Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1958-05-15
In Our Schools -
They're Learning
About Birds, Bees
By Dorothy Waleski
staff Reporter

Should the public schools teach the facts of
life about marriage and family relationships?
In spite of raised eyebrows of some parents
over their children taking Marriage Course,
the educators know that the family as an in
tegral part of society, cannot be kept out of
the learning situations in the schools.
1t begins in the kindergartens with the five
year-olds playing house and acting out the various
roles of the members of their families while
taking their first steps away from the family and
into the broader world of the school and the COM
munity.
The family is the jumping-off point for
courses of study up through the grades on cloth
ing, housing, climate, geography, history, people
and their governments literature ETC.
BY the time the last two grades in senior
high reached, the IL and 1Syear-olds are fully
prepared to take in their stride courses that give
specific and detailed lessons in marriage and
family problems.
In fact the educators wouldn't consider turn
ing them loose in the world without some back
ground information of this kind.
It depends on the teacher and her judgment
of her students needs how detailed the subject
matter is.
In Montgomery there is no one course called
a Marriage Course but in social studies home
arts and physical education there are units deal
ing specifically with marriage and family life.
"A
who thinks her 18th grade students are ready
for something more than the "bees and birds
explanations of normal biological functions can
offer them the excellent Board of Education
films on Human Growth" and Human Repro
ducton," the resource pamphlets, under
standing Sex" and 'Your Heredity" or planning
Your Family"
Her 18th grade students can be prepared for
the 18th grade course by discussing the Dos and
Don'ts of Dating. Films for this include Dating
Dos and Donts," Date Etiquette" How to Say
No." and Going Steady; pamphlets, $50 You
Think It's Love" and Dating Days"
In the 18th and 18th grade social study
courses of problems of democracy, sociology and
psychology, broader view is taken with units
on sex codes in various cultures, family charac-
teristics by social classes, problems facing the
modern family etc.
However discussions in these three courses
may get down to cases on such topics as your
Success with the Opposite Sex" and take up How
to Be Popular with Members of the Opposite
Sex; limits on petting or necking Cor whatever
the current teen-age phrase ISL and what should
you consider in selecting a mate.
These courses, however, are not limited to
discussions on sex by any means. Problems of
marriage such as in-law trouble, working wives,
financial difficulties, Importance of maturity in
marital happiness, mixed marriages, family back
ground and attitudes towards children are also
considered
Even more practical are the home arts
courses which deal with family finances with
considerable information on budgets, savings, in
come, buying, right down to the question of who
is to manage the family finances.
The home arts girls also start in the ninth
grade learning how to take care of children in
babystting course and by the time they are
seniors are ready for detailed units of pernatal
care, the responsibilities of parenthood and some
practical demonstrations on care of the new baby