Sex
Education in America
An NPR/Kaiser/Kennedy
School Poll
Corbis
A new poll by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard''s Kennedy School of Government finds the vast majority of Americans agree that sex education should be taught in schools.
Survey Results
Survey of the General Public and Parents
Survey of School Principals
Parents Approve
Although there may be some disconnect between the breadth of sex education Americans want taught and what is actually taught in many places, parents whose children have taken sex ed generally like their school''s program. Read more.
Poll-Based Stories on NPR
All Things Considered, Feb. 24, 2004: NPR''s Brenda Wilson reports on differing views between white and non-white evangelical Christians when it comes to sex education.
Weekend Edition Saturday, Feb. 7, 2004: NPR''s Wade Goodwyn looks at the political implications of emphasizing
abstinence in sex education.
All Things Considered, Feb. 5, 2004: NPR''s Wade Goodwyn profiles an abstinence-only lecture at a Dallas middle school.
Weekend Edition Saturday, Jan. 31, 2004: NPR''s Margot Adler reports on why parents think their daughters are better prepared for sexual issues than their sons.
Morning Edition, Jan. 30, 2004: Forty
percent of adults say abstinence even includes abstaining from passionate kissing. Sanovia Jackson of Youth Radio talks with her girlfriends and finds out they have a different view.
Talk of the Nation, Jan. 29, 2004: A discussion on the survey results.
All Things Considered, Jan. 29, 2004: NPR''s Joseph Shapiro profiles a more comprehensive sex ed class at a Maine high school.
Survey Tables
Table 1: Sex Ed Topics Considered Appropriate/Inappropriate
Table 2: What Abstinence Should Mean
Table 3: Topics Considered Appropriate by Evangelicals/Non-Evangelicals
NPR.org, February 24, 2004 · The debate over whether to have sex education in American
schools is over. A new poll by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard''s Kennedy School of Government finds that only 7 percent of Americans say sex education should not be taught in schools. Moreover, in most places there is even little debate about what
kind of sex education should be taught, although there are still pockets of controversy. Parents are generally content with whatever sex education is offered by their children''s school
(see Parents Approve sidebar), and public school principals, in a parallel NPR/Kaiser/Kennedy School survey, report little serious conflict over sex education in their communities nowadays. Nearly three-quarters of the principals (74 percent) say there have been no recent discussions or debate in PTA, school board or other public meetings about what to
teach in sex ed. Likewise, few principals report being contacted by elected officials, religious leaders or other people in their communities about sex education.
However, this does not mean that all Americans agree on what kind of sex education is best. There are major differences over the issue of abstinence. Fifteen percent of Americans believe that schools should teach only about abstinence from sexual intercourse and should not provide information on how to obtain and use condoms and other contraception. A plurality (46 percent) believes that the most appropriate approach is one that might be called "abstinence-plus" -- that while abstinence is best, some teens do not abstain, so schools also should teach about condoms and contraception. Thirty-six percent believe that abstinence is not the most important thing, and that sex ed should focus on teaching teens how to make responsible decisions about sex.
Advocates ofhad some success. Federal funds are now being made available for abstinence programs; in his State of the Union address President Bush called for an increase in the funding. And in spite of the fact that only 15 percent of Americans say they want abstinence-only sex education in the schools, 30 percent of the the principals of public middle schools and high schools where sex education is taught report that their schools teach abstinence-only. Forty-seven percent of their schools taught abstinence-plus, while 20 percent taught that making responsible decisions about sex was more important than abstinence. (Middle schools were more
likely to teach abstinence-only than high schools. High schools were more likely than middle schools to teach abstinence-plus. High schools and middle schools were equally likely to teach that abstinence is not the most important thing.)
In many ways, abstinence-only education contrasts with the broad sex ed curriculum that most Americans want -- from the basics of how babies are made to how to put on a condom to how to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases. Some people thought that some topics were better suited for high school students than middle school students, or vice versa, but few thought any of the topics suggested were inappropriate at all. The most controversial topic -- "that teens can obtain birth control pills from family planning clinics and doctors without permission from a parent" -- was found to be inappropriate by 28 percent of the public, but even there, seven out of 10 (71 percent) thought it was appropriate. The other most controversial topics were oral sex (27 percent found it inappropriate) and homosexuality (25 percent).
(See Table 1 in the Survey Tables sidebar.) Interestingly, in a separate question about what schools should teach about homosexuality, only 19 percent said schools should not teach about it at all. For the most part, Americans want teachers to talk about homosexuality, but they want them to do so in a neutral way. Fifty-two percent said schools should teach "only what homosexuality is, without discussing whether it is wrong or acceptable," compared with 18 percent who said schools should teach that homosexuality is wrong and 8 percent who said schools should teach that homosexuality is acceptable.
A majority of Americans (55 percent) believes that giving teens information about how to obtain and use condoms will not encourage them to have sexual intercourse earlier than they would have otherwise (39 percent say it would encourage them), and 77 percent think such information makes it more likely the teens will practice safe sex now or in the future (only 17 percent say it will not make it more likely).
When it comes to the general approach to teaching sex and sexuality in schools, Americans divide almost evenly. Respondents were asked to choose which of two statements was closer to their belief: (1) "When it comes to sex, teenagers need to have limits set; they must be told what is acceptable and what is not." Or (2) "ultimately teenagers need to make their own decisions, so their education needs to be more in the form of providing information and guidance." Forty-seven percent selected the first statement; 51 percent selected the second. Parents of seventh and eighth graders were more likely to choose the first statement (53 percent) than the second (45 percent); parents of high school students were evenly divided. Conservatives were much more likely to choose the first statement over the second (64 percent to 32 percent), as were evangelical or born-again Christians (61 percent to 35 percent). Liberals and moderates were more likely to choose the second statement over the first (61 percent to 37 percent for liberals and 56 percent to 42 percent for moderates).
Historically, the impetus for sex education in schools was teaching children about avoiding pregnancy and keeping them safe from sexually transmitted diseases, but
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