The Sex Talk
The Sex Talk
May 29, 2000 -- Todd Melby is the editor of Contemporary Sexuality, a publication of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists. You wouldn't think that he'd need any help teaching his two sons about the facts of life. But the Minneapolis dad acknowledges that he did.
"The schools concentrate on anatomy, but there's much more to sex than that," Melby says. "I wanted my kids to learn about the moral and emotional aspects as well, and I didn't want to leave it to chance."
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That's why Melby attended a day-long father-son workshop sponsored by Planned Parenthood of Minnesota/South Dakota with his 12-year-old son. There, with the help of facilitators and sex educators, the 10- to 12-year-old boys learned about their sexual development. Fathers and sons took turns talking and listening to each other. Later, Melby went to a church-sponsored program on sex education with his other son, who was 14.
Enlightened programs such as these are rare. That's unfortunate, because when it comes to sex ed, there's a big difference between what American parents say they want from schools and what the schools provide.
For instance, a 1999 poll by the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) in New York City showed that 93% of Americans support teaching sex education in high schools (84% also approve of sex ed in middle school and junior high). But a survey of 825 public school districts released late last year by the Alan Guttmacher Institute found that only one in seven actually teaches a comprehensive program that treats abstinence as one option but includes instruction on contraception and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. One in three districts surveyed prohibits discussion of contraception or only emphasizes its shortcomings while it advocates an abstinence-only policy.
Statistics from such diverse organizations as the American Medical Association, the National Council of Churches, and the YWCA, as well as hundreds of published studies, show that abstinence-only programs not only fail to discourage young people from having intercourse but also may increase the chances that they will not use contraception and condoms when they do have sex.
"The schools concentrate on anatomy, but there's much more to sex than that," Melby says. "I wanted my kids to learn about the moral and emotional aspects as well, and I didn't want to leave it to chance."
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That's why Melby attended a day-long father-son workshop sponsored by Planned Parenthood of Minnesota/South Dakota with his 12-year-old son. There, with the help of facilitators and sex educators, the 10- to 12-year-old boys learned about their sexual development. Fathers and sons took turns talking and listening to each other. Later, Melby went to a church-sponsored program on sex education with his other son, who was 14.
The Problem
Enlightened programs such as these are rare. That's unfortunate, because when it comes to sex ed, there's a big difference between what American parents say they want from schools and what the schools provide.
For instance, a 1999 poll by the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) in New York City showed that 93% of Americans support teaching sex education in high schools (84% also approve of sex ed in middle school and junior high). But a survey of 825 public school districts released late last year by the Alan Guttmacher Institute found that only one in seven actually teaches a comprehensive program that treats abstinence as one option but includes instruction on contraception and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. One in three districts surveyed prohibits discussion of contraception or only emphasizes its shortcomings while it advocates an abstinence-only policy.
Statistics from such diverse organizations as the American Medical Association, the National Council of Churches, and the YWCA, as well as hundreds of published studies, show that abstinence-only programs not only fail to discourage young people from having intercourse but also may increase the chances that they will not use contraception and condoms when they do have sex.
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