Introduction: The Ethics of Sex Education

Perhaps no other part of the school curriculum generates as much controversy and on such a consistent basis as sex education. Recent polling data from the United States, Canada, and Britain point to a broad consensus among citizens of those countries that schools should offer some form of sex education.1 But exactly what should be taught, when, and how are matters of intense and ongoing debate. There are a number of credible explanations for this contentious state of affairs. For one, policymakers, educators, parents, and other concerned citizens maintain different ideas about, and exhibit different levels of understanding of, human sexuality — an undeniably vast and complex subject. For another, they hold differing views on how participation in a variety of classroom activities (for example, lectures, group discussions, live skits, condom demonstrations, and so on) and exposure to a more or less expansive range of information are liable to impact children’s nascent sexual attitudes and behavior. Yet it is their adherence to fundamentally divergent conceptions of sexual morality, above all, that engenders impassioned debate in this area. As David Archard observes, ‘‘Sex education is disputatious because sex itself has a great significance in our lives yet we disagree profoundly about the values that should inform our sexual conduct.’’2