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who really don't understand and
feel threatened. For one thing,
they're afraid of what their child is
going to be taught. lf they don't
involve themselves in PTA meetings
and planning programs so they are
aware of what's going on, they can
get sorne very strange ideas. Also
there are sorne people who feel that
it inhibits the parents' influence or
control over their family if any area
as sensitive as human sexuality is
handled in the schools.
Q .
What about those who really want
to be thelr chlld's only teacher In
thls area?
A.
1 always explain to people who
have a strong religious or strong
value system and really are han–
dling it al home that they're very
unusual, because there are so many
parents who don't touch on the sub–
ject. They don't handle it; don't in
sorne cases care much about their
kids until the kids get in trouble.
Many times concemed people have
a hard time believing the neglect
that goes on with other people's
kids.
Q .
School programs usually don't
touch on morallty-right?
A.
The one thing that school pro–
grams seek to do is to keep things on
a very neutral level-presenting in–
formation and getting people think–
ing about making decisions. But
parents obviously want to discuss
sex in terms of the family value sys–
tem, and you naturally can't do lhat
when you have people from families
with divergent value systems in a
classroom.
Parents say that they would like
to be the sex educators of their chil–
dren, and yet so many of them feel
inadequate to do this. Our course
called "Sex Education for Parents"
gives parents an opportunity to dis–
cuss sexuality and leam the kind of
information many parents and
people my age didn't necessarily
know when we were growing up.
Then lhey have a chance to presenl
it lo their kids the way they want to
in their own value system.
Q .
Do you flnd the kids you talk to
are pretty sophlstlcated?
A.
WeU, they're sophisticated in lhe
sense thal lhey've been exposed to a
greal deal of sexual hype in the
media, and they have the feeling
that they musl project an image that
The
PLAIN TRUTH August-September 1977
they know all about sex. Bul they
really have ve ry, very limited
knowledge of the basic facts that are
really importanl to them. In fact,
there is abysmal ignorance; an abys–
mal belief in myths, and this is one
of the things that disturbs me.
Q.
For instance?
A.
Many of them believe in kind of
a strange system of rhythm. They
feel that pregnancy can't possibly
result if they have sex only around
the time of the girl's period, because
somewhere along the line they've
leamed in biology thal in the classic
menstrual cycle she is not fertile
then. Of course, the problem is that
teenage girls ovulate at odd times.
It's very common for them to have
irregular cycles. So many of them
who believe this become pregnant.
Also they believe sorne very weird
things-like
if
you don'llove the boy
you can't get pregnant; if you don't
climax you can't get pregnant; if
you have sex in sorne odd positioo,
like standing up, you cao't get preg–
nant. And they genuinely feel that if
they operate on these myths, they
can have sex without running the
risk ofpregnancy.
Q.
What sort of material do you
cover In your presentatlons?
A.
If we're asked, we go through the
symptoms ofVD and where you can
get treatment. One thing we are al–
ways careful to remind people of is
that in California we have a law that
says anyone over the age of eleven
who has VD can apply for his own
medica] care. One of the things that
often happens is thal kids go into.a
panic when they think they have
VD. They feel they can't involve
their families and then lhey doo't
get treated, and you know the con–
sequences of lhal can be very sad.
1 lhink many times people are just
knocked off lheir pins to find out
that one out of fi.ve high school
graduates in California each year
has already had a treated case of
VD. lt's a real epidemic. And we
have a million pregnant teenagers
in the United States every year.
Q .
What do you tell hlgh school klds
about preventlng pregnancy?
A.
Usually we go through the meth–
ods for birth control and where
people can get birth-control ser–
vices. And 1 stress that with girls, it's
particularly important that they re-
alize what an early pregnancy can
do to their chances for finishing
school, gettingjob training, having a
career, having a decent chance of
raising a family-you know, it can
absolutely limit those choices and
chances.
Our aim is to try to get kids to at
least consider that if they're going to
be sexually active, they have re–
sponsibilities to protect against un–
wanted pregnancy and VD. And we
try to get them to make conscious
decisions.
1
think that one of the
major problems is that people drift
into sexual relationships; they get
pressured into them. They think
they have to because everybody else
is, and they never sit down with
themselves and think, "Now if I'm
going to do something like this, 1
have to be responsible enough to
take measures to protect against the
things that can happen."
Q.
So you deal wlth the reallty that
these kids are golng to
be
sexually
active?
A.
1 think the fact that even two
years ago, when we were working
wi th the Pasadena schools, they had
forty to sixty pregnancies among
high school girls in the
first two
months
of school says something.
People just don't realize the extent
of the problem- that we aren't deal–
ing now with what
should
go on, but
with what
is
going on and how we
can work with it.
O
ADDITIONAL READING
The Plain Truth
does not necessarily
endorse everything stated in the follow–
ing books, but' they contain much help–
ful information on human sexuality.
For children:
How Babies Are Made,
Andrew C. An–
dry, Time/ Lile: New York (1968)
The Beauty of Birth,
Collette Portal .
Knopf:
New
York (1971)
For adolescents:
The Stork ls Dead,
Charles Shedd,
World Books: Waco, Texas (1968)
Why Am 1So Miserable lf These Are the
Best Years of My Lite?
Andrea Boroff
Egan, Llppincott : Philadelphia (1976)
For adults:
Why Marriage! - Soon Obso/ete?*
ls Sex Sin?•
Let's Make Sex
a
Household Word,
Sol
Gordon, John Day: New York (1975)
•Ava1labte free upon request. See inside
front cover for address of our office nearest
you.
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