1991: the omnipresent need professional training for sexuality education teachers.

... Thus, as we face, again and still, the persistent dilemma of promoting appropriate training experiences for classroom teachers of sexuality education, let us recognize the special obligation which the field of sexology/sexual science owes to those on the front lines of the unique situation posed by sexuality education mandates. The mandate phenomenon has brought a profound new sense of urgency to this landscape, and we cannot, in good conscience, allow our colleagues to remain isolated and rudderless in their classrooms. In an effort to unify the response of sexuality educators to the phenomenon of sexuality education mandates, I make the following recommendations:

We must lobby for compulsory teacher training provisions as attachments to all sexuality education mandate legislation.... Those affiliated with universities can propose the development of undergraduate degree programs in sexuality education or minor/major offerings in sexuality education. They can offer to design curricula, to design and/or teach courses, and to provide input for degree requirements (for example, recommending a minimum number of coursework hours in sexuality education for all undergraduate health education majors). They can also approach state boards of education regarding the development of major/minor certification in sexuality education and/or the establishment of standards for sexuality education teachers, independent of teachers' areas of licensure of certification.

Sexologists/sexual scientists can assertively offer their expertise, as consultants within their states, to legislatures and departments of education proposing education mandates. The role of expert advisors provides an ideal venue in which to argue for the critical importance of teacher training as the sine qua non of the success of sexuality education initiatives, and can be accomplished as part and parcel of providing one's expertise to the project as a whole.

Those who specialize in educator training can also offer their services in designing and/or implementing teacher training sessions. If and when the lack of funds is used to explain the absence of training provisions (and it most likely will be), the trainer can invest in the future of the field by offering consultant services at a reduced rate; arranging flexible payment schedules; offering to train small groups of teachers who can then train others; and by suggesting that adjoining states pool their resources so that teachers may be trained from more than one state at a time, etc....

Among the states that have mandated sexuality education to date, there has been "little leadership in setting the scope, content, and purpose of sexuality education programs, or in assisting with the mechanics of teaching the topic." (1) Classroom teachers in these states need our help....

Excerpted from SIECUS Report, Volume 19, Number 4, April/May 1991.

References

1. J.L. Rosoff, "Sex Education in the Schools; Policies and Practices," Family Planning Perspectives, 21, no. 2 (1989): 52-65.

Mary M. Krueger, Ph.D.