At Philadelphia's Martin Luther King High School, an elective marriage-education class has been taught for five years by English teacher Lynn Dixon. The class is co-sponsored by a local law firm, where the students go to learn about the harsh realities of divorce law and what it's like to go through the process. But much of the work is done in Ms. Dixon's classroom, with an emphasis on learning to get along with others. Dixon says her students are generally very successful at acquiring negotiation skills. Dixon, who is twice divorced herself, says the course also helps give students a more realistic set of expectations.
Many students find the session on budgeting eye-opening.
Jennifer Bradley Dixon also supplements the class with reading assignments, including poetry, newspaper and magazine articles on marriage and divorce, and the occasional dose of marital advice from Ann Landers. She favors keeping the class as an elective rather than requiring it, but insists that, taught correctly, it is not out of place in an academic setting. Her course, she says, includes reading, writing, social science, health, and even math assignments that correspond to state academic standards. It is difficult to develop curricula that offend none. It charged that much of the teaching in the rejected courses was too neutral and failed to promote the positive values of marriage.