A truce in the sex ed wars?

Right now, both sides of the sex education debate still insist that education can change sexual activity. As best as we can tell, they're both wrong.

from the July 30, 2007 edition

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So it's time for everyone to adopt comprehensive sex education, right? Wrong.

First of all, we don't know that it works any better than abstinence education does. Teens are using contraceptives more regularly than in the past, but they're abstaining more from sex, too!

Second, the liberal demand for comprehensive sex education betrays a rather illiberal sentiment towards conscientious objectors. In matters of sex, like war, there are some Americans who think there's only one good choice to make. Why should their children be subjected to a curriculum that violates their deepest beliefs?

Well, you might answer, their children can be pulled out of class if they object. But that's precisely what conservatives said when liberals objected to school prayer. Wouldn't kids pulled out from sex ed be stigmatized, just like kids pulled out during prayer? And why should liberals' sexual catechism receive pride of place, when we really don't know that it works?

But here's what we do know: Sexuality is a profound and deeply contested part of the human experience. People around the world differ radically about its purpose, meaning, and implications.

So why not structure sex education around that? Instead of trying to alter sexual behavior, the course would examine the different ways that human beings – across space and time – have conceived of sex itself. It would draw upon texts from history, literature, anthropology, and religion. And it would expose children to the enormous range of views on sex, instead of imposing a single view upon them.

Right now, both sides of the sex-education debate still insist that education can change sexual activity. And as best we can tell, they're both wrong. Maybe the new demands for science-based curricula will remind all of us about the complexities, ambiguities, and diversity of sexuality itself. Come to think of it, that would be a great focus for a course.

Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history and education at New York University and is author of "Innocents Abroad: American Teachers in the American Century."

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