I heard on CBC this morning that Alberta Health had decided to stop publishing this adolescent sexual health booklet. (Audio here)
The drone from Alberta Health basically argued that because we have an outbreak of syphilis happening, that's more important. I suspect the real problem is that some of dinosaurs in Edmonton have it stuck in their head that this booklet - and several others like it - talk about the "icky bits" of being human, and shouldn't be made available to impressionable young minds. (Hmmm - why might there be an outbreak of syphilis happening - Alberta has a boom, a huge influx of people - an amazing percentage of whom are either single, or living apart from their family for economic reasons - the net result? Well - that's pretty easy to guess)
What they are forgetting is that these booklets are an amazingly inexpensive "ounce of prevention". If our youth are aware some basic facts about their bodies, and hopefully, their emerging sexuality as well, then they are better equipped to survive times like we have right now when an outbreak of some STI is happening.
Of course, the Kleinosaurs in Edmonton don't see this as an "ounce of prevention". Instead, they no doubt want to put forth more of the "God Will Punish You" style of material to scare people, rather than actually educating. (I'll put odds that the rest of the sex ed books will quietly vanish off the government's list, to be replaced by Bush-doctrine crap like "abstinence-only" education.
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