The Cognitive Case Against Abstinence-Only Education

The just dont do it approach to teen prevention programs, which underlies programs from DARE to Drivers Ed, relies on the fallacious notion that adolescent behavior is based on knowledge and beliefs.

http://bigthink.com/laurencesteinberg

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[napalmsaliva]

Making non-criminal actions illegal will only make more criminals...it NEVER is an effective deterrent to such actions (From my own observation).

[jonwold82]

It doesn't seem like its possible or even all that desirable to curb teenage recklessness (not that I'm advocating anarchy). I did a lot of the things you're not supposed to do in the spirit of adventure and curiosity. As a result, I know why you shouldn't smoke pot or have unprotected sex etc. In fact, I think I understand morality better than some of the people I've met who never challenged any authority precisely because I was curious enough to find out for myself why some things are taboo.

[MagnusCattus]

I say, whenever a kid splays his guts out on a curb from driving to fast. Take a picture of it. and Show it to everyone as soon as they take driver's ed. kill 2 birds one stone.

[disturbed119]

i think what would really be smart is to make it so after a young adult has gotten their drivers id make it so that for the first year they are not allowed to have anyone sit in the front passenger seat and be only able to drive people in the back that way they would train themselves to look at the road while talking

because obviously they cant look forwards and backwards at the same time. aww crap i didn't mean to ramble, just recalled this was about sex ed

[bmed19]

lol good education?????

thats an oxymoron

[bmed19]

it might me natural and hardwired in the brain for mass murderers to wanna kill lots of ppl, but we still outlaw that. So, clearly one cannot justify not making sumthing illegal on the basis that it is natural.

[danielt63]

I got my kids two seat vehicles when they were young precisely for this reason. THAT's changing the "context".

[Chuichupachichi]

Also, it's interesting to note that he fails to address the correlation between one undesirable behavior's (driving with peers) solution & another behavior's solution

If the solution to his example behavior is outlawing that behavior, then what of the rest of the undesirable behaviors, such as teen sex? Outlaw it also? Ha Ha Ha, funny where the humanists avoidance of conservative views leads to. Not even religious conservatives suggest outlawing teen sex

If outlawing doesn't work with drugs???

[Chuichupachichi]

It's incredible how these pseudo scientists maintain their industry afloat. It's not as if the various "refrain" education programs don't inform the youth of the negative consequences awaiting them if they do engage in such behaviors. But they do anyway. What's the difference with informing them that they'll be cited if caught driving with other teens? That too is warning of negative consequences. Albeit, a traffic citation being less scary than AIDS or even pregnancy. Unless the first offense

[Chuichupachichi]

carries with it "hard time" punishment, teens will comfortably risk receiving a mere slap on the hand until the penalty does escalate into something extremely undesirable. By then you can add those to the current number already facing a serious, criminal status from "manslaughter" due to having traffic infractions prior to the fatality. However, they get to that point of X amount of traffic strikes bringing them to the threshold of criminal charges from having merely carpooled a few times

[Chuichupachichi]

All this despite the fact that Laurence Steinberg stated that kids' risky behaviors have nothing to do with their beliefs or knowledge (of that carpooling is illegal)

But that have to do with outlawing behaviors which are supposedly biologically hardwired from "changes in the brain". In other words, punish them for their naturalness

Why not simply push to have society do whatever it did during the decades when before suicide, pregnancy, violence & murder were problems amongst the youth?