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So true >.<
More of the Liberal conspiracy to turn our children into perverts. Just kidding, but I’m sure some nut that posts will mean it. Will probably bitch about Obama too.
OK… Kind of hard to see given the labeling, but it looks like you think that of all sixth graders who get absitence-only education (and I assume you mean “absitenence-only *sex* education”), have a 20% probability of being in a shotgun wedding. Ummmmm…. I doubt it. There’s a funny and true point in here somewhere, but the total sloppiness of how this got thrown together ruins it.
Yeah, you’d know about sloppy, eh, Absitence? And thank God you pointed out it’s about sex. This was so sloppy, none of the rest of us probably had a clue it was about abstinence only SEX education until you pointed it out. And MAN, you totally uncovered the fail by pointing out, “I doubt it.” Zing! You are on FIRE.
OK, fair enough. Got a bit full of myself. Mea culpa. Still, the underlying message behind this graph is right on. Don’t you think just a little bit more effort would have made it really great?
I think a little less taking GraphJam graphs literally is all it takes to make this graph great
I think it’s for when they finally get married… not that they’re suggesting that 6th graders will have shotgun weddings then
This Sven Diagram sucks.
No, no, it’s just sideways. Tilt your head.
Ah, that’s better. Thanks Mike!
95% by 12th grade seems excessive to me. Perhaps things have changed since I went to high school. I hung out with the socially inept crowd. Nobody in my crowd got anyone pregnant, because we were too inept to get close enough for anything to happen.
It is quite possible for one socially skilled male to get many girls pregnant, but he can only have one shotgun wedding (in most of these United States).
I suspect that the pregnancy rate will be below 95%, and the shotgun wedding rate, will be even lower.
Perhaps it’s judging that IF there were to be a wedding, it would be a shotgun wedding. My cousin is in with those percentages to… that poor girl. Shotgun weddings = fail, usually.
Fair enough, but at the 6th grade level, that would be 20% of what? I’m pretty sure the wedding rate is 0%. Still a fail.
Y’know, this whole thing is just stupid. It’s not like people won’t know about contraceptives. Day 1 in high school someone’s gonna tell you if you don’t already know. And I’ve known plenty of people that held off til marriage. On the other hand, I’ve known people who’s parents/schools didn’t teach them about contraceptives but somehow they found out. Good Lord.
The problem is, it’s not just knowing of contraceptives, it’s knowing how to use them properly, and what you can expect them to do. For instance, how many high school kids know not to keep a condom in your wallet or car, because that will cause them to break down quickly? Or how many girls do you suppose know that if you’re on the pill, you have to take it at the same time every day, or that if you miss a day, you can get pregnant for a week after? If they don’t teach sex ed, kids don’t know the details which are a little bit of really important.
Besides, some kids are just dumb. A few students at the school where a friend of mine teaches argued with her that guys can’t get AIDS, only girls can, because it’s from a buildup of bacteria that slutty girls get from sleeping around. Some kids really need sex ed before they go out and make more dumb kids like that.
Dear God, if any doctor puts a girl on the Pill and doesn’t warn her about that, he deserves to be decked. That’s one of the things you ought to tell someone, no matter why they’re on a contraceptive. It’s pretty damn important. I’d consider it at least slightly negligent to not inform someone of all the risks of what you’re putting them on, especially if one of those risks is the possibility of pregnancy if you miss a dose.
Firstly, it’s humour, not actual facts from data so hyperbole and exaggeration is to be expected. Secondly, that doesn’t matter because you and hamjudo are reading the graph wrong. It’s not saying that 95% of kids will have a shotgun wedding by 12th grade or that 20% will have one by 6th grade. It’s saying the possibility of there being shotgun weddings in 12th grade is 95% and that the possibility of there being shotgun weddings in the 6th grade is 20%.
I get that its humor and I understand the irony that this graph calls out. Just a personal opinion that I think it’s funnier when the data is right on.
That being said, though, there are a lot of TPS reports here that don’t pick this up as funny, but as a validation of a point of view. Check out the FlamNGoil comment toward the bottom of the list of TPS reports: “These figures have proven themselves time after time for DECADES”.
As for your point about what the percentages mean, 95% of what? Do you that there is a 95% probability that there is at least 1 shotgun wedding? If so, then I agree that the numbers make more sense. Although I’ve still never heard of a shotgun wedding in 6th grade.
“As for your point about what the percentages mean, 95% of what?”
Probability, like if you flip a coin it’s a 50% probability it’ll be tails. Yeah, it’s probably still factually wrong, but that’s jokes for you.
Yup. That’s what I thought you meant.
BTW, have you seen some of the more recent entries below? I think we’ve got a decent chunk of left- and right-wing nut-jobs who aren’t picking this up as a joke….. and I thought my entries were overly verbose….:)
Way to steal from other blogs:
http://indexed.blogspot.com/2008/09/or-just-pray-it-doesnt-happen-to-you.html
Classy.
What a loser. The irony is that in the original handwritten form it’s actually funny. In an attempt to steal some of the funny-glow he stripped out the humor.
Stolen! From here:
http://indexed.blogspot.com/2008/09/or-just-pray-it-doesnt-happen-to-you.html
your post STOLEN from above post!
The graph is not great, but the point is well-intentions. In that, abstinence-only sex-ed is almost always an epic fail.
Oops. Well-intentioned*
Agree. But why do we graph at all? To make a good point sing visually. Otherwise we would just write the sentence, as you did, “abstinence-only sex-ed is almost always an epic fail.”
Because this site is called Graphjam. If was the way you suggest, it would be called Blahblahblahjam.
Seriously? You can’t tell the question was rhetorical? Did you read the twenty-odd words after the question?
Here’s my point: if you’re going to make a statement on graphjam, then make a good graph. If you’re not going to make a good graph, then go write a sentence on blahblahblahjam.
I like the idea of blahblahblahjam, by the way…. Oh wait, we already have a ga-jllion blogs that are basically blahblahblahjam…. Which is why I like graphjam…..
….Which brings me back to my original point: Carelessly tossing a bunch of numbers into a graph doesn’t make a statement rise above the level of your usual blahblahblah. And in some instances it makes it worse, as Danyell demonstrated. Danyell’s simple concise sentence made the point much more effectively than this lousy (and ripped-off, as it turns out) graph.
Point taken.
Nicely Done!
These figures have proven themselves time after time for DECADES in other
countries where sex education is a matter of course, and talk of sex isn’t
hampered by the prudish society we have.
For instance, the “permisive” Sweden has a very low teenage birth rate.
While it may seem obvious to some, there are more people than you want to know, who think that if their lil’ young’uns don’t hear them thar sex words,
they won’t even THINK about it!
We have a perfect example in Alaska, knocked up as a teenager, apparently the best thing her child can do is to have yet another child……AS LONG AS SHE
doesn’t know how to prevent it, or any facts about her own body.
Why should she? If the Repugs win, no woman will have control of her own body anyway.
One thing many people overlook is that many red staters don’t have an issue with teenage pregnancy. As long as people aren’t thwarting Yahweh’s will with birth control and abortion, it’s all cool with them.
Yes lower birth rates in Sweden, because the abortion rate is on average 1.5 to 2 times higher than in the US (accounting for differences in population size). Yeah, sounds like “permissive” Sweden actually has more accidental *pregnancies*, just fewer actual *births*.
The baby isn’t a part of the mother’s body, it’s a seperate human being and deserves its rights protected like one.
Oh, brilliant! Just tar everyone with the same brush. Funnily enough, I was raised on abstinence only, and I have yet to end up pregnant. Of course, what most people forget is that proper abstinence only education doesn’t just say “Sex is bad. Don’t have it.” it tells you that “Sex is for the purpose of having children. It is entirely possible to get (a girl) pregnant the first time you have sex.” It teaches you about sex and the natural result of sex. That’s what I sat through in 8th grade, and I can think of ONE girl in my school who got pregnant despite that.
You know something? Most people I know who’ve had that sort of education growing up either don’t have sex until they’re married or they look into methods of contraception on their own. It’s the kids like in my sex ed class in high school (different district than my middle school) who giggled and joked their way through the part where they taught us how to put on a condom who mostly ended up either pregnant or getting a girl pregnant by senior year.
Take the anecdata as you will, but I see this as proof that somehow, somewhere, the education system is failing, and I’m pretty sure it’s because we were just taught in high school that if you have sex with protection, everything will be okey-dokey. We learned next to NOTHING about pregnancy or sex or any of that. Just put on a condom or take the pill and you’ll be fine. We weren’t even told that heat will break down condoms faster.
I’ve got plenty of control over my own body. Most women ought to realise that they have control by saying NO to sex without protection, or just NO in general, instead of letting a man coerce them into sex with the idea that it will make the man love them even more or that all the other girls do it. If THAT’S being in control of my own body, I want none of it.
Furthermore, it’s repugnant to me how it’s now an irresponsible thing to marry the father of your child and raise the child in a two-parent home. Yes, providing a stable family environment for a child is the worst possible thing. Let’s just kill another human being instead of teaching a young man and young woman to take responsibility for their actions.
What I love is how the liberals are anti-death penalty, but sure seem to love abortion… and then they have the gall to attack conservatives for being pro-death penalty and against abortion, decrying it as hypocrisy.
First you say you were raised on abstinence only and learned all about pregnancy, and then you say you learned about condoms in sex ed class and learned nothing about pregnancy.
Which is it?
Studies have shown that abstinence-only kids have sex just as much as everyone else. The only difference is that they have more STIs and pregnancies because they don’t learn about condoms.
And there’s no objective assessment that a two-month-old fetus is already a human being. Just because you choose to define life that way don’t act like it’s an undeniable fact.
@First paragraph:
“(different district than my middle school)”
I think she moved and the sex ed classes were different pre- and post- move.
*chuckle*
I just moved from Oklahoma….
Thank God I don’t have to read the billboards posted by the right-to-life groups that say “BIRTH CONTROL IS HARMFUL”
Maybe my skull will heal from four years of bashing it in?
Did you ever think the reason they’re spreading the message is because it’s the truth? I have no problem with preventing pregnancy but too often people think birth control gives them free reign with sex, that they don’t have to think at all. That’s the main problem with it. And yes, women have indeed died taking it, the evidence is there.
Eeesh. “SEXIST!!!” comments from the religious right in 3….2….1….
Well I’m from Scotland where in Primary School (aged around 8-9) I was given full SexEd, and then at 11 was taught in class exactly how to use a condom by putting it on all manner of phallic shaped objects (bananas etc). Contraceptives from the doctor are free here and available to a girl of ANY age, however we still manage to have the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe (personally I blame the town of Dundee but thats a Scottish thing). Plus in the UK we have an STD epidemic with 1 in 10 girls carrying Chlamydia. So go figure.
The big confusion I see is that the libs keep saying it’s not working but the conservative groups I generally align myself with say the liberal stats are biased and that the evidence actually shows it does work. But both sides can’t be right.
Really if we want to stop our kids running around getting pregnant we need to stop innundating them with sex images everywhere. We can’t expose them to provocative images all thier lives and expect them not to want to try it themselves. It’s the culture that’s the problem, not the education. And kids need to wake up and use their brains and be willing to wait and not think they need sex right away.
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/2006/09/12/USTPstats.pdf
Not really sure when sex education in schools began but I would assume it was in the early 90’s, which is about the time this report says teen pregnancy rates started falling. And, also the media is way more sexualized now than it was in 1990 and teen pregnancy rates have still fallen, despite the fact that you claim “provacative images” are what is causing teens to want to have sex. A more appropriate statement might have been to say more teens are having sex due to provactive imagery in the media, however, less are getting pregnant, and that is thanks in part to sex education.
Yes, everyone should take a page out of fundamental Islam’s book and dress in burkhas (men included) to remove temptation. That’ll work.
Is this really the proper forum to discuss this issue? Can anyone here really impact the level of change needed for this matter to be fully rectified.
It’s late summer in America. Americans, stop wasting your time on teh interweb tubes. Go outside and run around in the sun. Winter is coming.
Sheesh.
when kids aren’t given information about prophylaxes, they talk to each other about it. and so they pass on misinformation. not every girl has access to/knows they have access to birth control and guidance from the doctors or clinic that gives it to them.
true story: a girl in a youth diversion program who my best friend worked with in college was making her boyfriend drink mountain dew and eating KY jelly on her toast because that’s what her friends told her would keep her from getting pregnant.
another true story: my good friend in high school knew i was worried about her getting pregnant, so she made one guy wear two condoms at once so she could tell me she was being extra careful.
i think we assume sometimes that kids will figure things out for themselves, and that they’re generally smart enough not to believe stuff that’s so clearly nonsense. but when they don’t have an authority figure giving them facts, the next best thing for them is their peers.
I think that one thing that messes up the issue is how much schools should be involved; teaching an 8-9 year old how to use a condom will not solve anything.
The other point to make is that ‘Abstinence-only’ education is a misnomer: it’s not as if condoms and the pill and such are top secret Information that no one should know about. In reality, kids should be taught that they shouldn’t have sex because of the consequences, not because they’ve been told not to. Instead, the current program tells kids: “well, eh, it’d be nice if you didn’t have sex, but you will, you’re crazy teenagers, you can’t control yourselves, we can’t control you, so whatever, go ahead, have a condom…” This is self-defeating because not only will the teenagers believe and act according to it, but teenagers drive vehicles without acting out action movies, use knives without purposefully stabbing themselves, and do all sorts of other things that could be considered dangerous.
Just try to center the course/knowledge more around not having sex in the first place, I’d say.
The abstinence is a method that nobody uses, prevention is the key I think.