Finding new ways to teach sex education

By: Al Wicklund
   MONROE — By any name — sex education, family life education or sexuality — classes that deal with the facts and problems of life need a balance, Susan Wilson told the Monroe Township League of Women Voters July 23 at the league’s monthly business meeting.
   The message from some state and federal legislators is that the only message that our schools should give is "abstinence from sex until marriage," said Ms. Wilson, executive coordinator of the Network for Family Life Education, a unit within the Rutgers University School of Social Work.
   Ms. Wilson said abstinence should be a part of family life education, but it’s not realistic to expect that message alone to prevent teen pregnancies and sexually-related disease.
   "There’s no scientific evidence that the abstinence message alone works; the statistics are that 65 percent of the country’s teen-agers have sex before they graduate from high school," she said.
   Ms. Wilson said good programs include abstinence, but there’s a need for greater education. Many young teens are ignorant about how pregnancies happen.
   "They need to know about contraception. They need to know there may be safer sex, but there’s no such thing as ‘safe sex,’ "she said.
   Ms. Wilson said in other countries, such as Canada, England, France, Sweden and The Netherlands, sexuality is treated as a public health issue and teen-agers and younger, are given accurate information about sex and its possible consequences.
   "In those countries, the rates of pregnancies, venereal diseases and abortions are two to seven times lower than the United States’ rates," she said.
   Ms. Wilson said the "abstinence wars" have returned to the state Legislature.
   She said a state Senate bill would require that teachers teach only abstinence in their health classes.
   "If the bill passes, for the first time, we’ll be legislating specifically what is taught in the classroom," she said.
   Ms. Wilson, who was on the state Board of Education and a strong advocate of a statewide requirement for sexuality education when it was adopted by the board in 1981, said the League of Women Voters has been consistent in its support of sound family life education.