"No sex vs. Safe sex" Teachings. Throw in your two cents

So I'm writing a paper on school culture and how it reflects the curricula of that school, and thus I began to ponder the differences between a school that teaches comprehensive sex education and a school that teaches abstinence-only education.
I personally believe there are pros and cons to both teachings (as there is to most everything!!!), but I'm all about the comprehensive everything. Straight up.

I found an article written by my new best friend David Salyer on The Body. com, which is a site promoting the education of HIV. He talks about American's funding for abstinence-only education and how A-O is not living up to its expectations, so why is America still tax dollaring to the max???

http://www.thebody.com/content/art32403.html

PS. The comic is supposed to be funny... I'm not saying that abstinence-only education is going to promote teen pregnancy, at ALL.... however...
"Even if you happen to believe teenagers really shouldn't be having sex, consider that around age 13, they stop caring what you think, anyway" (Salyer, 2004).

^ This, my friend, is true. Teens WILL rebel, so you may as well lay out all the options.
Okay. Like my friend David states in the article, I'm not saying don't teach abstinence, I'm saying teach MORE than JUST abstinence.

So one of the things most prominent in my thesis will be to strengthen a student's self awareness, self esteem, and self respect in order for them to make strong, informed, knowledgeable, healthy decisions on their own. I read this passage when I recalled this emphasis on the self:

The thing about teenagers is that when you give them no information, they start making things up all by themselves. That's why 16-year-old girls end up with gonorrhea of the throat -- somehow they determine that oral sex isn't real sex because no adult has ever told them otherwise. Comprehensive sexual education can dispel sexual myths, acknowledge the potential consequences or risks of sexual behavior and explain what's going on with teenage bodies. And because abstinence-only education places everything in the context of a monogamous, heterosexual marriage, America's gay and lesbian youth are dismissed, thus reinforcing feelings of isolation or shame (Salyer, 2004).

My issue about abstinence-only education and the promotion of a certain rigid form of sexuality is that it does not fit with every student. The last thing I would want to do in my classroom would be to isolate or shame a student. Let's be realistic my friends. Not everyone is going to have the same values about sex, and so a comprehensive sex education ensures that most of the values are met by addressing different POVs.

Don't dismiss anyone. Talk it out. Talk it ALL out. Props David. You know your stuff. I agree. Stop funding for something that just does not work. Rather... HERE'S an idea:

Sarah's words of wisdom:
Incorporate abstinence into the already existing sex education program. OH WAIT... this is the way it already is in a comprehensive sex ed curriculum. I just got my wish. Now let's implement this business everywhere, shall we?