Thread:Blue in the Red Zone/@comment-681745-20150504042642/@comment-26279493-20150525201851

This is a charged issue for us. It is going to place the personal vs the group needs in conflict, and in the mind of many, religious freedom vs. well-being of the group. We Americans are multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and try to balance the needs of the whole people against the rights of individuals and minority groups.

There are individuals and groups within our society which would prefer education to conform to their traditions. Balancing respect for minority traditions against children's rights to fact based education and integration into society and the polity is the challenge.

Given the context of a modern society where parents are absent from the home and an increasing number of young people are free from direct parental supervision, we do have some difficult decisions to make.

Some would argue that these aren't even properly our choices to make. Whether they advance these arguments from preference for a tradition of abstinence and limiting sexuality education to the premarital period, a fear that fact based education might lead to unpopular choices, fear that fact based education might lead to acceptance of proscribed orientation or identity, or just a preference for traditional social Darwinism, they will resist universal fact based sex education.

There has been progress, in my lifetime. From my point of view, we have far to go. My personal opinion is that it's tough to go wrong with facts, truth, and brutal honesty. Education which teaches not only the biology of sexuality but also the psychology of human behavior and the consequences of the choices we make has the chance to empower young people to at least make more rational decisions.