I think the subject that causes the
most contention between parents and educators is sex education. It first became
an issue for educators in 1926, when the NEA decided to include it in the
curriculum under character education, “as a means of combating the decline of
the family, and regulating sexual impulses for the good of society.” (Spring p.
34) Over the years it has evolved to meet the concerns of modern culture which
include HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention as well as contraceptive use. It’s a
difficult subject to broach because it is as much a cultural/moral issue as it
is of social control. Most schools employ a curriculum frequently referred to
as “abstinence plus” which teaches that abstinence is best, but also provides
instruction on “safe sex methods.” Though they may teach about contraceptives,
schools may not use any government funding to supply or support students in the
acquisition of contraceptives of any kind. Some parents feel that sex education
shouldn’t be included in the curriculum because they feel their children
shouldn’t be learning about sex in school at all. Additionally, there is a great deal of debate
over what the extent of the sex education provided in public schools should be.
Some programs opt for abstinence-only education (which, as Spring notes, is
supported by the No Child Left Behind Act), while others inform students of
contraception uses. Interestingly, Mishan Araujo of Stanford University found
that, “pregnancy rates were not impacted significantly by sex education
curriculum” in her 2008 study of students in 29 different states.* The type of
sex education (abstinence-only or other) is relatively unimportant as long as some type of formal sex
education is provided, as shown in the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth
which found that, “Data from the 2002 NSFG do not support an association
between type of formal sex education and contraceptive use at coitarche but do
support an association between abstinence-only messaging and decreased reliable
contraceptive method use at coitarche.”**
*http://www.stanford.edu/group/siepr/cgi-bin/pubpol/?q=system/files/shared/documents/Araujo.pdf
**http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20705151
Spring, Joel H.
American Education. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996. Print
