1986 sex education must be stopped!

Since sex education causes sexual expression--or, in the words of Phyllis Schlafly and friends, "promiscuity"--this group feels that it must be prevented at all costs. According to Schlafly, teenage sexual activity, which is encouraged by sex education and available contraception, results in "incurable VD, emotional trauma, and a forfeiture of opportunities for a lifetime marriage to a faithful spouse and for career and economic advancement" (The Phyllis Schlafly Report, June 1986; editor's emphasis). The logic, or lack thereof, of those last few effects of teenage sexual activity is most perplexing. Isn't it unwanted and unplanned pregnancy that would prevent career development and economic advancement, and then doesn't it follow that available information and contraception would prevent this result, perhaps even by encouraging the decision to delay sexual activity?

The evidence for this group's theories seems to be determined in the Meese tradition: personal opinion and projection based on personal attitude. The Netherlands, which has available birth control in the high schools, has the lowest teenage pregnancy rate in the world, along with very low rape and child sexual abuse rates. And Sweden, where sex education has been taught in the schools since 1956, rivals the low pregnancy rate of the Netherlands (Dryfoos 1985). There has not been any evidence of a breakdown of family values in these countries, nor a lack of career development.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University, who designed and evaluated a school-based pregnancy prevention program for inner-city high school girls found a dramatic decrease in pregnancies. And, in direct opposition to the Schlafly theory of sex education promoting "promiscuity," they also found that girls participating in the program postponed intercourse longer than non-participating girls (Alan Guttmacher Institute 1986). So as we can see, Schlafly's concern for the economic advancement of Americans is not only insincere, but also based on her personal opinion of who should be having sex when and with whom rather than on research generated from evaluation of sex education programs.

This issue of the SIECUS Report addresses the important need to develop and evaluate sex education programs, including curricula and teacher selection, which meet the learning needs of young people and are acceptable to parents, professionals, and communities. Never has the need for sex education been greater than now. Adolescent pregnancy, AIDS, child sexual abuse, rape, pornography, and censorship are sexual health issues in 1986 that affect all of us--children, adolescents, parents, and professionals.

One result of the concern about these issues has been increased efforts to control, limit, and eventually eliminate, through legislation, public school family life and sex education curricula, programs and materials that are viewed as threatening to young people and their parents. This effort has emerged in the form of a "parent-pupil protection act" promoted by Schlafly's group.

As we look at how to improve the frequency and quality of sex education programs, it is vitally important to be aware of and to assess the current social and political environment.

Ann Welbourne-Moglia, Ph.D. and Sharon R. Edwards, M.A.

Excerpted from SIECUS Report, Volume 15, Number 2, November/December 1986.