ALSO ON PBS AND NPR 
PBS.org Websites
NOW: Interview with Shelby Knox
David Brancaccio interviews Shelby Knox about her years of work as a teenager in the campaign for sex education in the high schools of Lubbock, Texas. (June 17, 2005)
Religion & Ethics Newsweekly: Abstinence-Only Sex Education
One of the most difficult religious and ethical questions facing many communities — and often tearing them apart — is how the public schools should educate children about sex ... Reporter Lucky Severson examined the dilemma in Lubbock, Texas. (February 4, 2005)
Newshour Extra: Sex Education Report Stirs Abstinence-Only Debate
A report out this month by Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of California found that many teachers who use abstinence-only education are giving false information about student's sexual health. This report and the reaction to it continue the debate over the best way to teach about sex.
NewzCrew: Students speak out about sex education. (December 13, 2004)
Newshour: Abstinence Education
Fred de Sam Lazaro of Twin Cities Public Television looks at the debate over abstinence-only sex education programs in schools. (November 23, 2004)
In the Mix: Sex: Everybody's Doin' It...Not!
With all the talk, it may seem like everyone you know is having sex. And that a romantic relationship is doomed if "doing it" doesn't become part of the picture. Well, believe it or not, the majority of young people under 18 are still virgins. (2004)
Frontline: The Lost Children of Rockdale County
"The Lost Children of Rockdale County" explores how a 1996 syphilis outbreak in a well-off Atlanta suburb affected over 200 teenagers and revealed their lives unknown to parents: group sex, binge drinking, drugs and violence. Some were as young as twelve and thirteen years old. (1999)
Religion & Ethics Newsweekly: Teen Girls and Sex
A special report on the sexual pressures on preteenage girls. Parents, social critics, and many young girls themselves deplore it, but sex sells, so advertisers and entertainers use it to attract audiences. They use it without the regulation or social pressures that once were restraining forces. (April 12, 2002)
Newshour Extra: Debating Abstinence
Since when does the United Nations talk about sex? The controversial topic of "reproductive health services," better known as birth control, was one of many topics debated at the 2002 U.N. General Assembly Special Session for Children. (May 8, 2002)
Newshour: House Passes Sweeping Reform Bill
The House of Representatives Thursday approved a GOP-backed welfare package that forces recipients to work part of each week, provides $300 million for programs designed to promote marriage and offers $50 million for "abstinence only" sex education. (May 16, 2002)
To the Contrary: Teen Pregnancy
This May, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that, from 1991 to 1996, the teen birth rate in the United States declined substantially. The decline took place for girls ages 15 to 19 in all racial and ethnic groups. But despite improvements, the US continues to have a teen pregnancy rate more than twice as high as that of any other developed country. (2002)
American Experience: Kinsey
Alfred Kinsey was a little-known biologist at Indiana University when, in the 1940s, he began compiling exhaustive data from tens of thousands of interviews about the sexual practices of men and women. The results of that research were the explosive, best-selling Kinsey Reports. (2005)
NPR Stories
The Connection: Straight Talk About Abstinence
One of the most interesting stories in the debate over sex education came from a classroom writing assignment. Mission, Texas has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the country — and so a group of girls chose to write about that. Their script became an award-winning short film called "Toothpaste." Hear from the writers. (June 17, 2005)
NPR: Special Report: Sex Education in America
A new poll by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government finds the vast majority of Americans agree that sex education should be taught in schools. (February 24, 2004)
NPR: Sex Education in Maine: Preventing Disease
A new NPR/Kaiser/Kennedy School poll on sex education shows that while more than 90% of Americans approve of sex education in schools, they don't all agree on how it should be taught. In the first of a two-part series, NPR's Joseph Shapiro takes us to a comprehensive abstinence lecture at a school in Maine, and talks with students about their impressions of it. (January 29, 2004)
WBUR: Inside Out: With This Ring, Pledging Abstinence
A kind of anti-sexual revolution is growing in the U.S. Teens across the country are pledging to be abstinent until marriage. Whether it's working depends on who you ask, and how you define success. Inside Out tracks the latest tactical maneuver in the war against the teen libido. (January 30, 2005)
NPR: Morning Edition: Texas Textbook Adoption Sparks Clash over Abstinence
The Texas Board of Education is likely to approve four textbooks on health that teach abstinence from sex without mentioning the benefits of condoms and other contraceptives. Texas buys so many textbooks, the state's version often becomes the national norm. Hear NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty. (November 1, 2004)
NPR: All Things Considered: Flaws Seen in US Sex Ed Programs
A recent congressional survey identified flaws in the federally funded abstinence-only education programs. The report criticized many of the programs for teaching misleading and inaccurate information about sex. California Rep. Henry Waxman called for the report and has long argued for more comprehensive sex education programs. NPR's Libby Lewis reports. (December 5, 2004)
WBUR: The Connection: Faith in Abstinence
For health officials in Louisiana, the best advice about sex is forget about condoms for promiscuous teens. The answer in the Bayou is abstinence only. Instead of pushing safe sex, state health officials use federal tax dollars to push their "just say no" approach to sex ed, and until recently they even funded programs that said yes to God, yes to anti-abortion prayer vigils, yes to religious skits in public schools, and yes to bibles for would-be sinners. (July 30, 2002)
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