With careful planning and broad involvement, the Falls Church, Virginia, schools developed a successful sex and family life curriculum. (Author)

Comprehensive sexuality education and education for a democracy have many important common features. They both seek to help individuals maintain physical and mental health, form and maintain stable relationships, develop decision-making skills, and develop a toleration for diversity. Sexuality education should encourage freedom of thought--not…

Based on a 1988 study of adolescents and parents from six ethnic populations, this article recommends that educators and other service providers offer sexuality education in bilingual students' own language, focus on negotiation of relationships, provide inexpensive condoms, establish peer education networks and adult workshops, and collaborate…

Sex education should be included in the regular curriculum and studied from anthropological, sociological, psychological, and ethical perspectives. At Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood (New Jersey) sex education is an eight-week unit of a course called Introduction to Behavioral Science. (Author/MLF)

Some special education students misuse their sexuality to achieve popularity, flaunt sex-related language to gain attention, or demonstrate social naivete. To help these students categorize their real-life relationships, two consultants devised the circles concept. Six color-coded concentric circles reproduced on a life-sized floor mat clearly…

By having workshop participants involved in verbalizing, valuing, and decision-making processes concerning human sexuality, the author feels that the parents of pre-teenagers and teenagers, are better able to understand the scope and focus of sex education in schools and churches. (GB)

Although educators seem reluctant to integrate sex into the curriculum, covert sexual instruction comprises a large part of the hidden curriculum and ambience of any junior or high school. When presenting heterosexual mechanics, most health classes bypass homosexuality, safer sex practices, abortion ethics, and birth control methods. Honest…

Likona's critique of comprehensive sex education oversimplifies values instruction and ignores complexities of sex and reproduction, human growth, gender roles, intimacy, and social and cultural influences. Ideological approaches to sex education fail because they ignore the realities of everyday living. (Contains 27 references.) (MLH)

When criticizing the author's character-education article in the November 1993 "Educational Leadership," William Bennetta fails to acknowledge that nondirective sex education has failed. Abstinence is not the Religious Right's invention, but is the only medically safe, morally responsible choice for unmarried teenagers. The Teen-Aid and…

Growing up in a highly eroticized environment, children are preoccupied with sex in developmentally distorted ways and increasingly likely to act out their sexual impulses. Abstinence is the only totally effective way to avoid pregnancy, AIDS, and other sexually transmitted diseases. Chastity education promises great success through promotion of…

In contrast to studies of abstinence-only programs, studies of abstinence-plus curricula indicate that students do not increase sexual activity. Parents, teachers, and administrators should evaluate all sexuality education programs according to three important criteria: credibility of training materials, curriculum content, and curriculum…

In articles on sex and character education in the November 1993 "Educational Leadership," Thomas Lickona parrots slogans and fake history and statistics contrived by the Religious Right. Lickona blames Darwin's evolution theory for variable morality and repeats fabricated success claims for Teen-Aid and Sex Respect, right-wing programs…

Proposes sex education, a necessary and appropriate undertaking for public schools, be presented in a broad context that emphasizes values along with personal and community responsibility. Notes educators can strongly advocate abstinence while providing youngsters with age-appropriate sex information and ways to proceed responsibly and safely.…

Although after-school programs offer many activities--from cooking classes to computer technology, homework assistance, and sports--they also provide an effective environment for health education and wellness instruction, especially pregnancy prevention. Exemplary programs for middle- and high-schoolers in Palm Beach County, Florida, are…

Too often, ideological debates, not scientific evidence and public-health concerns, influence decisions about sexuality education. Comprehensive, developmentally appropriate, and culturally sensitive sexuality education should be an important component of all grade levels. Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS)…