Sex Education: A Success in Our Social-Studies Class

Abstract

Whenever secondary schools permit students to participate in the determination of the socialstudies curriculum, sex education is almost always demanded. There appears to be no single field in social experience which is more functional to adolescence than this. Any school that gives its students an honest choice in problems to be discussed will have to give some instruction in the physical, emotional, and moral truths of reproduction. Another course that is generally asked for, if students think there is any chance of its being given, is one dealing with the practical problems of marriage. Adolescents are often-times more deeply interested in this question than we suspect, for courtship and marriage relationships are vital problems. Marriage will touch most young lives more directly than many of the subjects now being taught. In some schools, however, courses in sex education and marriage may not be practical. In other schools such courses are not only practical, but necessary. In the Secondary School of the Colorado State College of Education, an experimental situation was developed by which we sought to find the answer to three fundamental questions in this field: (1) Do students want such training in social studies? (2) What procedures are best adapted to teaching these subjects? (3) What is the attitude of parents regarding the teaching of sex and marriage problems in the public schools? The science teacher and the social-studies teacher