The "Talk"

I've spent a fair measure of my time recently painfully reliving my tween years: I've been covering the Legislature while it debates a statewide sex education mandate.

Unlike the subject, the legislative discussion gets a little, um, sterile.

Luckily, there's a DVD. You hear about it every now and then at the Capitol. Its formal title is "The Talk, An Intercourse on Coming of Age." It's a school video that's mentioned as a potential element of a sex-ed curriculum.

It's occasionally referred to by lawmakers as the "Captain Condom video."

It really isn't clear how many who talk about the video have actually seen it. The teenagers in the actual "Captain Condom" scene actually decide it's best to abstain from sex. Or pretty much from sex. But they take a rather awkwardly hilarious route to that conclusion.

"Kids are really engaged with it," says Catherine Conzet, development director at the Minneapolis-based Youth Performance Company, which produced the video. "It's something that teenagers won't roll their eyes at, like other videos... They're horrible, and they're usually written by adults. This one was predominantly written by teenagers."

It first ran in YPC's 2004-2005 season, and subsequently reappeared at the Fringe Festival, as did the other YPC smash hit: Goddess Menses and the Menstrual Show. Conzet said the YPC filmed "The Talk" for DVD because the demand for the production to tour was so high that they worried that the cast wouldn't get their school work done if they took the show on the road.

"We've sold the DVD in 28 states," Conzet says. "They're showing it in India and South America."

As a rule, we don't typically recommend sex education films here at Minnesota Public Radio News. But since Bob Collins is on vacation and I've got the run of the place, I thought I'd urge the gentle readers of News Cut to decide for themselves just what Minnesota's youth might actually be learning at school.

Click on the play button below to see the video. The clip runs about 5:20 and the second-best line is the last one.

There's a bit of a problem with the ping-pong ball pregnancy odds - he should have put the first one back before taking another chance. The way it was done the odds were reduced on the second try. I know - nit pick.

Okay, I'll bite. What was your choice for the best line?

That second-best line brings up an interesting point. My nieces would be squirming in their seats if they watched this in the company of their parents, but it's tame-tame-tame compared to conversations they have with friends. How much harder must it be to talk about sex with someone you're embarrassed to admit actually has sex?? (And you know there are plenty of parents who feel the exact same way about talking to their kids!)

"But since Bob Collins is on vacation and I've got the run of the place, I thought I'd urge the gentle readers of News Cut to decide for themselves just what Minnesota's youth might actually be learning at school."

If this is any sample Bob had better not be gone too long or he will be known as Wally Pipp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wally_Pipp

Referring to this video seems to insinuate that it is a proposed requirement under the new bill, and I find that misleading. From my understanding, there is quite a bit of freedom given to schools and school districts to determine their own curriculum while meeting standards. It's probably for this reason that the bill was passed. It makes sense to me - create a basic standard so that teens know the facts in order to be responsible.

I really can't say for sure, but it certainly seems as though there is an effort to scare Minnesota parents into not supporting this bill. If this is the case, it's not working.

"Survey says 90 percent of parents want sex ed in schools"
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/03/18/sex_education/

Maybe schools ought to just conspicuously link to this video and maybe others like it. I think that it might just get laughed at if viewed in the presence of 30 other 15 year olds.

Making information really really available as opposed to required might skirt a couple of tricky things about sex ed:

1. it could blunt uptight parents' complaints that the school is forcing their children to be exposed to sexual situations.

2. it could deflect kids' natural disposition to laugh at, make fun of, and tune out tone-deaf PSA's and the like.

Also, 98%? Aren't the odds way better if the condoms are put on correctly?

//"She taught us how to put a condom on. She told us about birth control and all that. I think that helped a lot. I still hang out with a lot of girls from that health class, and none of us are pregnant to this day." // I pulled this from the link

Where did you guys go to school?

Back when I was in high school in the early eighties, I think that this type of education would have been great. 'The pill' was the big deal for my generation but I don't recall any information being distributed at school, you learned about "Planned Parenthood" through word of mouth. No one talked about std's, the health risks and the chance of pregnancy. I think it is great that the kids today are getting the whole low down on the WHOLE package. I think that this information should be a part of the curriculum.

More statistics problems - the 98% efficacy figure is per year not per use as indicated in the video. I suppose that assumes some kind of frequency of use...

From wikipedia "The typical use pregnancy rate among condom users varies depending on the population being studied, ranging from 10–18% per year.[32] The perfect use pregnancy rate of condoms is 2% per year.[3]"

Sex education in the schools reminds me of light rail, both are 19th century solutions to 21st century problems.

Why not simply drop these programs and focus efforts on more modern viral means of communication - like YouTube.