Subject: Bennett Sees Need To Stress Morality In Sex Education
Date: Published: 1/23/87 60 lines
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

   Bennett Sees Need
   To Stress Morality
   In Sex Education
    ---
   By Joe Davidson
   Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

   WASHINGTON -- Education Secretary William Bennett strongly
criticized school sex education programs for too often
reflecting "an abdication of responsible moral authority."
   At a conference sponsored by the National School Boards
Association and funded by the Education Department, Mr. 
Bennett emphasized a role for sex education that clearly
differs from the emphasis of Department of Health and Human
Services officials, who have discussed the role of sex
education in preventing Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome,
or AIDS. 
   Surgeon General C. Everett Koop has called for "frank,
open discussions about sexual practices -- homosexual and
heterosexual" and has said "education about AIDS should start
at an early age."
   Without mentioning AIDS directly, Mr. Bennett expressed
doubts about the effectiveness of sex education.  "It is clear
to me that some programs of sex education are not
constructive," he said.  "In fact, they may be just the
opposite."
   Mr. Bennett said that although 70% of all high school
seniors had taken sex education courses in 1985, "teen
pregnancy rates are at or near an all-time high" and 40% of
the girls who are 14 years old now will be pregnant by the
time they are 19.  "These numbers are, I believe, an
irrefutable indictment of sex education's effectiveness in
reducing teen-age sexual activity and pregnancies," he said.
   The secretary's emphasis on the need for sex education to
stress what is right and wrong reflects his department's
misgivings about HHS's proposed AIDS education programs.
Education Department officials feel that their HHS
counterparts haven't stressed abstinence with the same vigor
with which they've called for safe sex.
   A department critique on Jan. 13 of a proposed AIDS
education program by HHS said sex education "should teach
that children should not have sex" and "should not be neutral
between heterosexual and homosexual sex."  In a critique of an
earlier HHS draft program, the Education Department harshly
criticized the HHS for promoting the "wrong message" of safe
sex, rather than pressuring "people to stop their antisocial
behavior."
   After his speech, Mr. Bennett said Education and HHS
officials "are very close" to resolving their differences.
Dr. Koop couldn't be reached for comment.

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