Idealism out of place in sexual issues

As someone who has chosen to make health education a career, I was disconcerted to open up the Wildcat Thursday to see that a fellow student, Kristen Roberts, is so lost in idealism that she failed to bring to light any sense of reality to her column. Ms. Roberts wrote that the only way to approach sex is to abstain from it until marriage. In her ideal world that may be true; however, it is not real to the majority of students on this campus. National Condom Week was designed to educate people on how to have safe sex because people are having sex. There is nothing anyone can do to change that. To preach abstinence to a sexually active group of people will do them no good.

One of the first things I have learned in my Health Education classes is that the education must be geared to the group being educated- otherwise the message will fall onto deaf ears. In those cases we end up with uninformed youth who do not know what a condom is, let alone know how to use one.

I was told recently about a seventeen year-old girl who was on her third pregnancy. When asked by the counselor what she used for birth control, she replied, "A rubber," and pointed to the woman's desk. Confused, the counselor got out a condom and asked if that was what the girl meant. She said, "No," and pointed to a rubber band. That was what she had been using for birth control.

Anyone can point toward family values and a decline in the character of today's youth as a reason, but that is just an excuse, not a solution. This can only be blamed on lack of education. If children are not taught about condoms, or are told that the promotion of them is disgusting, then they will never learn how to use them. That is why so many of us were out on the Mall promoting the use of condoms and giving them away. No matter how much Ms. Roberts may protest and preach against sex outside of marriage, student organizations promoting health will always be out there handing out columns.

By Laura DeMuro (letter)
Arizona Daily Wildcat
February 25, 1997