Behind the classroom door #14 Sex Education at Our Schools
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The topic on this week's Behind the classroom door from northern Illinois University's
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College of Education is sex education at our schools. Here's the
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moderator Dean Robert after top.
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I suppose that sex education has been worrying the
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schools for 30 years. Seems to me that the schools have always
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felt that there was a need for sex education. Many parents have felt
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likewise. However it's been an area of extreme controversy largely
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because of the of the booze of the restrictions
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and the secrecy about sex education. But
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I can remember 20 or 30 years ago the state of Oregon developed
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what was a remarkable teaching film about sex
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education that could be used in the schools. Dean Fox
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and Dr Nelson both of you have had a lot of
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experience in the public schools at various levels and I know that you
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have opinions about this. What do you think about sex
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education as we approach it today it seems to be coming up again for attention.
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Well again top there are certain statistical aspects of modern day marriages that are
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most alarming. About 40 percent of the girls and
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20 percent of the boys are merely teenagers. There is
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considerable worry about this because at the same time when you're you know disease is
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increasing among teenagers tremendously. I would say that this indicates
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without a doubt that there must be something done about sex
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education.
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Pardon me Dr. Nelson but is there any evidence indicating that
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schools having sex education programs decrease
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the number of. I know what mothers or
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decrease the incidence of venereal disease.
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Well this would seem to me would be hard to determine. Have you any statistics on this.
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Dr Nelson Well again Tom No I don't and Dean Fox that the point is that
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programs that sex education have been so limited in our public
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schools that I'm sure that would be very difficult to decide this.
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But what is why there is such a growing and crying need for sex education in the schools
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would seem to me this would be very difficult to research because you would have
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to be almost impossible to have controlled groups carrying over
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a historical period. But it's very obvious that what
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used to be considered a family responsibility the education of
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young people with regard to heterosexual relations.
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Never was done very well and perhaps it is being done less well today.
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I wonder what is sex education Dr Nelson what what what do we
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include when we talk about sex education in schools.
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Well really it seems like there are two main functions one is the VI the physical one
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is the physical aspects of sex education and the other one is what fits in
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with the social mores of the community and the nation.
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Those two items are can be done best I'm sure in the home and in the
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school. Unfortunately all the research shows that
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in most cases the home does not begin to take care of its function and
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sex education the way it should.
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There was a time when it was very controversial to even consider giving sex
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education in the schools I suppose. Some parents who were doing the job
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well in the home felt that this was something that should be handled
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by father and mother.
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And yet the schools provide the only vehicle for a provider
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giving this kind of education to young people and we recognize that the need is very
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great. There are some major differences of course between boys and
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girls and their rate of maturation. All of us have had the
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experience of working in junior high schools and noting that the girls are much
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more mature than the boys tend to be interested in boys and boys
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tend to be interested in baseball but our culture has made this
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a very complex subject hasn't secrecy the
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problems surrounding sex at the adult level as well as at the teenage level.
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Our research shows that one fourth of the
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older high school students complained about their parents not only being afraid
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of discussing sex with them but of not mentioning at
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all apparently. And the students also stated that their
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parents gave them information too late or not enough.
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So it looks like this school at the home even though it's an important part of the program
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is not carrying out its duties. So it looks like the school will have to do it.
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There seems to be no other way that it can be done. They
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also found out that 90 percent of the teenage boys
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reported they had received their first information about sex
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from their peers.
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You know this would be true of other children right hating children along the
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way of superstition and false ideas. This is correct.
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That's back to my original question though Bob I wonder when we talk about sex
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education are we talking about merely a program of information.
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Is it to give information about sex. Or are we trying to develop a
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total program perhaps from kindergarten through the 12th grade.
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That's what we're trying to do an even before kindergarten Neen Fox they're going to be questions come
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up in the home that the parents must answer. And fortunately according to
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several of the authorities there are there is some good material available now that
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parents can use. They can find and know how to answer their youngsters.
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It's one of the things I don't understand is why do we have all this difficulty about a
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natural function.
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Seems to me that sex education should be carried it carried on
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naturally in the home almost daily as questions come up and are
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answered frankly in a straightforward way by the parents. It's just
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that we have developed an artificial attitude toward this particular human
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function and of course it's one of the strongest drives. And surely it's
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equal to food you remember the old rat studies where they
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compared the sex drive with the drive for food or water and they found that the
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sex drive was a stronger stronger in some circumstances. So here we
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have this tremendous important wonderful
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drive that gives so much meaning to life and we ignore it or we
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avoid it or we give misinformation we fail to handle it the way we do other
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natural functions. I think it should start early in life.
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But don't parents relate. Sex education or
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sex talk with children to their own moral backgrounds and their own
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emotional concepts about it for house and I think it. That's why I asked
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originally when Dr Nelson indicated the number of unwed mothers
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increasing the amount of venereal disease increasing
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if perhaps the approach isn't negative. And the same way that you may
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actually tune out a child by giving a negative response.
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I sometimes think that when you hear parents request that we include
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sex education in the schools they're doing it for the wrong purposes.
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We take a negative approach. We want sex education because there are
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a number of junior high school girls or girls in senior high school who have
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become pregnant or venereal disease among adolescents is on
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the increase. And that to me would not be solved by sex
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education. I don't have the statistics but I doubt very much that
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schools including information about sex education actually do much to
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solve negative problems.
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Course in the broadest sense being foxed sex
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is is something that undergirds all of our efforts.
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It is fundamental to the family. It is fundamental really to
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ones seeking to earn a living. It is
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fundamental to the enjoyment of life. And your point that we should not
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be viewing this as being approached only from the negative aspect of
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prevention is a good one.
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I think that children ought to learn very early that sex
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and its impact on the marriage and family
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and society and one's human endeavors is
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wonderful and motivational. And yet we're all so tied up with
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all of our emotional concepts about sex particularly
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parents I believe that's why I like Dr. Ruth called
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erroneous approach.
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She's an M.D. and serving as chairman of
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what is called seek as or sex information
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counsel.
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And her approach is that sex education is an emotional and mental
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development. It continues from the moment of birth until the end
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of life and through which the school has as its function to develop
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sexuality as a part of a student's total personality.
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Now there is as sex role the proper role of the boy in our society the
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proper role of the girl in our society.
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And I know where it's what she's interested in is the heterosexual relationship. Well you know
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Dean Fox the reason that parents don't like to talk about sex
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with their youngsters. The reasons are varied. One of them
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is they don't know what to say. The second thing is they don't know when to
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start saying it. They don't know what age and you should do it the minute the child asks
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the question. That's the time. How much should you tell him then. Just
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answer the question don't go into an elaborate explanation of it.
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Parents think that young people talk too much about sex or as a result they feel
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that we don't want to talk about it. They are unable to break down their own inhibitions
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and reserves as you as you have said Dean Dobbs. But I like to make this point
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very strongly that when parents are capable of discussing sex openly
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with their children and willing to do so. It contributes directly
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to the emotional maturity of these children and eventually to their
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marital happiness.
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Well I think that parents really demonstrate by their relationships with each
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other a real association of love and respect
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and basically sex is involved in this and thereby teach
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children that marriage is great and that sex is fundamental and that it is
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clean and good. And I think some of the concern that has
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arisen about sex education in the schools has been
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some individuals have questioned whether teachers in general are capable
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of teaching and preparing for instruction and discussion
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in sex how to find this Dr Nelson and in your experience
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it's very difficult for a teacher to talk about a program on
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sex education and the adult who is to be successful and teaching sex
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to the adolescent must meet certain qualifications.
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He should begin by considering a child's developmental stage and what has
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gone before. The manner in which he talks is important.
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He should be quiet composed objective certainly not humorous or emotional.
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You should use the correct cabbie Larry and make his explanation clear
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and relatively objective as though you were discussing any other
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natural human function I would think and wouldn't a teacher become used to this
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wouldn't a teacher sooner and later having taught sex
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education many times come to approach this in an impersonal way without the
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usual disturbance that a parent might have.
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Absolutely. He'd be able to do it much easier all the time and he needs good
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materials which are being prepared in many instances by experts
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and I believe that this took kind of an arrangement he can help adolescents to
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accept the idea that sex is normal. And to perceive
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their individual relationship to it.
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Isn't every teacher a teacher of sex education now. I
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think we tend to talk about the teacher of a class and sex
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education or the teacher of a unit in sex education. And to
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me that's a place where you would do very little mainly because
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some students if you wait until they're adolescents may be past
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that stage of development in which sex education would be of great value.
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