Look to Dr. Carrera. Director of the National Adolescent Sexuality Training Center at the Children’s Aid Society, Carrera has been working with low-income young people, offering them comprehensive sexual health education starting at age 11 and going through high school graduation. The result:
We participated in a three-year independent evaluation of our program. Nine hundred forty-one low-income teens, ages 13 to 15, at 12 sites in seven U.S. cities, were tested against comparable teens in other communities. We found several statistically significant outcomes for the young people in our program: young women were better able to avoid coercive sex, SAT and PSAT test scores were higher, births among girls were reduced by 50 percent, sexuality-related knowledge gains were 83 percent higher, the percentage of girls using effective contraception was two times higher, and the onset of sexual contact was delayed.
And yet our government is still funding programs that reinstate ridiculous gender roles, tell young people that half of gay teens have AIDS, abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, and condoms don’t work.