Education will not stop a kid from getting pregnant.
Education will not stop your kid from getting HIV.
Parents are not educating their children. This is a societal problem. Education can occur at the home, but in this case, kids need to have all of the resources available, so that if they do make the decision to have sex (and most do), they will have protection measures available.
Obviously, whatever we're doing in Oklahoma isn't working.
There has been study after study that shows that abstinence only programs have little to no effect on preventing kids from choosing to have intercourse.
There is evidence that shows that in schools where condoms are made available to students, there has not been some corresponding increase in sexual activity.
Of course, the overwhelming evidence shows that kids who have good relationships with their parents and have strong moral/religious convictions are the least likely to get pregnant. It of course boils down to parenting, and we know that many parents either do a horrible job, or simply have bad kids.
Quote:
What helps prevent teen pregnancy?
* The primary reason that teenage girls who have never had intercourse give for abstaining from sex is that having sex would be against their religious or moral values. Other reasons cited include desire to avoid pregnancy, fear of contracting a sexually transmitted disease (STD), and not having met the appropriate partner.14 Three of four girls and over half of boys report that girls who have sex do so because their boyfriends want them to.15
* Teenagers who have strong emotional attachments to their parents are much less likely to become sexually active at an early age.16
* Most people say teens should remain abstinent but should have access to contraception. Ninety-four percent of adults in the United States-and 91 percent of teenagers-think it important that school-aged children and teenagers be given a strong message from society that they should abstain from sex until they are out of high school. Seventy-eight percent of adults also think that sexually active teenagers should have access to contraception.17
* Contraceptive use among sexually active teens has increased but remains inconsistent. Three-quarters of teens use some method of contraception (usually a condom) the first time they have sex.18 A sexually active teen who does not use contraception has a 90 percent chance of pregnancy within one year.19
* Parents rate high among many teens as trustworthy and preferred information sources on birth control. One in two teens say they "trust" their parents most for reliable and complete information about birth control, only 12 percent say a friend.20
* Teens who have been raised by both parents (biological or adoptive) from birth, have lower probabilities of having sex than teens who grew up in any other family situation. At age 16, 22 percent of girls from intact families and 44 percent of other girls have had sex at least once.21 Similarly, teens from intact, two-parent families are less likely to give birth in their teens than girls from other family backgrounds.22
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From:
http://www.teenpregnancy.org/resourc...a/genlfact.asp
(the above is an excellent site on the subject)
Anderson, you are right though, your method would be the best. Unfortunately, I don't think we can expect "the best" out of all parents, probably not even the majority of them.