by F.R. Duplantier
The Sex Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) applauds the dramatic increase in the number of states that require or recommend sex education in public schools.
A 1994 SIECUS survey of state sex-ed programs reported that 44 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have gotten on the bandwagon since 1986, when only three states required such curricula. The focus of the SIECUS assessment, however, was on the alleged "shortcomings" of the state curricula, as determined by deviations from the group's own Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education, K-12, which SIECUS published in 1991. Those guidelines include six "key concepts," subdivided into 36 topics. The key concepts are Human Development, Relationships, Personal Skills, Sexual Behavior, Sexual Health, and Society and Culture.
The 1994 SIECUS study, entitled Unfinished Business, consisted of three major components: the responses of state education officials to a 20-question survey; the analysis by SIECUS of various state-developed sex-ed curricula; and SIECUS's own recommendations for changing curricula to conform with their biases about sex education. Resources cited for the study include the Alan Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood, the Center for Population Options, the National Education Association, and People for the American Way. Funding for the study was provided by the Carnegie Corporation.
The SIECUS study complained that many state curricula guides "omit sexual behavior topics; exclude topics that are considered controversial, such as sexual identity and orientation and abortion; lack thorough coverage of topics throughout grades Kindergarten-Twelve, particularly in the elementary grades; and lack [what SIECUS calls] balanced coverage of abstinence and safer sex." SIECUS says such shortcomings represent "unfinished business."
The study laments the absence from most curricula of "detailed age-appropriate developmental messages." That is the SIECUS euphemism for statements that lay the foundation for easier acceptance of permissive sexual practices at a higher grade level. When it comes to coverage of sexual behavior, SIECUS complains that most curricula are guilty of a "fear-based" approach, which means that they emphasize abstinence and portray sex as something more profound than a recreational activity. To achieve what SIECUS calls "balance," the curricula would have to present "safer sex" as a more realistic option than abstinence.
SIECUS rejects the "just say no" approach in sex education, asserting that it does "not provide corresponding refusal skills or assertiveness messages." For SIECUS, refusal skills are sexual negotiation techniques that students can acquire through role-playing and instruction in the art of explicit conversation. SIECUS ignores the fact that such techniques undermine the natural modesty of children (their most potent defense), and the likelihood that mastery of refusal skills would enable an aggressive negotiator to overcome them.
Few sex-ed curricula begin early enough for SIECUS. The group deplores the benighted parents and right-wing pressure groups that have impeded "comprehensive" sex education. SIECUS urges a state- funded effort to combat these "obstructionists."
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