Things that make you go, "Well, Duh!"

Headline today: Many Teens Don't Keep Virginity Pledges. Here's the link to that shocking story.

How is that news? Did anyone seriously think that every single teen who pledges to wait until marriage honors that pledge? If there are, that might explain the real flaw in abstinence-based sex education. We can't just extract promises from teens that they won't have sex and think that ends the subject. They'll still have questions, lots of them, and they will almost all rethink that pledge at some point. Because teenagers won't magically stop thinking about sex if they sign a piece of paper or take an oath at a chastity rally. The pledge doesn't stop the crazy hormones from raging throughout their growing, changing bodies. And it doesn't act as a cure to the constant mind-changing and short attention span that almost always accompany the teen years.

Teenagers don't know what they want from one hour to the next, let alone what they can live with for the next several years. So it shouldn't surprise anyone that a lot of kids that promise to hold out until marriage don't actually make it that long.