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Pre-1900s
Before 1900, sex education was not taught in school since sex was seen as something that could only be talked about at home. Society believed that teaching sex was the responsibility of the parent and not the school. -
Sex Hygiene Programs
During the 1910's Ella Flagg Young developed a sex hygiene program that aimed to teach public school students about STD's due to the high rate of prostitution in Chicago. This program is considered the first of its time -
Beginnings of the Sex Ed Movement
The U.S. Department of Labor's Children's Bureau released a report that suggested that soldiers would have lower rates of STI's if there were more sex education program in place, -
First Sex Ed Materials
During the 1930's the U.S. Office of Education published the first sex education materials and trained teachers on them. -
The Pill
The Pill, birth control, was introduced in the 1960s. There was a lot of controversy surrounding it since it prevented pregnancy during premarital sex. At the time, premarital sex was still not widely accepted. Many also thought that the pill would encourage casual sex among teens. -
SIECUS is Formed
SIECUS, or Sexuality Information and Education Council of the US, is formed -
SCOTUS Ruling: The Pill
In 1965, the Supreme Court ruled that contraceptive use was a constitutional right, however, many parents were still against it. This made schools nervous to implement contraceptive information in their courses. -
AIDS Epidemic
Cases of rare lung infections, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), and unusually aggressive cancer's, Kaposi’s Sarcoma, were popping up throughout California and New York. They were found in a group of, previously healthy, gay men. There were 270 reported cases of immune deficiency by the end of the year and out of those 270, 121 died. -
First Designated Funding for Abstinence Education
Throughout the 1980s states started to mandate public school sex education. It was reported that most courses covered topics such as puberty, STDs, and pregnancy prevention. Topics about homosexuality, birth control, and abortion were rarely covered. -
SCOTUS Ruling
SCOTUS rules that federally-funded sex education programs must delete direct references to religion. This is due to abstinence being a more conservative idea. -
Ineffective Abstinence Programs
A UNAIDS/WHO evaluation finds that 13 programs that push abstinence-only, were ineffective for HIV prevention. -
President Bush & Abstinence
President Bush pushes for abstinence by requesting $242 million dollars just for abstinence-only programs. Congress partially approved. -
New Data
Polling shows that 90% of parents in the US-supported sex ed in high school but only 75% of parents in the US-supported sex ed in middle school. -
