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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 12, 1987)
PAGE 5 — The Georgia Bulletin, February 12, 1987 M ? sid ! Sheila Mallon "No” To School-Based Clinics Choose Life Secretary of Education William J. Bennett spoke recently regarding the teaching of sex education. He said, “The schools have to stop being neutral. ! think most Americans want to urge not what might be the most ‘comfortable’ thing, but the right thing. Why are we so afraid to say what it is? The majority of parents would welcome the teaching of the old- fashioned values of chastity, virtue and sex in the context of marriage.” According to the article, “apart from its neutrality, sex education seems not to have accomplished much. By 1985, an estimated 70 percent of seniors had been subjected to sex education courses.” Bennett doubts the courses are doing any good. “More than half of our young people have had inter course by the time they are 17. More than a million teenage girls become pregnant each year. More than 400,000 teenage girls have abortions each year.” Bennett recommended that courses teach sexual restraint, stress that sex is not simply a mechanical act and that courses should speak for the institution of the family. Educators should rid themselves of the defeatist attitude that teenagers are going to “do it” anyway and the best way to curb pregnancy is to hand out contraceptives. Bennett has a common sense approach to a problem that has escalated correspondingly with an outlay of millions of dollars in family planning funds and sex education programs that are obvious ly not working. The newest program to receive the usual media hype is the “school-based health clinic.” This clinic would be based in the school and would provide family planning information as well as contraceptives to school children. In some places the clinics are in both middle schools and high schools. Ac cording to who is doing the talking, they are either the best answer or the worst answer to the problem of teen pregnancy - to come down the pike in a long time. An article carried in the Wall Street Journal in October gave, I believe, the best analysis of what these family plan ning clinics have actually achieved. The article was written by Stan E. Weed, who is the director of the independent Institute for Research and Evaluation in Salt Lake City. He reports, “as the number and proportion of teenage family planning clients increased, we observed a corresponding increase in the teenage pregnancy and abortion rates: 50 to 120 more pregnancies per thousand clients rather than the 200 to 300 fewer pregnancies as estimated by researchers at the Alan Guttmacher Institute (formerly the research arm of the Plan ned Parenthood Federation). We did find that greater teenage participation in such clinics led to lower teen birth rates. However, the impact on the abortion and pregnancy rates was exactly opposite the stated intention of the program. The original problem (teen pregnancy) appears to have grown worse.” His research showed that while the pregnancy rate rose in the teen clients of these clinics the abortion rate rose correspondingly and so the birth rate dropped. These clinics are apparently more effective at convincing teens to avoid birth than to avoid pregnancy. Unfortunately, says Weed, “that is not what the effort was set up to do nor the basis on which it was funded.” In Atlanta, we have one clinic already in place. It is adjacent to Carver High School and while not actually on the school premises at this time is scheduled to be in the future. Clinics are slated for four other schools in the city of Atlanta and Fulton County. The clinics have been proposed by groups in both DeKalb and Gwinnett counties and both have task forces investigating the possibility and feasibility of having these clinics on school grounds. There are proposals for clinics in Dublin, Savannah, Waycross and Alton and three of these have already been allocated some funding by the state Legislature. Some of these clinics may now be operational. There are approximately 150 school-based clinics nation wide at this time. Most of them have received grants from the Robert Wood Foundation to set up the initial clinic. The grant generally lasts six years at which time the taxpayer will have to pick up the full burden of these operations. Even when the clinic is funded by the grant the taxpayer will still be paying for much of the cost. In many of the clinics parental consent is required. A slip is sent home to the parents. If parents decide that they do not want their child involved in the clinic they are supposed to send the form back with a negative response. If the form is not returned the school assumes that the parents have assented to their child attending the clinic. As parents and grandparents we must assume respon sibility for preventing the spread of these clinics. We need to contact our school board officials, our county commission chairperson, the state Board of Education and the Governor's Office. It would also be helpful to contact the state Depart ment of Health and local county health offices. Write to them and express your feelings about this effort and the detrimen tal effect that you believe it will have on our young people. It sends them the message that our officials, those in authority, expect them to be sexually active. We need to recommend that the same “Say No” program be used for teen sex that we are currently using for drugs. We can also offer an alternative program. There is a fine curriculum which is being used in other states. It is called “Sex Respect,” and it was put together by Colleen Kelley Mast. It has been used in the Illinois public school system and it teaches young people respect for sex and respect for themselves and each other. The program teaches values and responsibility. With the spread of AIDS, herpes and other sexually transmitted diseases rampant in our society, isn't it time we put on the brakes? The real path back to a sane and effective policy to prevent teen pregnancies is not an easy one, but it is the only one that will work. This path does not circumvent the family but leads straight to the heart of it. It encourages com munication between parents and children and is built on the firm foundation of parents’ values, beliefs and ambitions for their children. Father Eugene Hemrick Catholics And Assimilation The Human Side If there is one film that is a must for all Catholics to see, it is the new documentary on Mother Teresa. Through the camera's eye we are taken into ghettos where we see Mother Teresa’s sisters ministering to the starving and dying. They are young women, most of whom look as if they themselves came from a background of poverty. Their life is austere, no carpets on the floor, no beds, nothing but the bare essentials. Mother Teresa’s story is one of total dedication to love of Jesus and to all who suffer. It is a witness of one of the finest Catholic traditions we have. As Catholics, we have many beautiful traditions. We have those who dedicate themselves to the religious life. There is a liturgical calendar in which we celebrate the lives of saints and great feasts. Asceticism, mortification and works of mer cy are part of the richness of our spirituality. Our understand ing of the sacramental life and the dogmas of the church give us a Catholic distinctiveness. There are some who now are asking whether Catholic tradi tions still have the impact they once had. The question is rais ed because there is strong evidence that Catholics are being assimilated into the mainstream of American culture. The im migrant Catholic who made the church the center of life, who lived next door to Catholics and celebrated feast days with neighbors is becoming extinct. Assimilation has been facilitated by several changes over the last decades. Our language and the culture it implies have become more common. We have moved from ethnic neighborhoods to non-ethnic suburbs in which Catholics live -side by side with non-Catholics. Mixed marriages are more common — today between 40 percent and 45 percent. We are sending our children to non-Catholic high schools and colleges. Of every 100 Catholics in college, between 9 and 10 are in a Catholic college. The media is overwhelming ly secular and one of the strongest means of forming us into a common culture. As our children become more assimilated into the American mainstream we must ask ourselves whether they will be able to recognize the beauty of Catholic traditions in the work of a Mother Teresa. Will the richness of feast days, the ringing of church bells and ceremonies have special meaning to them? As they jet from one place to another will the sacramental life of the church and its teachings be view ed as a source of warmth and strength? Who of us is sitting down with our children or friends to figure out the assimilation we are experiencing and what it is doing to the traditions of Catholicism? (Copyright (c) 1987 by NC News Service) 0 pssay mis' Father John Dietzen Question Corner Peace Through God's Grace Dear Readers: Only a couple of times through the years have I devoted a column to a letter from a reader. The one this week is special. I print it for the encouragement and support it may give to hundreds of divorced and remarried people who find themselves in something like the same situation. I am grateful to the woman who shares her happiness with us. Dear Father Dietzen: A mother wrote to you that her divorced and again separated daughter would like to return to the Catholic Church but was afraid she would not be allowed to receive the sacraments. I hope she accepts your suggestion that she talk with her parish priest and follow his advice. Lam a divorced Catholic who remarried outside the church for the second marriage. The last two years of the second marriage (I am now divorced again) I attended Mass on a regular basis without receiving the sacraments. Those two years of watching my fellow parishioners receive Communion while I sat were difficult and humbling. I came to realize how much we can take this weekly God-given gift for granted. After divorcing my second husband I tearfully approached an unfamiliar priest in an unfamiliar city. This priest was literally a godsend to me. After a long discussion and tearful confession (my first in five years) I started annulment proceedings. The following Sunday I received my first Communion in five years! Before Communion the congregation read aloud “Footsteps.” I could hardly see the words on the sheet through my tears. As I approached Father for Communion he looked at me and said, “Cathy, receive the Body of Christ.” I couldn’t even respond as the tears were welling up in my heart again, as they are now reliving that day. For the past year every time I receive Communion I feel the glory and peace of partaking in this sacrament. Please tell this young woman and all people in the same situation to continue in their faith by going to Mass, whether or not they are able to receive the sacraments. I pray for them that they may find the peace that I have found through God’s grace. God has given me a very special gift, my fiance. With God’s help I plan to finally make a marriage work. I thank him every day. The priest is happily helping us through the preparations and, God willing, will unite us this next summer in the sacra ment of marriage. Copyright (c) 1987 by NC News Service
