THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 24, 1994 TAG: 9410220023
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
One of the major revolutions in American education in the past two decades has been the mainstreaming of sex education. Once a highly controversial element of the curriculum, few are the school districts that don't now offer it. Ignorance about sexual matters, it was argued by its proponents, was a greater foe than getting the matter out in the open and talking about it. Many teenagers were having sex, and it was better if schools dealt with this ``reality'' rather than deny it.
So how much effect does sex education have on the way teenagers behave in the real world? Not much, according to Barbara Dafoe Whitehead in the October issue of the Atlantic magazine.
At the core of the problem, Whitehead reports, lies a fallacy: that knowledge changes behavior. Most studies of the effectiveness of sex education (and there have been remarkably few) conclude that while students who have been through sex-education courses are more knowledgeable, it has little impact on how they actually behave. There is little correlation between having been through a sex-education program and lower rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease, Whitehead says.
Learning About Family Life, one of the most widely used sex-education packages, is heavily influenced by the ``self-esteem'' movement in education generally. Whitehead found that students in this program are taught to accept things such as teenage parenthood as part of reality, but that the often bleak consequences for mother and child are not emphasized.
Divorce and sexual abuse are extensively treated in this curriculum, but examples of loving families and long-lasting marriages are remarkably scarce.
One sex-education program that seems to have some positive impact is the so-called Grady Hospital approach, after the institution in Atlanta where it got its start. It is a short, intensive program aimed at middle-school students and emphasizes that sex is for adults, not teenagers. This ``just say no'' approach does seem to have an impact on reducing teenage sexual activity and pregnancy, as do moderately strict parents.
Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, of course, is a strident advocate of the ``reality'' approach. President Clinton, interestingly, has lately begun using his presidential bully pulpit to advocate the ``just say no'' school of thought. That is encouraging, though a consistent message would carry more weight.
Teenagers need more than an anatomy lesson and a box of condoms. Whatever government does, no sex-education program is going to substitute for the example of a loving, caring family. by CNB