���� �� Abstinence is the Best ‘Game Plan’ Game Plan is the first in a series of excellent abstinence education resources. Each workbook is meant to engage students, providing spaces for them to write as they grow in knowledge about abstinence and the choices they have. The materials are interactive and include teacher-led demonstrations. This series of abstinence workbooks is meant for classroom use with the students’ regular teacher, not some expert who comes to the school and then leaves. This is important because when students later have questions about the course material, they can approach their usual teacher. Abstinence until marriage is the safest and healthiest lifestyle for students. An important message in Game Plan is that choosing abstinence doesn’t mean sex is bad. The workbook says, “Sex is good. Save it, protect it, and preserve it so that you can enjoy it in a marriage relationship.” Parents are a vital part of abstinence education. The workbooks are meant to go home with students so parents can see what they are learning. Each chapter includes questions for the students to ask their parents to open up discussions at home. Births to unwed mothers have dramatically decreased in Collier County, Florida, since this abstinence program has been taught in public schools. I Got Game The first chapter of Game Plan introduces former NBA player A.C. Green as a role model. Green was known as Ironman; he holds the record for most games played in a row and he won three championship titles with the Los Angeles Lakers professional basketball team. That’s not all that sets A.C. Green apart. He made a commitment to himself: “I resolved not to be with a woman until I married.” A.C. Green says, “Why don’t we at least tell students how much better off they’ll be physically, emotionally, mentally, and socially, if they wait until marriage for sex?���� Green relates that he was taunted by others who said he wouldn��t keep his pledge. Abstinence until marriage wasn’t his only goal. He developed many goals for himself, or a game plan for his life. In the student workbook, students are instructed to list some personal career goals. They write three things they will have to do in order to accomplish those goals. Following that, they list things that could make it difficult for them to accomplish those goals. This is followed by Tom’s Story, about a young man who will spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair after a motor vehicle accident that occurred when he decided to get in a car with a friend who had been drinking. Students answer questions about what Tom could have done when his friend asked him to ride with him after drinking; how different would Tom’s life be if he’d made a different choice at age 15; and what will it take for Tom to now accomplish his goals. The next true story in the workbook is that of Steve and Tina. Tina tried to cajole Steve to engage in sex with her, but it turns out that Tina was already pregnant after having sex with another boy! She wanted Steve to think he was the father of her child. After this is the story of the same Steve and his wife of 20 years, Karen. Steve remained abstinent and later met Karen, who had also decided to be abstinent until marriage. They now have four children and a happy marriage. By waiting, they avoided the pitfalls and emotional turmoil that come with premarital sex. In this chapter, students are taught to not just delay sex until “later” but to save it for marriage. TV Time Out Chapter Two is titled “TV Time Out,” and explores how media affects attitudes and behaviors regarding sexual activity. Students explore how sex is used to “sell.”�� Once students notice that sex is everywhere in the media, they can begin to understand why. They discover that sex is used as a tool to promote products. Just like sugary cereal and fatty foods, what is sold to them isn’t necessarily in their best interest. The media obsession with sex isn’t bad because sex is bad, but because “sex is private.” Students examine television, music, Twitter, billboards, the internet, magazines, and more. The workbook makes the point that media featuring characters who “have sex with lots of different people, and have no problem” is as real as a character successfully “jumping from a train onto a helicopter onto a boat, while being shot at.“ Media marketers are out to sell things and they don’t care how adversely their message affects the public. The workbook tells them that teens in America spend “$259 billion.” Television companies “use sex to attract viewers and increase their ratings.” In turn, higher ratings mean “more money for the TV stations.” Focusing on making choices, a Game Plan student activity is to keep a log of TV shows and the number of sexual scenes, the number of scenes that talk about sex, and the number of scenes that show the negative consequences of sex. Rules of the Game The third chapter starts with “As in sports, life has rules.” It covers thinking ahead to the personal physical, emotional, mental, and social results of having sex outside of marriage. Pregnancy, STDs, infertility, and even cervical cancer are some physical results. Emotional results, or how the student feels about himself, include used, empty, lonely, broken-hearted, angry, bitter, or depressed. The mental results include stress, worry, fear, regret, pressure, confusion, and distraction. Social results include a bad reputation, being the subject of rumors and gossip, getting poor grades, having conflicts with parents, and losing friends.
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