Obama and Sex Education

By Dr. Brian Russell
As you may have heard, {then} presidential candidate Barack Obama endorsed guidelines published by the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) for “age-appropriate” sex education in public schools, while some media outlets reported that vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin opposed,  “sex education” in public schools. (And by the way, when reporting Palin’s stance on sex ed, they liked to throw in the fact of her 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy, suggesting that sex ed would’ve prevented the pregnancy, but there’s no good data to support that conclusion.) I think that some reporters and commentators didn’t pay enough attention to the particulars of either candidate’s stance. It’s one thing to be against any sex ed, but it’s something else entirely to be concerned about sex ed being administered to your kids by a public school teacher who may not share your values, let alone your beliefs about what’s “age appropriate.” Let me give you a few examples from the SIECUS guidelines. They say that it’s appropriate for a public school teacher to tell children aged 5-8: that certain body parts feel good when touched, that people rub their own genitals to feel good, which is called masturbation, and that some people are homosexual, which means they fall in love with people of the same gender. Now if you want your 5-8-year-old to be told those things, that’s your right as an American parent, but if you’re concerned about your child hearing those things at those ages, that’s your right as well, and I agree with you. I’m not opposed to “don’t talk to strangers,” “good touch vs. bad touch,” “tell a trusted adult if anyone tries to give you a bad touch” messages in the elementary school years. I’m also not opposed to scientific discussion during the teenage years of how humans develop sexually (including theories of how sexual orientation develops, and I’m more than fine with making strong mention of the unacceptability of treating anyone in a cruel manner), how the body normally functions with respect to reproduction, how the body can malfunction and be harmed with respect to reproduction (STDs), and how reproduction is aided (fertility procedures) and inhibited (contraceptives). I’m not opposed to high school students getting those facts from public school teachers, so long as there’s absolutely zero tolerance for any teacher condoning the students having sex, because I think people need the information in order to be educated Americans, but I want parents to be responsible for teaching their children values. (September 11, 2008)

Dr. Brian Russell is a licensed psychologist, attorney at law and familiar national television pundit on psychological, legal and cultural issues.

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