[img_assist|nid=577|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=116|height=177]One of the two groups that formed to sue Montgomery County, Md. public school system over the sex ed curriculum has given the newly-revised condom video positive reviews. Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum (CRC) thinks the latest version is more clinical and less MTV. The video no longer has "a cute little blonde with a cucumber," according to the president of CRC. Now the demonstration about the correct use of prophylactics only shows a pair of hands putting a condom on a wooden penis and is narrated by a male voice. Maybe the right-wingers substituted a woody…oops, i mean wooden model for the cucumber because they worried about engorged, …er high expectations. Or, they thought the woman health education teacher was too suggestive (though I guess they aren't worrying about splinters).

In fact, Teach the Facts, the group that lobbied for the previous curriculum and supports "tolerance and fact-based education in our public schools," pointed out that now there are no women in the video at all. They consider the current version "very impersonal" and the school system calls the previous video "more of an entertainment-style." Both versions emphasize abstinence as the best way to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Both sides are still debating about how to define abstinence in the updated video.

Do you think the best way to reach teenagers is a serious, strictly clinical video? I mean, for God's sake people – you can't have a sense of humor in an educational video – especially one about s-e-x. And heaven forbid there is a woman in the video – that would just spike the raging adolescent hormones over the edge. And please, whatever you do, don't make education entertaining. Phew! That was close – they might have actually paid attention to an MTV-style version. Now it's more likely that they'll snooze right through this boring video. Thank God, because we wouldn't want Maryland's largest school system to teach teenagers how to protect themselves, would we? I mean, we've seen what happens when only abstinence is taught to high schoolers.

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