In chapters 1-3, several examples of “comprehensive” sex education were discussed. If you’re a parent as we are, you may find yourself at this point with a complex mix of emotions, a feeling of being disturbed that this kind of education is being given to our children, perhaps feelings of confusion or anger, a feeling that you have been betrayed by institutions you entrusted your children to. If you have been knowledgeable about these kinds of misguided education for many years, you may also have a sense of weariness and wonder “What can I possibly do about it?”

What if we told you that the examples cited so far are just the tip of the iceberg? There are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of programs and curricula with the same misinformation, the same one-dimensional, flat, deadened approach to human sexuality being given to students in three quarters of American high schools.

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Chapter 4

Believe it or not, to understand where one-dimensional “safer sex” education originated, we have to travel back more than a century to the busy, cramped streets of Hoboken, NJ, to the home of a boy named Alfred Kinsey. According to Kinsey: A Life, widely regarded as the most authoritative biography of Kinsey, Alfred’s father is a “hard” man who imposes his will on his wife and his children, of whom Alfred is the oldest, as well as his students at Stevens Institute where he is in charge of the engineering shop class. Every week, Alfred attends a Methodist church with his family, where they hear fiery sermons about a jealous and vengeful God, a God who knows your every thought and action and punishes those who break his Commandments. Life is presented as an unending struggle between Good and Evil, between personal temptations and what God demands from you. There may have been words about God’s love and forgiveness, but if there were, it seems that Alfred never heard them.

As a child, Alfred suffered from a series of illnesses, some life-threatening, that required that he stay in bed for long periods. Doctors feared that his infection with rheumatic fever had damaged his heart and insisted that he stay in bed for many months, since the fever kept recurring. Nor was he allowed to resume the normal activities of childhood when the disease passed. Fearful that he had a serious heart condition, he was treated like an invalid and not permitted to run and play with the other children. He spent hours practicing the piano, becoming quite proficient. 

Outwardly Alfred was a compliant child, who followed his parents’ directions and was a pious member of his church, but inside he harbored a bitter resentment against his father’s harsh commands and disappointment with his mother’s silence and compliance. He could rely on no one but himself.