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SUMMARY: SIECUS REVIEW OF CHOOSING THE BEST PATH
Choosing the Best PATH is a fear-based, abstinence-only-until-marriage curricula for middle school students that relies on negative messages, distorted information, and biases to control young people’s sexual behavior. The following examples provide a brief understanding of this problematic curriculum.
- Q: “How does being sexually active as a teen affect how a person feels about himself or herself?”
A: “Can feel sad about losing virginity, loss of self-respect, blames self for getting pregnant or contracting an STD.”
(Choosing the Best PATH, Leader Guide, pg. 6)
- “Sexual activity also can lead to the trashing of a person’s reputation, resulting in the loss of friends.”
(Choosing the Best PATH, Leader Guide, pg. 7)
- “Hold up a beautiful rose. Talk about the petals and how they add color and fragrance to the rose. Hand the rose to a student, telling that student to pull off a petal and pass it on to another student who also pulls off a petal. Continue passing the rose around until there are no more petals. At the end, hold up the rose. Ask: Of what value is the rose now? Share that the rose represents someone who participates in casual sex. Each time a sexually active person gives that most personal part of himself or herself away, that person can lose a sense of personal value and worth. It all comes down to self-respect.”
(Choosing the Best PATH Leader Guide, pg. 7)
This focus on consequences is clearly designed to scare students rather than educate them. There is no scientific evidence to support the assertion that premarital sexual intercourse leads to everything from trashing of reputation to loss of friends. Forty-seven percent of all high school students have had sexual intercourse. It is inappropriate and potentially harmful for education programs to imply that these teens lack values and self-respect.
- “Chlamydia can be diagnosed through a simple blood test.”
(Choosing the Best PATH, Leader Guide, p. 11)
According to the CDC’s STD Information Hotline there is currently no blood test that can diagnose Chlamydia. This bacterial infection can be diagnosed through cultures of the cervix or urethra, or through urine tests.
“Couples who use condoms for birth control experience a first-year failure rate of about 15% in preventing pregnancies. This means that over a period of five years, there could be a 50% chance or higher of getting pregnant with condoms used as the birth control method.” (Choosing the Best PATH, Leader Guide, pg. 18) Q: “Circle the item(s) that can be totally eliminated through the use of a condom?”
“Infertility, isolation, jealousy, poverty, heartbreak, substance abuse, AIDS, pregnancy, cervical cancer, genital herpes, unstable long-term commitments, depression, embarrassment, meaningless wedding, sexual violence, personal disappointment, suicide, feelings of being used, loss of honesty, loneliness, loss of personal goals, distrust of others, pelvic inflammatory disease, loss of reputation, fear of pregnancy, disappointed parents, loss of self-esteem, leaving high school before graduation”
A: “The correct answer is that none of the things listed can be totally eliminated through the use of a condom, however ALL of them can be eliminated by being abstinent until marriage.” (Choosing the Best PATH, Leader Guide, pg. 19)
It is never appropriate for an education program to misrepresent facts or statistics to prove a point. Students need accurate information about STDs and they need to know that when used consistently and correctly, condoms are 98 percent effective in preventing pregnancy and research has shown that using a condom for HIV prevention is 10,000 times safer than not using a condom. Telling students that condoms don’t work will not stop them from having sexual intercourse. It may, however, stop them from protecting themeselves when they do become sexually active.
- “Is there a difference between love and sex?” The answer: “Love is a significant commitment between two people; sex can be only physical, or it can be a part of a meaningful, committed relationship in marriage.”
(Choosing the Best PATH, Leader Guide, pg. 32)
- Students are asked to list the “freedoms” they will have if they choose to remain abstinent until marriage. Suggested answers
include “freedom from being hurt emotionally; freedom from STDs or unwanted pregnancy; freedom to pursue personal goals.”
(Choosing the Best PATH Leader Guide , pg. 28)
In addition to suggesting that unwanted pregnancy, STDs, and emotional hurt are never a problem for married couples, this focus on marriage excludes gay and lesbian youth who can never legally marry in this country. These teens are essentially told that they should never engage in sexual activity. Gay and lesbian students, especially young men who have sex with men, are at increased risk for STDs, including HIV, yet abstinence-only-until-marriage curricula fail to provide these students with any realistic strategies for protecting themselves from those risks.
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