Choosing the Best WAY Review

The Choosing the Best series, one of the more popular abstinence-only-until-marriage curricula series in the country, includes Choosing the Best WAY, Choosing the Best PATH, Choosing the Best LIFE, Choosing the Best JOURNEY, and Choosing the Best SOUL MATE. Each is designed for a specific year(s) of middle school or high school.  For each curriculum, there is a leader guide, a student workbook, and an accompanying video.

These curricula are produced and distributed by Choosing the Best, Inc., a non-profit organization founded in 1993. Choosing the Best, Inc. also offers PARENT PREP, an “education program…ideal for PTA presentations, parents’ groups and teacher in-service training” and Parents, Teens and SEX: The BIG TALK Book which “offers ten critical steps parents can take to help empower their teens to choose abstinence until marriage” (Choosing the Best PATH, Leader Guide, p. 2).

This review focuses on Choosing the Best WAY, which is designed for sixth grade students and written by Bruce Cook, the founder of Choosing the Best, Inc. SIECUS reviewed the second edition which was published in 2006.

SIECUS’ curricula reviews are based on our Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education, K–12, which were developed by a task force of professionals from the fields of education, medicine, youth services, and sexuality education. The Guidelines are a framework for comprehensive sexuality education programs and represent a consensus about the necessary components of such programs. Abstinence is one of the 39 topics included in the Guidelines.

As is typical of abstinence-only-until-marriage curricula, Choosing the Best WAY provides limited information on human sexuality and does not cover such basic topics as puberty, sexual response, or reproduction. Other important issues such as contraception, abortion, sexual orientation, STDs, and HIV/AIDS are presented in an unbalanced manner that seems designed to promote one point of view rather than simply inform students.

In addition to omitting important information, this curriculum relies heavily on messages of fear and shame and biased views of marriage, sexual orientation, and gender. While the immediate goal of many sexuality education programs is to delay the initiation of sexual intercourse (possibly until marriage) or increase the use of pregnancy- and disease-prevention methods, many programs also have the long-term goal of promoting sexual health. Because an abstinence-only-until-marriage program is often the only formal setting in which young people learn about sexuality, the information and messages in the curriculum can have a life-long impact on their view of sexuality.

Relying on Negative Messages

Abstinence is an integral part of any comprehensive sexuality education program. SIECUS’ Guidelines suggest that students be told that abstinence from sexual intercourse is the most effective method of preventing pregnancy and STDs, including HIV. The Guidelines include a number of age-appropriate messages about abstinence for students such as: “Young teenagers are not mature enough for a sexual relationship that includes intercourse”; “Abstinence from intercourse has benefits for teenagers”; and “Teenagers in romantic relationships can express their feelings without engaging in sexual intercourse.”

Rather than presenting a balanced, complete picture of both abstinence and sexual activity, Choosing the Best WAY puts forth exaggerated messages about both the benefits of abstinence and the dangers of sexual activity. The result is that students are instilled with fear and misunderstandings about sexual activity as well as unrealistic expectations of abstinence.

Messages of Fear—Trying To Scare Students

In an effort to scare students into abstaining from sexual activity, the curriculum names numerous physical and psychological consequences of premarital sexual activity, suggests that sexually active teens will never have a happy future, and implies that only teens with low self-esteem and poor judgment become sexually active.

Lesson four is entitled “Indentifying the Risks” which, according to the author, include STDs, teen parenthood, and emotional consequences.  Previous editions of curricula produced by Choosing the Best, Inc. have included a great deal of inaccurate and misleading information about STDs.  Choosing the Best WAY, however, presents only accurate information about STDs and, unlike even the current editions of Choosing the Best PATH and Choosing the Best LIFE it does not include numerous stories about worst case scenarios or exaggerated health consequences. 

The presentation does, however, dramatize STDs using bizarre props.  In discussing Chlamydia the teacher is told to hold up “green slime or goo” and say “The discharge from Chlamydia may be messy and oozy like this, or it may be very slight, almost unnoticeable.”  Cauliflower is used to illustrate genital warts caused by HPV: “Break off several pieces and let student pass these around as you explain that genital warts look like cauliflower—lumpy and in clusters.”  And, the teacher dramatizes Herpes sores by popping bubble wrap (Choosing the Best WAY, Leader Guide, p. 26-27).  While amusing, this presentation is not educational. Discharge from Chlamydia will not look like green goo purchased at the toy store and genital warts, which more often than not are so small as to be hard to see, would have to go untreated for quite a long time before they even remotely resembled cauliflower.

The discussion on teen pregnancy focuses on the problems faced by teen parents.  Athena explains that her life was changed forever and Chris reminds teens that “the first time having sex can ruin your whole life” (Choosing the Best WAY, Leader Guide, p. 24).  Using Athena as an example, the curriculum tells students that possible risks for children of teen parents include: “more likely to be premature, more health problems; more likely to be abused, abandoned, neglected; daughters more likely to be pregnant before 18; and sons more likely to be jailed.” The curriculum refers to Athena as “unable to pursue her dreams of going to college and pursuing a career,” and asks students how her life would have been improved if she had not chosen to have sex before marriage (Choosing the Best WAY, Leader Guide, p. 25).     

While it is important for students to understand the difficulties that accompany teen pregnancy, it is possible to do it in a way that does not wholly stigmatize teen parents or suggest that they will never have a happy life.  Moreover, it is important to remember that some students in the class may be the children of teen parents and they too may be stigmatized by these negative messages about their families.

It is interesting that while teen pregnancy is used to illustrate the risks of premarital sex, Choosing the Best WAY never discusses pregnancy options.  SIECUS’ Guidelines suggest that sixth grade students be told “A woman faced with an unintended pregnancy can carry the pregnancy to term, place the baby up for adoption, or have an abortion to end the pregnancy.”  Other curricula in the series do discuss these options and show biases in favor of adoption and against abortion.  Choosing the Best WAY, however, simply does not address these issues. 

The majority of the discussion on the consequence of sex focuses on the inevitable emotional problems one will face if he/she engages in premarital sex.  Choosing the Best WAY explains:  “One risk of sexual activity that is often overlooked is the emotional effect.  No one goes into a relationship thinking how he or she will be affected emotionally, but a person will be.” The language used makes it clear that the author believes negative emotional consequences are inevitable.  The consequences include “guilt, disappointment, worry, depression, sadness, loneliness, and loss of self-esteem” (Choosing the Best WAY, Leader Guide, p. 25). 

The majority of adults in the country engage in sexual activity prior to marriage and there is no scientific evidence to support the assertion that premarital sexual intercourse causes everything from worry to loneliness. The author’s focus on the inevitable consequences of premarital sexual activity is clearly designed to scare students rather than to educate them. 

Messages of Shame—Instilling Feelings of Guilt

In addition to providing endless information on the negative consequences of premarital sexual activity, Choosing the Best WAY utilizes a variety of tactics to suggest that teens should feel guilty, embarrassed, and ashamed of sexual behavior.

Many of the video segments show teens talking to the camera about how bad they felt about themselves after having become sexually active.  Robin, who had sex in eighth grade, says:  “...I lost a part of me, part of my identity. It made me feel horrible,” (Choosing the Best WAY, Video Segment 3). Ryan claims that one day in middle school he and a girl were bored so they decided to try it.  He, too, felt horrible and described a gut feeling of having done something wrong and disappointing his parents and his friends who “you know, wouldn’t do things like that” (Choosing the Best WAY, Video Segment 3).

The messages in these video segments portray sex as shameful and wrong, and as both a symptom and cause of low self-esteem.  While most adults would agree that middle school students should not be having sex, they also want young people to grow up to have happy and healthy sex lives as adults.  Suggesting that sex is shameful is counterproductive to raising a generation of sexually healthy young people.

Nonetheless, the curriculum continually reinforces the message not just that sex is shameful but that those people who have had it should be ashamed of themselves. In one video segment, Alicia compares a person who has had pre-marital sex to pre-chewed gum. According to Alicia, every time a person has sex it is like chewing gum and then putting it in your hand.  She then says she would not want to hand that wad of gum to her husband (Choosing the Best WAY, Video Segment 5).  The curriculum asks students to discuss what she means by this and instructs teachers to explain: “Gum that has already been chewed isn’t as appealing as when it is unwrapped and new” (Choosing the Best Way, Leader Guide, p. 31).

With ideas like these, the author sets up a dichotomy between those students who choose to be abstinent who are portrayed as being strong, healthy, and courageous, and those who become sexually active who are portrayed as lacking self-respect, worth, or personal value.  They are simply no longer appealing to others. 

It is important to remember that 47 percent of all high school students have had sexual intercourse.[1] It is inappropriate and potentially harmful for an education program to imply that these teens lack value and dignity or suggest that they are less worthy of love, trust, and respect. This can only be damaging to these students and serve to alienate them from their peers and the program. 

Sexual Abuse—Portraying Victims as Having Control

SIECUS often criticizes abstinence-only-until-marriage curricula for completely ignoring the subject of sexual abuse.  This is a particularly worrisome oversight given the messages of shame around having participated in sexual activity.  We applaud the author for including a section on sexual abuse in Choosing the Best WAY. The lesson includes four rules to stop sexual abuse all of which have good messages including “it’s never your fault” and “if something feels wrong, then it probably is.” The curriculum also encourages young people to get help by telling a responsible adult.  Unfortunately, other messages in the lesson are troublesome. Moreover, in this and other lessons, the curriculum undermines its own message that it is never the victim’s fault.

Even the curriculum’s definition of sexual abuse is problematic.  It says “Sexual abuse happens when one person uses another person to satisfy his or her sexual needs through any kind of touching or sexual activity in the underwear zone” (Choosing the Best WAY, Leader Guide, p. 19). First, it is odd and unnecessary to include the motivations of the abuser in the definition.  While some sexual abuse may be about satisfying the abusers’ sexual needs many acts of abuse and assault are about power and control and not sex.    

Also disturbing is the idea of the “underwear zone.”  This curriculum is intended for sixth grade students who should know the proper names of their body parts.  Being so vague does not help young people understand the parameters of abuse, which can take place outside of the “underwear area.”  Moreover, this phrasing once again suggests that there is shame, not just in sex, but in body parts that are so shameful or embarrassing they can’t be mentioned; a suggestion that makes it even less likely young people will report the abuse. 

Much of the discussion of sexual abuse focuses on the video vignettes of Angela and Liz.  Liz is a 22-year-old woman who was date-raped at the age of 13 and suffered permanent damage to her knees from having been pinned down.  Liz’s story includes great messages for survivors of date rape as she explains that years of counseling have helped her understand that it was not her fault, there was nothing she could do, and some things are just out of your control. Unfortunately, the curriculum undermines this when in a later lesson they use her story to illustrate the importance of “boundary #1: not being alone with someone of the opposite sex” (Choosing the Best WAY, Leader Guide, p. 38).  The suggestion is that had Liz abided by this boundary she might not have been raped. This “boundary” is completely irrelevant to Liz’s story because she was babysitting at the time and the rapist was a relative of the family for whom she was working.  More importantly, however, it is simply never appropriate to blame survivors of date rape for what happened to them. 

The video also includes a segment on Angela who was date raped at 13 by a guy she new from middle school and had a crush on.  Angela experienced “self hatred, became isolated, depressed and began drinking and doing drugs.  She didn’t relate to kids her own age anymore and continued to be sexual active because she saw no value in herself or in her body” (Choosing the Best WAY, Leader Guide, p. 18).  In the video, Angela describes herself as being promiscuous.  Unlike, Liz’s story which discusses the value of counseling and the realization that she was not to blame, it is unclear what students are meant to learn from Angela’s. And, because this story is grouped with the stories of Robin and Ryan, teens who felt bad about having consensual sex, it seems like the story is just meant to underscore the idea that sex causes low self-esteem and that young women with low self-esteem are bound to be sexually active.  It is disturbing that Angela’s story would be lumped in with these messages of shame because it once again undermines the curriculum’s message that victims are not to blame.  

In fact, the curriculum’s discussion of date rape is solely from the point of view of how potential victims can prevent it.  While that is an important part of any date rape prevention program, it is also vitally important to remind young people that no always means no and that they should never force another person into doing anything that he/she does not want to do.  Instead, the curriculum resorts to logic that has often been used to blame victims of sexual assault by asking students rhetorically: “How do some people say NO with their words, but YES with their actions or clothing?” (Choosing the Best WAY, Leader Guide, p. 40).

Ultimately, Choosing the Best WAY misses an important opportunity to truly educate young people on date rape and other types of sexual abuse.

Promoting One Point of View

The Choosing the Best series is predicated on one world view which sees marriage as the only morally acceptable relationship, premarital sex as inevitably harmful, and abstinence as the key not just to a successful marriage but to a happy life.  In promoting these views, the curriculum also shows a clear bias against homosexuality and perpetuates stereotypes about gender.

Marriage – Mandating Relationships for Students

In a lesson called “Choosing the Best WAY” students view videos from teens who have chosen to be abstinent.  Ashley says “I don’t believe in giving myself that way…it’s not needed…so many emotional bonds” and  Lila says she’s doing it to “protect her heart.” The curriculum goes on to say that “By being abstinent, she is respecting herself and the person she will marry” (Choosing the Best WAY, Leader Guide, p. 31).

An exercise called “Marriage—The Benefits of Waiting,” asks students to look at Jake and Lauren on their wedding day.  It lists “several factors that affect their marriage” including “trust each other; respect each other; possible STDs; faithfulness in marriage; close relationship; and successful marriage.”  Teachers are instructed to say: “Let’s look at each factor and decide to what degree it would affect their marriage based on their decision to be abstinent until marriage, as opposed to being sexually active. For example, ask: Would they trust each other more, less, or not at all if they choose abstinence until marriage” (Choosing the Best WAY, Leader Guide, p. 32).

Though framed as an open discussion, the curriculum clearly wants young people to believe that Jake and Lauren’s marriage will only be happy if they chose abstinence prior to it.   To underscore this point, the curriculum turns to the story of Athena, a teen mother who was “unable to pursue her dreams of going to college and pursuing a career.”  Students are asked to write down a new ending to Athena’s story based on different decisions.  “She may have thought, if I have sex then I will not reach several goals in my life.  If I choose abstinence than I will have a better future.”  The leader’s guide elaborates: “her new life could include…a wedding to someone who loved her and respected her and a wedding night where she and her husband shared something special that she had never shared with anyone else” (Choosing the Best WAY, Leader Guide, p. 25).     

The messages in exercises like this are clear: all people wish to and will marry and staying abstinent until marriage is both necessary and sufficient when it comes to creating a perfect life.  In reality, there is no reason to believe that because Jake and Lauren did not have sex before marriage, their marriage will undoubtedly be a happy one.  Nor is it true that abstinence alone would have ensured that Athena would meet her life goals.  Though presented as fact, these are opinions based on one world view and may be damaging to students. 

Virginity Pledges—Asking Students to Publicly Promise Purity

Like many fear-based, abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, Choosing the Best WAY includes a virginity pledge, in which students vow to remain abstinent until they marry.

Choosing the Best WAY states: “your choices say a lot about your character…You’ve seen the emotional impact of sex outside of marriage.  Think about how your life and future can be influenced in a positive way by waiting to have sex until marriage.”  It goes on to say that, “even if you are not a virgin, today can be the first day of the rest of your life....” The teacher is instructed to have the class read the Abstinence Pledge from their student workbook out loud in unison.

Today I choose Abstinence as a way to make the Best preparation for my future by Choosing to wait until marriage to have sex.  By making this promise I can be:

-          free from worry, guilt, sexually transmitted disease, teen pregnancy, and feelings of being used by others

-          free to control my life, to like myself, to work towards personal goals, to experience healthy relationships, and to enjoy being a teenager….

Therefore, I promise my present family, my future family, my friends who support me and myself to be sexually abstinent until marriage (Choosing the Best WAY, Student Workbook, p. 34).

Recent research found that virginity pledges could help a select group of young people delay intercourse under certain circumstances. Pledges taken by an entire class as part of a lesson or presentation, however, were not effective. Moreover, even when they work, pledges help this select group of adolescents delay the onset of intercourse for an average of 18 months—far short of marriage. Ultimately 88 percent of young people who pledge become sexually active before marriage. 

Virginity pledges may, in fact, be detrimental to some teens. The study also found that those young people who took the pledge were one-third less likely to use contraception when they did become sexually active than their peers who had not pledged. Further research has confirmed that although some students who take pledges delay intercourse, ultimately they are equally as likely to contract an STD as their non-pledging peers. Far from providing a solution to the complex problem of unintended pregnancy and disease transmission, these simplistic pledges are undermining the use of contraception among teens, potentially exposing them to greater harm.[2]

The pledge appears under the headlines “building character” and “making healthy choices” which suggests that those who choose not to sign it are both unhealthy and lack character. Nonetheless, the teacher is told to “urge students who aren’t ready to sign the pledge to think about the reasons for their hesitancy” (Choosing the Best WAY, Leader Guide, p. 34).

It is not the place of any educational program to mandate choices for students. Instead, students must make their own decisions based on their personal values, the values of their families, and the values of their communities. By endorsing the pledge, asking students to read it aloud in unison, and suggesting that students use class time to sign it, the teacher is putting undue pressure on students. Education programs should foster critical thinking and decision-making skills rather than pressure students to make one choice.

Sexual Orientation – Ignoring Gays and Lesbians

The emphasis that Choosing the Best WAY places on marriage as the only appropriate venue for sexual activity shows a clear bias against gay and lesbian individuals who cannot legally marry in most states in this country.[3] Throughout the curriculum the author simply ignores the existence of same-sex couples or gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals.

All of the curriculum’s references to sexual activity and arousal are specific to male-female couples. In fact, one of the purposes of the curriculum is to explore young people’s “new interest in the opposite sex” (Choosing the Best WAY, Leader Guide, p. 2). Curricula written exclusively for heterosexual students are not appropriate for a classroom setting in which some students are likely to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or questioning their sexual orientation. Such curricula will only further marginalize and alienate these students.

Nonetheless, the curriculum includes exercises like the public signing of the virginity pledge.   For a gay or lesbian student, signing this pledge is tantamount to agreeing to a lifetime without sexual behavior. It is unfair and unrealistic to ask a high school student to make such an agreement.

Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and questioning students, especially young men who have sex with men, are at increased risk for STDs, including HIV, yet Choosing the Best WAY fails to provide these students with any realistic strategies for protecting themselves from those risks.

Guys vs. Girls—Perpetuating Gender Stereotypes

Choosing the Best WAY relies on biased assumptions about gender throughout the curriculum; from discussions of day-to-day activities to those of romantic relationships. Statements made regarding gender differences are not based on research, but rather reflect commonly held stereotypes and misconceptions.

The teacher is instructed to comment, “guys and girls are really different. That’s one reason why it’s so hard to understand the opposite sex” (Choosing the Best WAY, Leader Guide, p. 14). To prove this statement, the curriculum then calls for an activity in which students are directed to first hold three to four books and then to look at their fingernails. The teacher then explains, “…guys usually carry their books down by their sides. Girls usually cradle their books in their arms… guys usually look at their fingernails with their fingers curled toward the palm. Girls usually look at their nails by holding their hands outstretched in front of them.” Such discussion is meant to encourage distinct ideas about what is masculine and feminine.

The activity then goes on to divide the class by gender and have each group answer questions written by the teacher about what guys and girls commonly do. Suggested questions include: “Why do guys act silly and clam up around a girl? Why do guys pay so much attention to the way a girls looks?” and “Why do girls talk on the phone so much? Why do girls talk about guys all the time? Why do girls get their feelings hurt so easily?” (Choosing the Best WAY, Leader Guide, p. 14).

The curriculum’s discussions of seemingly harmless and mundane physical and emotional differences between men and women serve primarily to underscore the differences between genders when it comes to sexuality and romantic relationships.

Even the drawings accompanying the activities in the student handbook reinforce gender stereotypes. In the description of a crush, the cartoon depicts a drooling, hyperactive young man running toward a young woman who is sitting passively in a chair looking away from him (Choosing the Best WAY, Student Workbook, p. 15). In a later section entitled, “Learning How to Say ‘NO,’” a photograph depicts a girl pushing a boy away from her (Choosing the Best WAY, Student Workbook, p. 35). These two pictures reinforce the stereotype that men are the aggressors in sexual relationships and women the passive bystanders, and that it is the woman’s responsibility to reject advances.

These activities and pictures merely serve to perpetuate long-standing gender stereotypes, without any discussion of how these stereotypes can be harmful. Students are not challenged to question the nature, validity, or origin of these gender stereotypes, or to explore how stereotypes affect communication within friendships or sexual relationships. Such a presentation is detrimental to all young people by limiting their options, influencing their behavior, and coloring their expectations for future relationships.

Teaching Methods

Choosing the Best WAY contains six lessons: “Deciding on Your Future”; “Figuring out Friendships and Relationships”; “Avoiding Unhealthy Relationships”; “Identifying the Risks”; “Choosing the Best WAY”; and “Learning How to Say NO.”

Each lesson contains five components including a video segment, discussion, activity, and “character building” lesson. At the end of each lesson are optional activities and a lesson quiz which reinforce the definitions and points reviewed in the lesson. There are also several parent interview activities.

Curricula Strong Points—Appealing to Students and Involving Parents

While many fear-based, abstinence-only-until marriage curricula feel outdated and unlikely to appeal to young people, Choosing the Best WAY has an appealing appearance and interesting video materials containing short interviews with real teens. The curriculum guides and workbooks are in full color and the activities are engaging.

Another strength of the curriculum is its dedication to involving parents. Each lesson includes a section called “Share,” where students are given a series of interview questions to discuss with their parents and guardians. SIECUS believes that parents are, and should be, the primary sexuality educators of their children and applauds Choosing the Best WAY for promoting parental involvement.

At the same time, it is worth noting that the curriculum does seem to assume that all parents agree with its founding principles that premarital sex is morally wrong and inevitably harmful.  For example, one interview has students asking their parents “Why don’t people talk about the emotional damage that sexual activity can cause?” (Choosing the Best WAY, Leader Guide, p. 28). A better question that could help parents and children communicate about their own values around sex would be “What do you believe about premarital sexual activity?” or even “Do you think that sexual activity causes emotional damage?”  Putting words and ideas in parents’ mouths will not foster the most open and honest conversation.

Improvements – Including Accurate Information about Condoms

SIECUS has criticized previous curricula in the Choosing the Best series (and even current editions of those curricula in the series aimed at older students) for waging a war on condoms.  Those curricula often included inaccurate and misleading information about condoms in a glaring attempt to undermine young people’s confidence in this important protection method. The logic behind it always seemed to be that if young people thought condoms would not work, they would choose not to have sex.  On the contrary, we believe that if young people think condoms don’t work they will continue to have sex but will not use condoms leaving themselves more at risk for pregnancy and disease.  

Perhaps because it is aimed at younger students, Choosing the Best WAY spends far less time discussing condoms than other curricula in the series.  In fact, the curriculum’s discussion on condoms is limited to four fill-in-the-blank “facts” at the bottom of a work sheet on choosing abstinence until marriage.  The facts are designed to counter the safe or safer sex message that “If you use a condom you will be protected from getting an STD or becoming pregnant” (Choosing the Best WAY, Leader Guide, p. 33).    

The facts presented are remarkably accurate and are not nearly as fear-based as the messages in other curricula in the Choosing the Best series.  For example, fact number three is “Typical couples who use condoms to avoid pregnancy experience a first year failure rate of 15 percent.  For these couples pregnancy may be due to slippage, breakage, incorrect, or inconsistent use” (Choosing the Best WAY, Leader Guide, p. 33). We have criticized the author before for not distinguishing between method failure (failure based on defects in the product) and user failure (the failure of couples to use condoms consistently and correctly).  The only point we might add to this fact is that some of the 15 out of 100 couples who experienced a pregnancy in the first year of condom use might not have been using a condom at all when the pregnancy occurred. 

Still, despite such accurate information, the author concludes the lesson by saying that safe sex is “not safe enough” and reminds young people that “condoms cannot protect you against a broken heart and other emotional results of having sex before marriage” (Choosing the Best WAY, Leader Guide, p. 33).  While this is true, it is nonetheless an unfair criticism; condoms are designed to prevent pregnancy and disease and years of research show us that they do a very good job at that.

Inappropriate Examples—Glorifying Genocide

Choosing the Best WAY includes “character building” exercises, many of which focus on important skills and qualities like compassion.  The first two lessons promote independence, self-esteem, and developing strong friendships. These lessons could be extremely valuable, if not for the underlying message that choosing premarital abstinence is the defining feature of one’s character.

There is also a glaring problem in the example used in the character-building exercise that focuses on determination.  As an example of determination the curriculum tells the following story:

In 1519, Hernán Cortés sailed from Cuba to the coast of Mexico with over 500 men on eleven ships. After unloading the men and supplies, Cortés burned his ships to cut off any way to leave. He was determined to build a new world in Mexico. What was the effect on his men and their mission?” (Choosing the Best WAY, Student Workbook, p. 10)

The answer listed in the teacher guide is “determination, commitment, eager to claim Mexico for Spain.” (Choosing the Best WAY, Leader Guide, p.10)  This example, which is almost literally encouraging young people to “burn their bridges,” is exactly the opposite of what we should be teaching.  Young people should be taught to explore new options and opportunities while leaving old options open.  Moreover, holding up a conquistador—who was responsible for the hostile colonization of Mexico which included the genocide of the Aztec and other indigenous peoples—as an example of good moral character is questionable at best.    

Conclusion

The fundamental flaw of Choosing the Best WAY is that it aims to push a singular agenda, what it calls the “best” choice, while convincing students that they are making their own choices. The curriculum relies on messages of fear and shame and biased views of marriage, gender, and sexual orientation.  Though it claims to give students “age-appropriate insight into what’s happening to their changing bodies and emotions,” Choosing the Best WAY fails to provide basic, age-appropriate health information on issues including puberty and adolescent development (Choosing the Best WAY, Leader Guide, p. 2).

Finally, the format and underlying biases of the curriculum do not allow for cultural, community, or individual values. Instead, they discourage critical thinking and the discussion of alternative viewpoints in the classroom.

Ultimately, Choosing the Best WAY falls shorts of providing a foundation to help young people develop the skills and knowledge they need to become sexually healthy adults, or even to be open to learning more about sexual health as they mature.