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Thomas Burton 7104
Dr. Whit Jones
Expository Writing
4-30-12
Sex Education: Should it be the School’s Responsibility?
The question of whether sex education should be the school’s responsibility has
sparked some debate among schools and the parents of the students who attend them.
Because sex is such a sensitive subject, most people tend to have relatively strong
opinions on how their children should learn about it—how detailed the explanation
should be and at how early of an age sex education should begin. Though it is such a
delicate topic and is involved in so many issues—morality, identity, biology—most
parents would insist that the school systems, and therefore the government, take on the
responsibility of explaining sex to their children. Wouldn’t they rather bring it up
themselves, and be able to impart whatever wisdom and beliefs they have concerning
it?
Researcher Sharon Alexander took a poll on this subject, surveying the parents
of students attending various public schools on the East Coast, as well as Rocky
Mountain areas. She reported her findings in her article “Improving Sex Education
Programs for Young Adolescents: Parents’ Views.” Alexander found that more than
eighty percent of parents were in favor of sex education in the public schools. Over sixty
percent felt that the programs should be expanded (251, 253). Because of these results,
Alexander argues that they should, indeed, be expanded. Authors Lawrence and Ellen
Shornack, in their article “The New Sex Education and the Sexual Revolution: A Critical
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View”, disagreed, arguing that sex education in public schools undermined the place of
the family.
Why are so many parents insisting that the schools take over when it comes to
sex education? Authors and psychologists, Drs. Shornack, believe that because of the
mixed authorities in the lives of many adolescents today, parents in general no longer
feel that they can make decisions for their children. Because sex is such a sensitive
topic, and conversations about it can be awkward for parents and their kids, most
parents tend to just avoid the subject (532). The majority of parents cover very few
sexual topics with their children, even when it comes to personal issues like
masturbation, homosexuality, abortion, and contraception methods. Indeed, most
parents only talked with their children about the basic differences between girls and
boys (Alexander 254).
Alexander proposes that many parents are afraid that they won’t be able to cover
the topics well enough. Most parents aren’t experts on STD’s or the menstrual cycle. So
they believe that the school, so full of educated people, will be able to do a better job
than they would. Unfortunately, most schools don’t have a developed sex education
program. Even the ones that do often don’t have an encompassing curriculum. Many
times, teachers resort to magazines and health textbooks to cover the more technical
aspects of reproduction (252). That, of course, is something the parents themselves
could do.
Because parents and schools typically fail to properly inform the students, the
children turn to their peers and the media, even though most parents would still
consider themselves to be their child’s primary source for sexual information, as
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Alexander points out (253). The students’ peers usually don’t know any more about sex
than they themselves do. The media casts sex as mere recreation, a view that neither
parents nor schools would tend to agree with. Along with that comes the belief that
women are sex objects to be victimized and used, crushing girls’ self-esteem (Shornack
and Shornack 536). Both of these lead to a distorted view of sexuality.
Having an inaccurate view of sexuality can become negative because sex isn’t
just about the “plumbing”, but is accompanied by emotional and relational aspects as
well. Sex education is more than just sex information (Shornack and Shornack 531).
Most parents would agree that sex education should have some sort of morals and
values incorporated in it, though what morals those should be is always controversial.
The Shornacks take it a step further, saying that “Teaching anatomy and physiology is
imparting the mere plumbing of sexuality and may even be dehumanizing” (532). Sex
viewed as a simply biological issue lends to the view that it can be abused without
having any negative impacts on the people involved.
Having a distorted view of sexuality ends up negatively affecting nearly all
aspects of an adolescent’s social life, from how he relates with his parents to how he
behaves toward his friends. Women become cast in a role that sets them up as
belongings, rather than people. Men become viewed as always taking advantage of
every situation and weakness. The Shornacks believe that it is not the presence of pop
culture or negative peer influence that degrades morality, self-esteem, and sexuality.
Rather, it is the absence of family involvement in the child’s life. Mothers no longer help
their children to deal with stress and frustration, nor do fathers provide strength and
support (538).
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In the past few decades, the norms of relational agreements have broken down.
Marriage has become a joke, and traditional dating is nonexistent. Many students grow
up in a home with divorced parents, domestic partners, or nearly raise themselves. This
often leads them to act out. When a youth acts out their conflicts, rather than working
through them, the immature narcissism and reliance on adults is only prolonged
(Shornack and Shornack 538).
This acting out very often comes in seeking the intimacy they never found at
home and can take on the form of sexual experimentation. This has a negative longterm effect on the students. College women who were more openly sexual in their high
school years reported experiencing less happiness and a lower popularity (Shornack
and Shornack 537).
The Shornacks would suggest that the answer to this is simple; the family needs
to reenter the scene as a major influence in the students’ lives. If there is a school-run
sex education program, it can’t merely teach the physical aspects of sexuality. Rather, it
should result in students becoming rational about sex and therefore becoming
responsible concerning it (533).
Alexander, on the other hand, would suggest that the problems aren’t based on
the family, and so neither are the solutions. She would propose that we have a flawed
system when it comes to sex education. The programs in general are inadequate for
teaching our children what they need to know. The curriculum is almost nonexistent, the
teachers are not well trained, and the students are not well reached (252-253).
Alexander says that the way our sex education programs are designed should be
expanded and improved. Teachers teaching from magazines should have some sort of
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standardized curriculum, though that curriculum should be re-evaluated every so often.
She states that what and when students are taught should be carefully considered,
based on what the local parents believe and want taught, and the curriculum should be
restructured based on that. Alexander believes that if the students know everything
there is to know about sex, then responsibility will just fall in line.
In contrast, the Shornacks point out that “even if all sexually active teenagers
used contraception consistently, 467,000 premarital pregnancies would occur each year
anyway” (536). They quote researcher K. Davis in saying,
The current belief that illegitimacy will be reduced if teenage girls are
given an effective contraceptive is an extension of the same reasoning
that created the problem in the first place. It reflects an unwillingness to
face problems of social control and social discipline, while trusting some
technological device to extricate society from its difficulties. (535)
While both Alexander and the Shornacks seem to support family and school
intervention in the students’ sexual education, both come to radically different
conclusions as to some solution to these problems. The Shornacks insist that the family
must stabilize itself before it can become some kind of influence. Then the parents need
to get over their fears and become their child’s greatest influence, especially in sensitive
areas like sexuality. Alexander believes that if the public schools’ sex education
programs were restructured in accordance with the parents’ needs and wishes, and
some adequate curriculum was designed for the programs, then the school would be all
that is necessary, reflecting what the parents wish they could say.
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I would agree with both arguments at different points. I agree with the Shornacks
that sex education should primarily be the family’s responsibility. I think that such a
personal topic should be covered by people who know you best. However, some
parents truly aren’t qualified or willing to teach their children. Public sex education
should be offered, but not by the public school system, which is government regulated. I
think that it should be organized by the community, everyone making sure that the
information is adequate. The sex education course that I attended in high school only
taught about STD’s, working as a scare tactic to keep everyone abstinent. The
government and medical community could have a suggested curriculum that could be
changed in accordance to the needs of the community it is being taught in. In that
regard, I agree with Alexander.
Alexander and the Shornacks both made valid points in their articles and backed
up their reasoning with plenty of data and statistics. However, with such differing
opinions, both solutions cannot be right. Some solution must be enacted to combat the
inadequacies of sex education and the distorted views of sexuality that result from it.
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Citations
Alexander, Sharon. "Improving Sex Education Programs for Young Adolescents:
Parents' Views." Family Relations. 33.2 (1984): 251-57. JSTOR. 14 Feb. 2012.
Shornack, Lawrence, and Ellen Shornack. "The New Sex Education and the Sexual
Revolution: A Critical View." Family Relations. 31.4 (1982): 531-44. JSTOR. 14
Feb. 2012.