The state required every school system to develop a family life program, including sex education, by 1989. A curriculum was provided, but school systems were allowed to adopt their own programs. Pulaski County stuck with the state curriculum, and what students learn today differs little from what they were taught 10 years ago. The program helps students understand their bodies and emphasizes abstinence until marriage. Students learn about condoms and other contraceptives in the eighth grade.
Birth control is taught only in the context of marriage.
I think maybe the emotional part is neglected. Because it is an old curriculum, Superintendent Cox said he thinks it needs to be reviewed. Most family life curriculum are predicated on the assumption if you give kids the best information and you teach them about abstinence, they will make that choice. Cox isn't sure a revamped program would solve the pregnancy problem because so many teens want their own children. Part of the thrill for some girls is the idea that the baby will give them someone to love them back.