Van los adolescentes por mal camino?

The latest media release from the Guttmacher Institute announced that teens are heading in the wrong direction. They are referring to a new study that shows teens are less likely to be using condoms than they were ten years ago.

I definitely agree teen contraceptive use is headed in the wrong direction. But does that mean that teens (which teens? all teens? some teens? just the ones having sex?) are heading in the wrong direction? I know that the Guttmacher didn't mean it this way, but conflating "teens" as individuals or the "teen" demographic with "teen contraceptive use" is kind of emblematic of the problem with so much sex education. It defines problems too narrowly and doesn't address them with the complicated, multi-pronged approach that such complex problems require.

After all, it might seem simple to say that there's a right direction and wrong direction for contraceptive use among teens. But the meanings and reasons teens (and the rest of us) do and don't protect ourselves from unwanted pregnancy and STIs is hardly simple. And even if everyone understood the risks, many of us would still take them.

One way to explain this is to say that our directions, our paths in life, are rarely direct: They more often resemble vicious circles than one-way streets. I think the direction metaphor is a rich one, but I didn't like what they did with it.

When I think of the direction I'm heading, I imagine myself with a map in front of me. It's messy with all sorts of scribbled notes plus directions friends have given me along the way, and the initials and phone numbers of a few people I thought were cute and didn't want to forget. My map isn't clear and I don't understand it all, but it's mine and I'm in the process of figuring it out. What I'd like from sex education is someone to sit down with me and my map and point out some of the major landmarks, maybe give me tips on the best subway routes to take, and how I can get a deal on tickets by waiting until Thursday when they're on sale. I would be happy to hear about which paths are easier to walk, on which ones you should use your bike, and the ones that you can only get to by train. What I don't want is someone to sit down, ignore my map altogether, and hand me a map they've made which I superficially understand but that has no real meaning for me and no space for me to make my own notes or figure out my own short cuts and scenic routes.

When we only focus on one aspect of sexuality, like contraception, when we tell teens that this is THE most important thing for them to know, we're giving them the kind of boring pre-printed map you find in hotel rooms and never use. I'm with the Guttmacher on the point that we'd all end up at our destinations healthier if we followed the path that includes using contraception. But honestly I think it's more important to teach people how to read a map than to insist that they take the route you know is best for them.

If we want to help teens navigate their way through teen-dom we've got to accept that their paths are far more circuitous than the ones we would choose for them, and the best way to help them is to start with the map that's in front of them, not the one in our heads.

Read more - Guttmacher Institute: No Crystal Ball Needed: Teens Are Heading in the Wrong Direction