University and Educational Intelligence

Abstract

THE United States Public Health Service has, in co-operation with the Bureau of Education, collected information as to the present status of sex education in high schools, and the Bureau has published a statistical summary in Bulletin, 1922, No. 14. The proportion of the number of schools giving some sort of instruction in matters pertaining to sex to the number of schools from which returns were obtained (about half of the total number of high schools in the country) is 41 per cent., varying between 17 per cent., in New Hampshire, and 100 per cent., in Utah. Sex education is classified as “emergency”—through lectures or occasional talks by members of the school staff or by physicians, nurses, State health officers, social workers, or ministers, sex hygiene exhibits, pamphlets, etc.— and “integrated” i.e. given incidentally in teaching the subjects of the regular curriculum. Although the former method is more frequently resorted to, a large majority of the principals, including those who at present provide no sex instruction, are in favour of the latter. So, evidently, are the authorities of the Public Health Service. These hold the view that “sex education should not be restricted to a certain body of information given at a special time and place, but rather should it be spread over a considerable time and given in various relations.” They believe, in short, in breaking down the sex taboo. They point out, however, that few teachers have the combination of mental maturity, poise, sanity, sympathy, accurate knowledge of facts and ability to present them impersonally, and tact, which are requisite for beneficent sex education.