Word: ed
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...such a climate of fear, moral debate seemed like a luxury. Get them the information, give them protection, we can talk about morality later. There is a fishbowl full of condoms in the nurse's office, help yourself. While only three states mandated sex ed in 1980, today 47 states formally require or recommend it; all 50 support AIDS education...
...while kids are in the middle of a worldwide pandemic," complains pediatrician Karen Hein, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, who has seen too many teens infected with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases come through her hospital. She laments the fact that sex ed is only "about vaginas, ovaries and abstinence -- not about intimacy and expressing feelings." Kids, she says, "don't know what they're supposed to be doing, and adults are really not helping them much...
...educators over these past few years to know what to teach when society itself cannot agree on a direction. Absent any agreement over what is "proper" sexual conduct, teachers can be left reciting, word for word, the approved text on homosexuality or abortion or masturbation. The typical sex-ed curriculum is remarkably minimalist. Most secondary schools offer somewhere between 6 and 20 hours of sex education a year. The standard curriculum now consists of one or two days in fifth grade dealing with puberty; two weeks in an eighth-grade health class dealing with anatomy, reproduction and AIDS prevention...
Scandinavians believe that teens may be more receptive to sex ed at school than at home. "When teenagers get in contact with their sexuality, they are about to break loose from their parents," says Laack. "This is only natural and shouldn't be disturbed...
Rather than confining instruction to special classes, schools integrate lessons throughout the curriculum. In Denmark sexual matters must be discussed whenever appropriate in any class. So too in Sweden, where sex ed has been compulsory since 1956. Starting when the children are between ages 7 and 10, it is formally incorporated into different subjects. "In biology, for example, the physical side is discussed," explains Peter Karlberg of Sweden's Ministry of Education. Courses that cover geography, history or politics tackle ethics and gender roles. In Finnish schools, all 15-year-olds receive an introductory sexual package put together...