Developments in the fields of medicine and education, in conjunction with social conditions and intellectual climate, influenced the promotion of school based sex education in the late nineteenth century and on into the twentieth century. The complexity of the relationship between education and society is illustrated through an examination of how…

Historically, conceptions of gender in education revolved around a distinctive set of assumptions about male and female sexuality. This article focuses on the principal arguments, related to education, associated with sexuality and sex equity during three critical periods in American history: antebellum, latter nineteenth century, early twentieth…

Prior to the First World War, the public's attitude toward sex education was apathetic. With venereal disease posing a threat to America's "military efficiency" during the war, however, military programs in sex education were instituted that then gave rise to similar programs in secondary schools in the 1920s. (JBM)

A review of literature on sex education in the schools traces the changing opinions and attitudes on the subject over the past century. Early sex education efforts (1880s to 1920s) in the schools focused upon the repression of sexual activity, the prevention of immorality, hygiene, and prevention of venereal diseases. A gradual movement (1940s to…