Sex Education In The United States, 1835 Through Today
If Democratic lawmakers have their way, public schools will soon be required to teach students what constitutes a "healthy relationship," or risk losing federal funds.
The legislation, introduced in July, was inspired by the renewed public attention to campus sexual assault. But it's also part of a much larger, longer-running debate: What kind of sex education, if any, should the federal government support?
It wasn't until the 1920s that schools started teaching any kind of sex ed. Ever since then, educators and activists have wrestled over what form it should take.
1835
Ministers Preach Against Masturbation
United States
Before schools incorporated sex education into their curriculums, curious youth could learn about the subject from religious pamphlets and books. One of the most popular of these was the Rev. John Todd's Student's Manual, a book that sold more than 100,000 copies in Europe.
Like most "sex education" at the time, the book was focused mainly on discouraging masturbation. Todd, a minister from Massachusetts, explained that the "secret vice" could lead to memory loss, depletion of energy and death, and was therefore to be avoided.
1913
Chicago Introduces Sex Ed
Chicago, IL
At a time when physiology classes didn't teach basic sexual anatomy, Chicago superintendent Ella Flagg Young developed a "sex hygiene" course for public school students. It was the first of its kind.
Young was motivated by Chicago's high rate of prostitution and the corresponding explosion in sexually transmitted disease. She presented the course as serving both a medical and a moral purpose.
It only lasted a year. Local Catholic leaders were outraged and worked with conservative school-board members to undercut the program. Two years later, Young was muscled out as superintendent in an unrelated scandal, and the courses died.
1914
World War I Gives New Life To Sex Ed Movement
United States
The STD problem worsened with the outbreak of World War I, as soldiers slept with prostitutes while on leave. The military sought to warn "doughboys" of the dangers of unsafe sex. One route was films like Damaged Goods, a newsreel-style short about a man who has unsafe sex with a prostitute, passes syphilis to his unborn child and then kills himself.
Damaged Goods received rave reviews, with one critic writing that "every American boy … should be made to see it." The Department of Labor agreed, suggesting in a 1919 report that films like Damaged Goods would have been more helpful at staving off STDs if they'd been screened in schools.
1920s
Federal Government Encourages Schools To Teach Sex
United States
With the wartime STD rate boosting the "sex hygiene" movement, more public schools began incorporating basic sex education into their curriculums.
The federal government played a big role in this. In 1919, a White House task force on child welfare endorsed sex education in schools; three years later, the US Public Health Service released a manual with "suggestions of education related to sex."
During the 1920s, between 20% and 40% of public schools in the US had sex education courses. Many took a moralistic approach. For example, the risk of STDs was often presented as a consequence of extramarital sex, and some courses still preached against masturbation.
1960s
Sex Ed Faces Pushback
United States
Over the next several decades, sex education crept into more and more classrooms around the US, and colleges began teaching courses on human sexuality. But eventually sex education faced pushback, part of the wider conservative backlash against the liberal social movements of the 1960s.
In 1968, a religious group called Christian Crusade distributed a pamphlet entitled "Is The School House The Proper Place To Teach Raw Sex?" The next year, the head of the powerful John Birch Society, using the parlance of the times, branded sex education a "filthy Communist plot."
Many state and local governments began restricting sex education in public schools.
1980s—1990s
Critics Propose Abstinence-Only Education
United States
The outbreak of AIDS in the 1980s gave proponents of sex education a powerful argument in its favor. But opponents had a counterproposal: abstinence-only education, which preaches no sex at all until marriage.
In theory, this approach discouraged unsafe sex while adhering to conservative skepticism of recreational and extramarital sex. In practice, abstinence-only programs were connected with higher teen pregnancy rates, both at the state and national level, and caused no statistical reduction in sexual activity among kids.
Nevertheless, the government poured money into abstinence-only programs, with funding reaching a peak of $176 million a year under President George W. Bush.
JULY 22, 2015
Lawmakers Push For Changes In Sex Education
United States
Democrats in Congress want to change how sex ed is taught in the US. The Teach Safe Relationships Act, which lawmakers introduced in July, would require public schools to teach students about things like sexual coercion and positive communication. The goal is to promote "healthy relationships" and combat sexual assault.
Whether or not the measure passes the GOP-dominated Congress, it's just the latest development in the ongoing public debate on what role, if any, schools should have in education kids about sex.
Want more?
Further reading
A sociological analysis of the first public sex education in Chicago.
There are federal standards for abstinence-only education.
A 2006 analysis of the efficacy of abstinence-only education.
This post originally appeared on Timeline.
