From Feministing:
http://community.feministing.com/...
And not just just any clowns. Clowns who teach middle schoolers sex education!
...Derek Dye, the latest in the long, funny and sad line of abstinence-only sex education heroes. Dye uses his juggling clown schtick to draw the middle school kids’ attention, and then... Wham!
"Having sex before you are married is like juggling machetes!" :
Check out the must-see video of Dye at work in a classroom below the fold:
http://www.youtube.com/...
As clownish as Dye’s words may sound to you, they are unfortunately not rare... Thanks to George W. Bush and a complicit Congress, we currently spend $1.5 billion a year to fund abstinence-only sex education in our public schools. And yes, that money goes to people like Derek Dye...employed by the Elizabeth New Life Center that received a $800,000 CBAE grant in 2007 to promote abstinence until marriage. His qualifications? A "Bachelor of Fun Arts" from Barnum Bailey Clown College, and an abstinence educator certification that can be purchased for $50.
Who could have predicted that clowns wouldn't provide effective sex education? Uh, just about everyone:
abstinence-only programs don’t work – independent study after study has shown that students who receive them don’t have lower pregnancy, HIV, or STI rates. And worse, students who receive abstinence-only programs are less likely to use contraception and condoms when they do have sex..
And the three-ring circus approach to sex ed might also account for the recent spike of teenage pregnancies in the right wing south.
Is there nothing in the Clown Handbook of Ethical Conduct warning against clowning around with reproductivity?
A balloon animal only lives for a day, a baby or STD can last a lifetime.
Then again, as one colleague told me today, nothing wants to make her have sex less than a clown . . .so maybe they’re on to something.
If you'd rather not contribute your tax dollars to abstinence-only clowning,
Contact the Obama Transistion Team: http://change.gov/...
Scroll down to votefor the end of Abstinence education: http://citizensbriefingbook.change.g...
Contact your representatives:
http://www.amplifyyourvoice.org/...