Staff Editorial: The vagina dance

The Illinois Family Institute ruffled some feathers recently by condemning a public schoolteacher’s creative method for teaching her class about the female anatomy. They derided the allegedly named “Vagina Dance” as a “puerile dance that involved pointing to and singing about reproductive body parts while prancing about the classroom.”

Their motivation, apparently, was to protect the sensitivities of those students who might be uncomfortable pointing to the vaginal area while singing to the tune of the Hokey Pokey.

The school’s principal contended that despite what the Illinois Family Institute heard, “There was no music, no song and no movement around the class. The name that the report gave it is a nickname that the students have called it. It is not the name the teacher gave it.”

Even if the mythical “Vagina Dance” had happened, would it really be that big of a deal?

Sex education in America needs a makeover; the “Vagina Dance” should be praised, not demonized.

Both President Obama and Gov. Mitch Daniels have placed reforming education at the very top of their lists. As Americans consider changes to the education system, the issue of sexual education should not be left out of the debate.

The United States ranks first in the industrialized world for teen pregnancy rate, and unfortunately, this is one education metric we would not like to rank first in.

This alarming statistic shows that not only are we failing to teach our students science and math, we’re failing to teach our students about how to effectively prevent pregnancy.

Four of every five mothers who become pregnant and have children while in their teens will receive welfare payments at some time in their life.

When a teen mother gets pregnant, there is a two-thirds chance she won’t ever attain a high school diploma.

These reasons, including an increased risk for alcohol and substance abuse for teen parents, bring the total estimated cost of teen pregnancies in America to a staggering $7 billion.

While saving $7 billion a year for our nation’s economy sounds like something that everyone would be on board with, the bipartisan effort to reform education may meet some resistance when it comes to sex education.

The left believes in teaching contraceptive use — some would even like abortion to be referenced in the classroom — while the right would like sex education to be left to parents, and if taught in schools, through an abstinence-only curriculum.

This gulf can be narrowed greatly if both sides would begin acknowledging the reality of the situation.

The left must realize that a curriculum that includes abstinence-emphasized education is probably better than a curriculum devoid of the term. Undeniably, the only foolproof method of avoiding pregnancy and/or STIs is abstinence. And the right must acknowledge that a huge chunk of teens simply aren’t interested in abstinence, despite the best efforts and consternation of their parents, clergy members and educators.

Teenagers don’t just need a vagina dance. They need condoms, and they need to know how to use them. Until we realize sex is one of those required courses right next to physics or geometry, we’ll continue to be world leaders in the field of teen pregnancy.