The Kaiser findings are based on interviews with more than 4,000 respondents across the nation. Classes typically are co-ed and taught along with another subject. Abstinence, teaching students to wait to have sex, figures prominently on the curriculum, with 84 percent of schools including instruction on that topic. AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases have become areas of study in the overwhelming majority of sex education courses. They are taught in more than 90 percent of schools.
Parents say they want a wider range of topics taught than are offered in most schools.
Nearly all parents, for example, want safe-sex and negotiation skills taught. Far fewer students said these were subjects covered by the latest course they had taken. The majority of parents also wanted their children to receive instruction on abortion and homosexuality. A newly released study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute also found that sex education in public schools often misses the target. All rights reserved.