SR: Volume 30 Number 6

Sexuality Education Update, Volume 30 Number 6

Articles are:

Number of Controversies Decline as Schools Adopt Conservative Policies

Talk About Sex: The Battles Over Sex Education

Teens Develop Code of Sexual Ethics at Pennsylvania Coalition Meeting

Untangling the Web to Help Students Find Sexual Health Sites

Update: Pregnancy and State Policies

Also in This Issue...

Policy Update: "Reason for Optimism About Comprehensive Sexuality Education"

From the President: "Two Ways to Promote Sexuality Education"

From the Editor:

"Young People Are Key to Change in Sexual Health Programs"

Mac Edwards

For the past several years, as I have compiled and edited our "Sexuality Education" issues of the SIECUS Report, I have always ended my work with the same conclusion. Young people are the ones who are going to make comprehensive sexuality education a standard in our nation's school systems. They understand the need for it, and they will work to make certain that it happens.

To me, that is the theme of the article by Claudia Trevor, SIECUS state and community advocacy associate, on what's happening in schools across the nation titled "Number of Controversies Decline As Schools Adopt Conservative Policies." Although the article is filled with information about the proliferation of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs in our schools, it is the information about student advocacy for comprehensive programs that jumps off the page.

Two of the quotes that caught my eye are from students at Modesto High School in California. Urging the school to address the issue of sexuality head-on, one said that it is critical because "there are just too many students out there having sex." Another asked, "Is preaching abstinence effective? Ask the teens."

EDUCATION ARTICLES

Of course, it is not just young people who are making the difference. There are many others in our country who are doing important work to accomplish the same goal.

This issue of the SIECUS Report includes articles by a number of them who offer ways to help promote knowledge about sexuality-related issues and the sexual health benefits that come from such knowledge.

First Joe Fay, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, and Dr. Jay Yanoff, a member of the Coalition Board, tell us about a statewide youth conference it sponsored where over 100 teens developed their own Teen Code of Sexual Ethics.

"We believe that teens are more likely to follow a code of behavior that they have developed for themselves rather than one that is imposed from the outside," Dr. Yanoff said. "We also take heart in the fact that the final product demonstrates that teens are indeed learning and absorbing the messages of sexual health and responsibility that many parents and other adults are attempting to communicate.

To help sexuality educators teach their students to use the Web, Dr. Nancy Brown, a senior research associate at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute in Palo Alto, CA, and Tara Brown, an adolescent health intern at the Institute, provide some extremely useful information in their article "Untangling the Web to Help Students Find Sexual Health Sites." I learned a lot myself.

Then I interviewed author Janice Irvine about her new book Talk About Sex: The Battle over Sex Education in the United States. It's an informative look at what has happened in the United States in the past 40 years.

OTHER INFORMATION

There is a lot happening in Washington this year in terms of both comprehensive sexuality education and abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. In fact, there has been more discussion on Capitol Hill about sexual health issues than at any time we here at SIECUS can remember.

William Smith, SIECUS director of public policy, writes in "Reason for Optimism about Comprehensive Sexuality Education" that we have come a long way during the past year toward uncovering the fallacy of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs through dialogue in the U.S. Congress.

We have also updated the "Pregnancy and State Policies" charts that appeared in the February/March SIECUS Report. The charts include "Substance Abuse during Pregnancy," "Infertility Insurance Laws," "Medicaid Family Planning Waivers," "Minors' Access to Prenatal Care," "Safe Surrender Laws" "Human Cloning," and "Gay and Lesbian Adoption Laws." We regret that the original charts did not list the information sources and apologize to the organizations which provided this important research. They include The Alan Guttmacher Institute, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse, the Adoption Family Center, and Lambda Legal.

I hope you find that the information in this "Sexuality Education Update" will help you in your work to make certain that sexuality education in America's schools grows and improves this coming year and in the future.