It seems that my old pals at Teen-Aid are offering some classes to help people be the "best parent" they can be. This, of course, leads me to ask: What -- in Teen-Aid land -- constitutes the "best parent"?
A quick click over to the Teen-Aid site tells me that -- surprise -- it's all about sex education. Funny, it didn't say anything about that on the billboard...
The series of classes they offer is based on the curriculum, "Building Family Connections," that was created by the Medical Institute for Sexual Health. In fact, according to Teen-Aid, this curriculum has been reviewed by the Centers for Disease Control for "medical and scientific accuracy," which would be a stunning change in practice for those hacks.
Now, the Medical Institute for Sexual Health is an interesting organization. On the surface they profess to be about science and research and evidence-based practice for reproductive health, but underneath that glimmering surface is the usual cultural conservative nonsense.
A 2006 article by Amanda Schaffer explores the Medical Institute's efforts to create a sexual education curriculum for medical students (Story: "Chastity, M.D.," Slate). It seems that for this particular program, the Medical Institute received funding and approval from the CDC not through the usual application process, but through an anonymous earmark (I got $20 on Sen. Tom Coburn). So the program, while scientifically dubious, could claim to be CDC-approved.
This seems to follow with the Medical Institutes M.O.: Offer up scientific-sounding rationalizations for your positions, misinterpret or misrepresent legitimate research or create your own ridiculous studies. In the end, they will all support your conservative social positions while providing the illusion of scientific legitimacy.
Take for instance, the Medical Institute's "study" regarding the sexual content of popular media and its supposed impact on youth. The study, naturally, falls into (or exploits) the trap of causation versus correlation. Do kids who are exposed to more "sexual depictions" tend to act out more sexually, or do kids who act out more sexually tend to be attracted to "sexual depicitions"? Furthermore, are all of these "sexual images" in popular culture affecting children, or are children (and society at large) affecting popular culture? This pathetic excuse for a study does nothing to address either of these questions.
Yet, this study -- along with its other endeavors -- does allow the Medical Institute to pretend it possesses some scientific legitimacy. And that "legitimacy" can then be passed along to groups like Teen-Aid. Teen-Aid, in turn, can use that "legitimacy" to continue to market its snake oil.
Any class, event, project or anything else associated with the charlatans at Teen-Aid should be viewed as skeptically as possible.
And the kicker? Guess who is paying for their shitty billboard and class?
You and I. Through an HHS Grant (#90AE0252/01). What a fucking joke.
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