Mr. Jones was invited to his children's school for a seminar on the upcoming sex education classes.

He arrived early, and while he was waiting, decided to read the literature which was laid out on the table. After reading through it, he was surprised and dismayed to find that abstinence was only mentioned in passing. Pretty soon, the rest of the parents arrived and the teacher came in. The teacher gave a talk on the content of the literature and outlined the course.

Then she asked "does anybody have any questions?". Mr Jones rose and said "I couldn't help noticing that very little emphasis is placed on abstinence. Can you tell me why this is ?". There was immediately laughter around the room and feeling very embarassed and a little foolish, Mr. Jones sat down. The teacher explained, with a little contempt, that abstinence was a moral issue, which should be dealt with at home. The school was only interested in facts.

At this point, the teacher said "we will now pause for a coffee break". She went on to say, " you will notice that there are some name tags over by the coffee and I would like everybody to put one on." Mr. Jones, still feeling embarassed sat still. The teacher came to him and said "Mr. Jones, aren't you going to have coffee? I am sure that the other parents would like to meet you and shake hands". A still small voice inside Mr. Jones said "stay here". "No", he said to the teacher, "I think I will stay here. Pretty soon, the coffee break was over and everybody sat again.

The teacher said "I would now like everybody to peel the back off of their name tag and see who has the flower". One of the men stood up and said "I have it". The teacher said "the flower represents a sexually transmitted disease:, and asked him "how many people did you shake hands with?". He indicated two and she said "and how many did you two shake hands with" and it was obvious that all had shaken hands with each other. "OK", said the teacher "the handshake represents sexual contact, so as you can see, everybody is now infected". The still small voice said to Mr. Jones "speak now". Mr Jones rose to his feet and said, "I don't want to be difficult, or cause any problems, but that is not true. You see I abstained.