An interesting, titillating (and, if you have a teenage daughter, terrifying) NYT Magazine cover story on how sex ed is taught (and mostly mis-taught) in America and the rampant sexual activity among teenagers (egads!):

In its breadth, depth and frank embrace of sexuality as, what Vernacchio calls, a "force for good" — even for teenagers — this sex-ed class may well be the only one of its kind in the United States. "There is abstinence-only sex education, and there's abstinence-based sex ed," said Leslie Kantor, vice president of education for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "There's almost nothing else left in public schools."

Across the country, the approach ranges from abstinence until marriage is the only acceptable choice, contraceptives don't work and premarital sex is physically and emotionally harmful, to abstinence is usually best, but if you must have sex, here are some ways to protect yourself from pregnancy and disease. The latter has been called "disaster prevention" education by sex educators who wish they could teach more; a dramatic example of the former comes in a video called "No Second Chances," which has been used in abstinence-only courses. In it, a student asks a school nurse, "What if I want to have sex before I get married?" To which the nurse replies, "Well, I guess you'll just have to be prepared to die."

In settings outside schools, the constraints typically aren't as tight. Bill Taverner, director of the Center for Family Life Education for Planned Parenthood of Greater Northern New Jersey, said that his 11 educators are usually given the most freedom with so-called high-risk youth, those in juvenile detention, or who live in poor neighborhoods with high teen-pregnancy rates. "I wish I could say it was for positive reasons," he said, "but it's almost as if society has just kind of thrown up their hands and said, 'Well, these kids are going to have sex anyway, so you might as well not hide anything from them.' "

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Teaching Good Sex

Olivia Bee for The New York Times

By LAURIE ABRAHAM

Published: November 16, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/magazine/teaching-good-sex.html

"First base, second base, third base, home run," Al Vernacchio ticked off the classic baseball terms for sex acts. His goal was to prompt the students in Sexuality and Society — an elective for seniors at the private Friends' Central School on Philadelphia's affluent Main Line — to examine the assumptions buried in the venerable metaphor. "Give me some more," urged the fast-talking 47-year-old, who teaches 9th- and 12th-grade English as well as human sexuality. Arrayed before Vernacchio was a circle of small desks occupied by 22 teenagers, six male and the rest female — a blur of sweatshirts and Ugg boots and form-fitting leggings.