Forums | MacLife

I also think you put my views in a well thought out statement.
I agree that it would be very dumb to not teach everything about sex, people should have all the information to make a good choice.
I am a person who felt the time was right for me, and my girlfriend also felt it was time for her.  We were smart and used are heads, and every time was great.

As for the whole taking responsibility from parents is such a stupid remark.  Who is "taking" responsibility form them?  You say as if parents are little kids who aren't able to make there own choices.

I have a couple interesting points to share...

There has been some discussion about the idea that parents should be responsible for sex education.  While this seems completely plausible, I find myself forced to remember a marriage "manual" produced for daughters about to be married.  Basicaly, sex education in book form:

Lie still as your husband relieves his beastly urges while thinking of the British empire.

Now, while I'm sure this is not representative of all books...  There has to be some standard of education, and the best way to get that standard is to force it upon students (in the form of public schools).  Or else you have people thinking that sex is no more than the relief of beastly urges.

Another interesting thing I read in today's paper, which disturbed me.  The Catholic church has put initiatives forth to "force" politicians to line up with its objectives.  Basically, if a politician is Catholic and does not adhere to the letter to all Church policies, they will be banned from taking communion.  I found this a little disturbing, personally.  I have no problems with Catholics removing practicioners from communion if they do not practice the Catholic tradition but you cannot say this of only the politicians - it must be all Catholics.

Basically, the bottom line is that Catholic politicians (such as Ted Kennedy and Tom Daschle) will be forced to go anti-abortion, anti-contraceptives if they wish to remain a practicing member of their Church.

I certainly have respect for any teens who vow to abstain from sex. Though I don't believe it is the right choice for me, and I think it is often regretted, I admire their strengh to pursue such a challenging path.

I'm going to take the risk (certainty) of coming across as extremist to say I don't have respect for someone who waits for marriage, but i must stress that I hold no contempt, either. I'm a firm believer in different strokes for different folks, and for my own life I just don't see the point.

I'm going to take the risk (certainty) of coming across as extremist to say I don't have respect for someone who waits for marriage, but i must stress that I hold no contempt, either. I'm a firm believer in different strokes for different folks, and for my own life I just don't see the point.

Im close to your way of thinking BB.  I think waiting to get married is just plain dumb.  I'm in the frame of thinking that people in love should have sex before marriage.  I also think that people should live together before getting married.  I just don't understand why there is so much emphasis on waiting until you are married to find out if you are truelly compatible.  I mean i don't encorage having sex with randoms, but if you truly love each other,  I don't see what the problem with having sex with.  That is unless you are easy into love,  and easy out of love,  cause then yoru just easy.

I'm not saying it's realistic, I'm saying it would be ideal if parents took the reponsibility of teaching their kids about sex.  I'm sure that if sex ed in public schools didn't exist, many more parents would take it upon themselves to talk to their kids about sex, but you're right, some parents wouldn't bother.

Well of course it would be ideal, Jayhawk. Are you not living in the real world, or something?

You need to re-evaluate your political views and base them not on idealism but on rationalism and practicalism.

The very idea that you mention of "Expecting Every Child To Have A Perfect Upbringing" is utterly preposterous.

This is the way the world is right now, and politics is the art of making the best of it.

Jay, how do you stand on censorship in the media?

There shouldn't be any.

That would vastly increase the amount of sexual material on television. It would increase the exposure of many kids to that sexual material.

I would assume that at least some of the kids would try what they saw on television.

Don't you think it's okay that the government tries to make sure that most of those kids could have at least basic knowledge of how to protect themselves?

Especially when their parents have the option of excluding their kids from the lesson?

This is intriguing. How exactly did your education happen? (I mean no confrontation by asking this, however often we may butt heads in minithink ) I'm honestly interested.

Learned to read at age 3.  Learned to write shortly after that.  Was taught math up to about a 4th grade level, and then was shipped off to public school when I was when I was of the age to enter 2nd grade.  Was in public school from 2nd grade to the middle of 4th grade, when I pulled myself out, for I was so far ahead of my classmates, that I learned NOTHING NEW the entire 2 1/2 yards I was there.

Back home, my parents educated me up until around what would be "6th grade" had I been in school.  At that point I had already learned a bit of high school-level math, and my parents felt that it would be best if I was handed the reigns to my own education.  They encouraged me to pursue my own interests and whatnot (which turned out to be mostly computers, politics, making short films, and guitar/musical composition), and I've never looked back.  I've gotten more out of just doing things I enjoy (debating politics, listening to/breaking down music, filming and editing, building/fixing computers) than I ever could've gotten from high school.

That's pretty impressive. Have you found what you want to do with your life? Do you think that your different education helped you to do so? I know that I personally felt as though I received discouragement from pursuing music as a career during my junior high and high school years, (at least from guidance counselors--my music teachers were thrilled), but I don't know that I would have discovered music without going through the public school system, so that's sort of a wash for me, I guess.

Exactly.  I'm quite idealistic on this issue, and am sometimes guilty of slipping into the way things "should be", instead of the way they really are.

Woah, Jayhawk...that's impressive. I think you just summed up Rush Limbaugh in a single, succinct sentence.

(Edited to add a friendly-smiley to show this as a joke.)

As for the censorship in media,  I personaly believe that the government should not place such censureships,  but should impose manitory technology that helps parents do their own censoring.  The main problem with parents censoring their childrens media is its just too easy for their children to get around such a thing.  It is unrealistic for parents to monitor their childrens television viewing habits in this day in age.  It is also hard for parents to know exactly what to censor.  Now I beleive that the government should make more detailed ratings and information about media programming available to the parents.  I mean grouping all television into into four groups really isn't that informative.  I like how when you go rent a movie it list all the bad stuff on the back (If only it was on more than 10% of the movies),  i think that shoudl be availible for all media products.  I see educating parents as to what their children is watching to be a more important  and valuable than straight up censorship.  Another feature that I think should be improved and possible made into law is the above information encoded in macrodata and provide easy ways for parents to block out this content.  My parents digital cable box does this now,  you can get it so it only plays g rated features.  However,  its really a piece of crap.  Most the programs aren't rated right or at all,  its not an easy to use feature,  and when stuff is rated it only falls into the very vague catigories.  I mean if every show was rated on a 1 to 5 scale in four or five categories,  parents would have very good control over what their kids coudl watch.  They could say "Ok i'll set it so my kids can watch 1/5 violence, 1/5 sexuality,  0/profanity, 0/5 nudity"  and be happy.  Heck,  they could even have a "Education Value"  rating,  so kids could only watch shows that they learn something from. I mean skys the limit,  the TV could limit how much it is watched.  I mean Im all for censorship,  if its done by the parents,  and not by people who claim to "know better".