"Kappan" editor Rafael Heller talks with the Guttmacher Institute's Laura Lindberg, one of the nation's leading researchers in the field of adolescent sexual and reproductive health, about recent data and trends related to teens' sexual behavior, contraceptive use, pregnancy rates, and more, including their experiences with school-based…

This exploration of the "Phi Delta Kappan" archives shows the magazine's long history of addressing issues of sex and gender in schools. Past articles have covered the professional roles of men and women, the education needs of boys and girls, sex education programs, and the treatment of LGBTQ+ teachers and students. The magazine's…

One of the most important aspects in our lives is learning how to have mutual, caring romantic relationships. Yet while schools and many other industries in this country devote tremendous attention and resources to preparing the young for work, they do remarkably little to prepare them for generous, self-respecting sex and love. Educators and…

Sex education in middle and high school health classes is critically important because it frequently comprises the primary mechanism for conveying information about sexual health to adolescents. Deliver evidence-based information on HIV and pregnancy prevention practices and they will be less likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors, the theory…

Allowing nonschool organizations to provide sex education in a released-time format would disestablish state-funded sex education and give families a choice in the sex education that would be provided for their children. Released-time programs, as originally conceived and currently practiced, allow students to be released for a period of time…

In order to accommodate the education needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, American schools need to do more than add LGBT information to the curriculum in sex education class. If we believe, as Erikson (1968) suggested--that adolescence is the time when young people try to make sense of who they are--and if we believe that…

Suggests that there is plenty of evidence that the needs of youth for realistic sex education are not being met. Urges that professional educators convince the public that this ignorance is dangerous and destructive. (Author)

Provides information on the extent of teenage pregnancy in the United States, describes programs for pregnant teenagers in New Jersey, and offers suggestions for change in the way the problem of teenage pregnancy is being handled. (IRT)

Disagrees with several points in Mike Males's teenage pregnancy article in the March 1993 "Kappan." Males emphasized that family formation among teenagers mirrors larger societal trends. Recent evidence shows otherwise. The economic and societal costs of early childbearing are worsening; 60% of teen families live in poverty. Providing adolescents…

Outlines three approaches to instruction about human sexuality. The approach emphasized recognizes that sexuality is an integral part of the human condition and envisions a human relations instructional core that incorporates materials at various grade levels. (Author/IRT)

Stephen Caldas assumes that modern "teenage" sex and pregnancy are deviant, isolatable behaviors. However, teenage and adult sexual behaviors are so intertwined at the personal and societal levels that there is no distinct teenage phenomenon amenable to school intervention. Attempting to preach values contradicting the values adults practice is…

In the last 20 years the age of menarche has dropped from 13.5 years in 1950 to a predicted mean age of 11.5 for 1970. Urges that we address the social and physical consequences of the physiological revolution on contemporary America and suggests a potential role for schools to ameliorate the problem. Among the suggestions: child rearing should be…

Presents a summary of findings from the spring 1984 Gallup Poll of Teacher's Attitudes. (MD)

Understanding of adolescent child-bearing and efforts to ameliorate attendant problems are diminished by unexamined, emotionally charged beliefs regarding race, poverty, gender. Adolescent birth rates that declined from 1970s to 1980s were sharper for African Americans. However, sexually active adolescents in comparison countries have fewer…

Proposes that sex information should consist of sexual facts which are established as valid in the scientific community and integrated in the day to day curriculum without value judgment. (MF)