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Sex education

Instruction on human sexuality issues

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Bezirksmuseum Josefstadt
Thomas Ledl · CC BY-SA 4.0

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Sex education that includes all of these issues is known as comprehensive sexuality education. In contrast, abstinence-only sex education, which focuses solely on promoting sexual abstinence, is often favored in more socially conservative regions, including some parts of the United States.

Sex education may be provided as part of school programs, public health campaigns, or by parents or caregivers. In some countries, it is known as "relationships and sexual health education".

Many governments see it as beneficial to provide public education on such matters before or at the beginning of puberty to improve public health, to limit the spread of sexually transmitted infections, and to avoid teenage pregnancy and unwanted pregnancies later on.

History

In multiple cultures, the discussion of all sexual issues has traditionally been considered taboo, and adolescents were not given any information on sexual matters. Such instruction, as was given, was traditionally left to a child's parents, and it was often put off until just before their marriage. However, in the late 19th century, the progressive education movement led to the introduction of sex education as "social hygiene" in North American school curricula and the introduction of school-based sex education.

During the Second World War, UK governmental concerns grew around mass relocation, parentless youths, and young men and women working together for the first time. Not only were there fears of new sexually transmitted diseases, but there was also growing anxiety around young pregnancy, putting pressure on the war-ravaged economy and healthcare system. As such, the UK Board for Education introduced the Sex Education in Schools and Youth Organizations guidance. This placed the onus of sex education on schools and youth groups and guided leaders on how to implement it. For example, the mechanics of sexual intercourse could be communicated via "the keeping of livestock", as students could observe reproduction in real-time; the guidance also encouraged discussions about menstruation, motherhood courses, and personal hygiene talks. Popular among teachers and some parents, this guidance – which made sex education a possibility, not an obligation – prevailed for many years in the UK.

After the Second World War, some developing countries promoted sex education programs that evolved to address political goals. A growing anxiety in some areas of the world over rising birth rates led to population-centered sex education programs. For instance, the first sex education curriculum in Singapore between 1966 and 1973 emphasized birth control as a way to avoid overpopulation. Reforms in some socialist countries focused on the role of sex education in strengthening family ties within society. This was the focus of sex education programs that developed in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and Cuba during the late twentieth century. The evolving content of sex education programs reflected shifting opinions regarding sexuality within each society. For example, Swedish sex education guidelines and textbooks published between 1945 and 2000 originally depicted masturbation as inherently harmful but increasingly portrayed it as natural and harmless.

The Catholic Church referred to the need for "a positive and prudent sexual education" in its 1965 Declaration on Christian Education, one of the documents issued by the Second Vatican Council.

In the 1970s, informational films became popular among teachers. Martin Cole's Growing Up (1971) was a frank look at how sex works physiologically and socially. It showed real clips of penises and masturbation, which sparked some backlash. However, it became apparent in the 1980s that a frank and factual approach was required in sex education as the HIV/AIDS crisis began in the UK. In 1999, the Labour government introduced Sex and Relationships Education guidance, with particular focus on sexually transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancy. This was part of the ten-year Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, which would eventually be resolved in 2010. Teenage pregnancy rates were halved across this period; similar changes in other countries indicate that this was not an effect of the strategy.

Globally, the outbreak of AIDS has given a new sense of urgency to sex education. In multiple African countries where AIDS is at epidemic levels (see HIV/AIDS in Africa), sex education is seen by most scientists as a vital public health strategy. Some international organizations such as Planned Parenthood consider that broad sex education programs have global benefits, such as controlling the risk of overpopulation and advancing women's rights, including reproductive rights. The use of mass media campaigns has sometimes resulted in high levels of awareness coupled with essentially superficial knowledge of HIV transmission.

According to SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, 93% of adults they surveyed support sexuality education in high school, and 84% support it in junior high school. In fact, 88% of the parents of junior high school students and 80% of parents of secondary school students believe that sex education in school makes it easier for them to talk to their adolescents about sex. Also, 92% of adolescents report that they want both to talk to their parents about sex and to have comprehensive in-school sex education. Furthermore, a "study, conducted by Mathematica Policy Research on behalf of the US Department of Health and Human Services, found that abstinence-only-until-marriage programs are ineffective."

The current frontier in the development of relationship and sex education (RSE) is LGBTQ+ inclusion. The recent 2019 guidance update is tentative in its acknowledgment of LGBT people, something which has proved controversial among homo- and transphobic groups, as well as among LGBT allies and pro-inclusion sociologists. For example, while Birmingham primary schools were protested by Muslim parents opposing the introduction of LGBT content to the guidance, sociologist Jonathan Glazzard criticized the Department for Education for the document's ambiguity and "opt-out" potential. The inclusion of this form of sex education is argued to make LGBT students feel more included, and that feelings of safety would foster healthy developmental outcomes for this group.

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