[Balderduck]

Hello

I met this guy yesterday who did a year of high school in the states, and he was telling us this story that in order to stop teen pregnancies ther was a program at his school where (instead of let's say talking about methods of protection) you were forced to take an electronic baby that you had to take care of night and day, where you had to feed it and through sensors it would know and after a week of taking care of it, the teacher would grade you according to the data "stored in the baby" !

I thought that he was pulling my leg but it turns out it's true!

http://www.solutions-site.org/kids/stories/KScat3_sol72.htm

It's aptly named "Think It Over Baby" and it's supposed to scare you into not having pre-marital sex!

Sounds like some sort of dystopian sci-fi where religious nuts have taken over!

Did you guys know about this? Anyone here from the states know of this program or better still has anyone participated in it?

[Lee in Limbo]

Our old high school family studies course (which I don't recall taking, but anyway) used to do this thing where they made you take care of an egg for a few weeks, so that's basically the same idea, except that I was in high school back in the eighties and early nineties, so there were no electronic babies involved. Interesting notion, anyway.

[Kaito]

Well... I, personally, love taking care of babies and such. I dream to be a father one day. That would only incourage me.
I think nothing works better then talking with teenagers about protection and stuff.

[Intense Degree]

Originally Posted by Balderduck

It's aptly named "Think It Over Baby" and it's supposed to scare you into not having pre-marital sex!

Sounds like some sort of dystopian sci-fi where religious nuts have taken over!

To me it sounds more like an attempt to stop unwanted pregnancy rather than pre-marital sex.

Quote from the website

Helping young people avoid unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmissible infections is a challenge that faces communities around the world.

No "religious nuts" needed.

[Balderduck]

Surely you could talk about protection for that.

That will make you want to put you off having a baby generaly - why would it be specifically against unwanted babies ?!

[marvio]

Originally Posted by Intense Degree

To me it sounds more like an attempt to stop unwanted pregnancy rather than pre-marital sex.

Quote from the website



No "religious nuts" needed.

Through abestinance... Never F'ing works..

Teach them to have protected sex, regardless, EVERYTIME, scare them with the sexually transmitted deaseses and such, but don't think you can stop millions of years of evolution in its tracks by, what boils down to, "just say no"; It's near sighted, and ultimately will fail

[bulldog]

I graduated in 95' and we like Lee used eggs, and we were graded on the condition of the egg once it came back.

But also we had a sex ed class. A premission slip was sent home and your parents had to sign you up for the class and it was a 12 week class....... (at least I think it was 12 weeks). But they talked about prtotection, the dangers of having sex before you were ready. I was (at least on me) to much info for my 16 yr old mind.

[Balderduck]

Thanks for sharing all this info with me

I don't know, to some it might seem normal, to me it seems fascinating. It's a difference in culture I guess (and please don't think I'm trying to appear superior, I'm sure you'd find things that we take for granted strange)

And how did that egg work? You had to take care of it how? It seems very easy to cheat in this one

[UPtimist]

I've seen this on tv. This and bags of sugar

I think it's especially silly if you force people to do it. Or maybe silly isn't the right word, something more negative. I would've hated something like this to my guts and I really wouldn't have gived a poop about it.

Also, our sex-ed classes certainly worked differently from Bulldog's...

[rayvio]

my school didn't do anything like that, but I did see it on an episode of Buffy once if that counts
of course those eggs turned out to contain evil demon brain parasite things which probably doesn't happen too often in real schools

[bulldog]

Originally Posted by Balderduck

Thanks for sharing all this info with me

I don't know, to some it might seem normal, to me it seems fascinating. It's a difference in culture I guess (and please don't think I'm trying to appear superior, I'm sure you'd find things that we take for granted strange)

And how did that egg work? You had to take care of it how? It seems very easy to cheat in this one

you might think it is easy but............. the egg is raw and the teacher always signed it so that you did try to cheat The whole class started with an "A" if you dropped your egg and had to go back for another one, you went down to a "B", a whole letter grade was dropped off for the new egg. We had to built something to carry the egg in, and you had to take the egg every where with you. If you had to leave class to use the bathroom the egg had to go everywhere with you.

[Lee in Limbo]

Originally Posted by bulldog

We had to built something to carry the egg in, and you had to take the egg every where with you. If you had to leave class to use the bathroom the egg had to go everywhere with you.

Exactly. You'd be surprised how hard it was to BS about the egg thing. I didn't do that course, so I didn't have to do the egg thing, but I still distinctly recall talking with friends who were in the course, and they explained how involved it really was. Frankly, you couldn't have paid me to take that course after I heard that.

[rayvio]

how would they know you didn't just leave it in your locker or something? and assuming it extended out of school hours as well, at home when you went out?

[bulldog]

Originally Posted by rayvio

how would they know you didn't just leave it in your locker or something? and assuming it extended out of school hours as well, at home when you went out?

because the teacher that taught the class told the other teachers and they helped watch for you carrying the egg. If you were caught without your egg then it was reported back to that teacher.

[UPtimist]

Originally Posted by Lee in Limbo

Exactly. You'd be surprised how hard it was to BS about the egg thing. I didn't do that course, so I didn't have to do the egg thing, but I still distinctly recall talking with friends who were in the course, and they explained how involved it really was. Frankly, you couldn't have paid me to take that course after I heard that.

Oh, so it wasn't mandatory for everyone then? That's a relief...

[bulldog]

Originally Posted by UPtimist

Oh, so it wasn't mandatory for everyone then? That's a relief...

In our high school, you had to take a home ech class for high school credit, and that was part of the home ech class along with cooking.

[Lee in Limbo]

Our mandatory home economics course (which was called Family Studies by the time I got there) was in middle school, and the egg project was a high school thing. I made (what turned out to be a very ill-fitting) single-breasted summer weight jacket, a la Miami Vice and other such staples of 80s fashion.

But yes, what Bullsie says was true for our students as well. There didn't seem to be any way you could cheat without getting caught in the end. I'm sure students tried, but ultimately, I don't recall hearing too many people brag of getting away with it.

[Balderduck]

So at the end of the course did you celebrate with a big omelet?

http://www.balderduck.com/2011/02/06/single-panel-16/

[bulldog]

Originally Posted by Balderduck

So at the end of the course did you celebrate with a big omelet?

http://www.balderduck.com/2011/02/06/single-panel-16/

teehee and eeeewwww all at the same time. A non refrigerated egg that is over 2 weeks old.............yuck

[Balderduck]

Heh! I guess I didn't think this through!