quotations about sex education
I think we are doing poor sex education if we don't look at how erotic behavior actually takes place, and offer people interventions that are reasonable.
TRISTAN TAORMINO
The Ultimate Guide to Kink
In the debate over sex education, one thing is undisputed: The average kid today is immersed in sexual imagery. A generation that has grown up on the sordid details of the Starr Report, watched thong-clad teens gyrate on Spring Break cable specials, or read the cover of nearly any women's magazine in the grocery check-out line is familiar with the facts of life. But young people face a barrage of confusing messages. Along with titillating images from the media, some kids are told to "just say no" to sex. In school, others are taught how to put condoms on bananas in preparation for the real thing, and still other children receive no information whatsoever.
MOLLY MASLAND
"Carnal Knowledge: The Sex Ed Debate"
Does sex education encourage sex? Many parents are afraid that talking about sex with their teenagers will be taken as permission for the teen to have sex. Nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, the more children learn about sexuality from talking with their parents and teachers and reading accurate books, the less they feel compelled to find out for themselves.
BENJAMIN SPOCK
Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care
The sex education I received in school was important, and I'm grateful for it, but it was very much a focus on anatomy and HIV and STI acquisition. We didn't talk about the less scientific things like consent, intimate partner violence, and building and maintaining healthy relationships. And for that reason I'm very grateful I also had parents engaging in these conversations about these important topics in addition to the more scientific and technical training I received in school.
RAEGAN MCDONALD-MOSLEY
"A Planned Parenthood Exec Shares the Surprising Way Her Religious Parents Taught Her About Sex", Self, September 6, 2017
Soaring rates of sexually transmitted diseases among teens are adding urgency to the debate over sex education. Conservatives claim the alarming statistics illustrate why abstinence should be the single mantra when it comes to sex ed. Liberals counter that the increase in disease is the strongest case for more detailed information. Caught in the middle are America's kids, who are more vulnerable than ever to potentially deadly diseases.
MOLLY MASLAND
"Carnal Knowledge: The Sex Ed Debate"
If the goal of conservatives is to discourage young people from having sex, they should change their strategy and push to make comprehensive sexual education compulsory. Our educational system has proved that if a subject is taught in a boring enough manner, Americans will make every effort to avoid it for the rest of their lives.
BOB SMITH
Openly Bob
Although parents and schools should be the basic providers of sound sex education, they seldom are. This leaves the library as the only source of sex education for young people, unless we want to abandon the job to sexploitation movies, rock lyrics, graffiti, and the dubious counsel of peers.
PATRICIA J. CAMPBELL
Sex Guides
Sex education as we know it takes about five minutes to explain, because we only explain the biological aspect ... but we know that's far from all there is to having sex, and if you don't teach it, the children are going to learn it for themselves.
LEAH TORRES
"Sex Isn't Sinful, It's Natural--and We Should Teach Kids That", Self, August 24, 2017
When yuh done, Listerine get it offa yu breath
Sex education class dis
Nuff ah dem get dismiss
My school a nuh funny business
VYBZ KARTEL
"Bicycle"
Having an evidence based sex education program across the country would be my dream. The ideal curriculum would address the basics of anatomy, including the differences in people's bodies and sexual responses. It would include an understanding of sexual orientation, gender identity. It would also talk about the variety of ways people express sexual desires.
RAEGAN MCDONALD-MOSLEY
"A Planned Parenthood Exec Shares the Surprising Way Her Religious Parents Taught Her About Sex", Self, September 6, 2017
Conservatives say teaching sex education in the public schools will promote promiscuity. With our education system? If we promote promiscuity the same way we promote math or science, they've got nothing to worry about.
BEVERLY MICKENS
Women's Lip
We need to teach our children what sex is--and what it isn't.
LEAH TORRES
"Sex Isn't Sinful, It's Natural--and We Should Teach Kids That", Self, August 24, 2017
Sex education has created a discourse which associates sexuality with danger rather than pleasure, with an emphasis given to the dangers for women especially of sexual expression. It is important to note that these messages stand in marked contrast to the other discourses relating to sexuality which we find in modern industrialized society, including the world of advertising and the mass media generally. We live in a sexualized society in which desire, albeit mostly male desire, and the expression of that desire are seen as of paramount importance.
LYNDA MEASOR, KATRINA MILLER & CORALIE TIFFIN
Young People's Views on Sex Education: Education, Attitudes and Behaviour
Teaching children about sexual relationships apart from promoting immorality is like teaching a child to drive a car without explaining the traffic laws.
AHMADU SAMUEL
"Nigerians divided over sex education in schools", St. Lucia Times, August 21, 2017
The persistent advocates of contraceptive-style sex education have become more and more resourceful in using taxpayer funds to impose their casual-sex attitudes and explicit-sex instruction on other people's children.
PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY
The Phyllis Schlafly Report, March 2001
Will sex education reduce or end AIDS, adolescent pregnancy, prostitution, sexual exploitation? Frankly, we do not know. But silence on sexual matters does not appear to be an option either ideologically or practically. Ideologically, ignorance is no advantage when others have knowledge, especially knowledge misused, and people who know nothing of sex can take risks unknowingly and be taken advantage of.
MARTHA CORNOG
For Sex Education, See Librarian
We parents need to do a better job of educating our adolescents about sex. The countries with low rates of teen pregnancy and low rates of STDs deal with sex more openly. It is not uncommon for adolescents to talk frankly and frequently about sex with their families and in schools. It's ironic that these more open societies have fewer problems associated with adolescent sexual activity, because much parental resistance to sex education in the United States is predicated on the notion that it will lead to more teen sex. American parents fear that if teachers talk to teens about sex in a classroom, the information will somehow trigger their interest in it--as if teens have not heard of sex before taking a health class on it.
DAVID WALSH
Why Do They Act That Way?
Sex education is incomplete, and unethical, if it does not include education surrounding what active consent is and is not.
LEAH TORRES
"Sex Isn't Sinful, It's Natural--and We Should Teach Kids That", Self, August 24, 2017
Sex education is much more a matter of mind and spirit than of biology and physiology--more a matter of interpretation of facts and inspiration to ideals than of instruction alone.
THOMAS W. GALLOWAY
attributed, Journal of Social Hygiene, 1941
If you say, "don't do it, it's not healthy for you, but if you're going to do it, do it this way," that sends mixed signals to kids.
LORI COLE
attributed, "Carnal Knowledge: The Sex Ed Debate"