Alternatives: Proposals For Local Governments Struggling With Limited Resources
Alternatives: Proposals For Local Governments Struggling With Limited Resources
In the fall of 1994, the Harry Singer Foundation invited a limited number, of mostly small-town schools, to take part in a pilot program. Students were required to find ways to stretch the resources of local government and make services more responsive to the desires of citizens. The Foundation hopes to gradually add larger communities, and offer categories for innovative state and national projects.
Volunteers at the Foundation narrowed the entries to 22. They were then edited and sent to the National Center for Financial Education in San Francisco, California, where they were reduced to five. These five were then forwarded to a consultant and former-public official in Minnesota who has been in the forefront of the reinventing government movement; the innovative mayors of Indianapolis and Houston, 12 governors, two former-governors and two members of the United States Congress. Many had the help of staff, but all read the proposals and expressed an interest in what these young people had to say.
The final entries are reproduced on the following pages, just as they were seen by the reviewers at the National Center for Financial Education in San Francisco. Across from each paper we reveal the school and participants, information that was kept from judges.
This project was a logical extension of our continuing Responsibility and White Hat programs. Over the years, through student submissions and other sources, we have collected stories of good-things going on around the country, in both the public and private sectors. These inspirational examples have been accessible to anyone with a computer and a modem since the fall of 1993.
Teacher
Pam Bramlet
Students
Heather Gibbs
Amy Mitchell
Corey Fearheiley
Amy Molinarolo
Elizabeth Angelly
Shelly Cook
Delana Boatright
Erin Steinsultz
Kelly Gorman
Melissa Cook
Damon Lampley
Ben Wenzel
Sex Education--The Activity
Our class took a poll of 150 Harrisburg citizens to see what they would think about distributing condoms at school. Of those surveyed, 42 percent would support condom distribution, 51 percent would not and seven percent had no opinion. Several said that sex education at the high school should be longer than three weeks, others thought the responsibility of sex education should be left completely up to parents. Almost everyone agreed that the problems associated with teenage sex continue to grow. Most of those polled thought a revision in the sex education program was past due in Harrisburg schools. Our class decided to focus on sex education as our alternative.
The Project
We, the senior class of Harrisburg High School, propose an awareness program. It would include day care, sexual education classes, and condom distribution. The effect may be small for such a large problem, but helping one student would be worth it.
The first step in helping teens would be to start a program teaching parents how to be open with their children. This could cover topics such as drinking, drugs, sex, divorce, death, and other subject that are hard to deal with. This class could be led by volunteers such as local ministers, teachers, or parents. Parents would learn the importance of talking to their kids and discover how to overcome inhibitions and fears in this area. Most people believe parents should provide sex education, but the statistics surrounding teen pregnancy are proof that it is not happening in the home.
Sex education in Harrisburg schools need a complete overhaul, starting in grade school. Students receive one hour of instruction about puberty in both fifth and sixth grades. But by the time fifth grade comes around, sex has been treated with so much secrecy that children are embarrassed to talk about it and the information doesn't stay with them. Daily education should start at the beginning of the fifth grade. This education would consist of learning about proper hygiene and finding out what to expect during puberty. The education should combine boys and girls, not segregate them. By talking about these easier issues early, kids will be comfortable later talking about more difficult things. By the time sixth grade starts, children should start learning more about sex and the consequences Children are having sex as early as sixth grade, therefore the problem needs to be addressed early.
In Harrisburg the next phase of sex education occurs in the eighth grade. Students have six days of instruction that cover STDs and the workings of sexual organs. This only scratches the surface. Instead of this hurried attempt at education, kids, from grade school on, should have a daily class that deals with general personal health and ongoing sex education. Of the one million to 1.5 million cases of HIV in the United States, approximately one third are teenagers. Students are at risk, and they need to have access to information as it becomes available.
The last step in sex education at Harrisburg occurs in the tenth grade. There is a three week class that covers abstinence STDs, and birth control. A short class such as this is a bad idea for some of the same reasons already mentioned. Sex has been treated sporadically and with enough secrecy so that few benefits are likely to arise from any class about sex. Under our proposal, when high school starts, the plan outlined for grade school and junior high can then be expanded into an adult living class to encompass home economics, parenting and continual sex education. This class would deal with the family and would cover responsibilities concerning children. Instruction would be given in the skills needed to run a household, and things relating to day-to-day living. This education would compliment, not replace classroom discussion about sex and its consequences.
Incentives and Disincentives
Parents may be the biggest obstacle to our proposal. Many parents feel that sex education should be left up to them, that the school should not interfere. Others do not agree with the programs suggested. One parent explained that a program of abstinence needs to be taught and practiced by teens. As with all innovations, there will be resistance.
Some people suggest that sex education will encourage experimentation. There are those who firmly believe that passing out condoms would send the wrong message to the teenage population. They also feel that since condoms are not one hundred percent effective against pregnancy or disease it would not prevent anything; besides, many teenagers take sex education as a joke when it is taught among their peers and it is only when parents and children discuss sex without the pressure of peers that it is taken seriously. On the other hand, condom distribution would prevent the child from using the excuse of not having access to a means of contraception. Although condom distribution might encourage sexual activity at the high school and junior high level, it would without a doubt lower the rate of teenage pregnancy and the transmission of many sexually transmitted diseases in all communities.
A day care program would be good for Harrisburg High School. The day care could be set up for students and then opened to others if needed. If the day care was incorporated with the adult living classes, students from those classes could help with the care of the children to gain hands on experience working with children. If current health, parenting and home economics teachers were trained and then worked into the adult living program, there would be no need to hire any new workers for the day care program. A day care program would give teenage girls a chance to stay in school if they became pregnant.
We believe better education will provide better knowledge of the risk factors involved with various sexual expressions. A fully developed sex education course, like the one proposed, would also provide information regarding alternatives to sex.
Though the community would be funding these classes through taxes, the services now funded by taxpayers, such as day care for children of student mothers, could and would be greatly reduced by better knowledge of the risks involved in sex. Taxpayers would also be paying less for welfare as there would be fewer teenage mothers and consequently fewer school drop outs. We argue that funding for sex education would not involve an increase in taxes but rather it would be a transfer of funds from one service to another. This knowledge should encourage more taxpayers to support proposals for sex education.
Conclusion
A thorough sex education class, as well as a service that helps to prevent pregnancy are great alternatives that can benefit our students and community. Students need to be educated in order to prevent mistakes. The mistakes students make in issues such as these could cause them to lose the valuable education that they need to succeed in today's world.
Though education will not eliminate the problems faced by teens, it will make them controllable. Education allows individuals to make better decisions. With knowledge comes the ability to weigh the consequences of an action. Available, even mandatory sexual education if complete, realistic and early, will make teens reflect on the unwanted babies and diseases they might otherwise live with the rest of their lives. Often, when faced with real results, minds are changed. Better sexual education is desperately needed, not only at Harrisburg High School, but in the entire American school system. Back