Abstract
It is morning at the St. Jan de Groper elementary school, in the Dutch city of Utrecht. Students in all grades are participating in “Spring Fever” week, dedicated to a focused education on sexuality. Lesson plans differ by grade. Eleven-year-olds address sexual orientation and contraception. Eight-year-olds talk about self-image and gender stereotypes. Kindergarteners, some as young as four years old, discuss crushes. Small giggling children raise their hands and talk about how it feels when they hug someone they like. Some talk about embracing their parents or a sibling, while a few mention other students in the class. One boy says a good hug is like “feeling butterflies in my stomach.”
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Notes
- 1.
Saskia de Melker, “The Case for Starting Sex Education in Kindergarten,” PBS Newshour, May 27, 2015, www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/spring-fever/.
- 2.
Future of Sex Education, “Definition of Comprehensive Sex Education,” www.futureofsexed.org/definition.html; United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education, Vol. 1 (New York: 2009), 2. Box 15-1 from United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), UNFPA Operational Guidance for Comprehensive Sexuality Education: A Focus on Human Rights and Gender (New York: 2014), 6.
- 3.
Anastasia Moloney, “Incest, Lack of Sex Education Drive Teen Pregnancies in El Salvador,” Reuters, May 2, 2016; International Planned Parenthood Federation, Western Hemisphere Region, “Five Sex Education Successes in Latin America,” April 1, 2014, www.ippfwhr.org/en/blog/five-sex-education-successes-in-latin-america.
- 4.
World Health Organization, “Sexual and Reproductive Health: Defining Sexual Health,” www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/sexual_health/sh_definitions/en/.
- 5.
Sonia Perilla and José Alberto Mojica, “‘Decir Ideología de Género Es Tergiversación,’ Dice Naciones Unidas,” El Tiempo, August 24, 2016; “La Encrucijada de la Ministra Gina Parody,” Semana, August 13, 2016; Wolfgang Lutz, Director, World Population Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, “Population, Education and the Sustainable Development Goals,” presented at 2016 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, DC, February 11–15, 2016; Mary A. Ott and John S. Santelli, “Abstinence and Abstinence-only Education,” Current Opinion in Obstetrics & Gynecology 19, no. 5 (October 2007): 446–52.
- 6.
United Nations Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform, “Goal 4, Target 4.7,” https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg4; Restless Development, “Have You Seen My Rights?” December 21, 2015, restlessdevelopment.org/news/2015/12/21/spotlight-on-have-you-seen-my-rights.
- 7.
Population data calculated from United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision, DVD Edition, Excel workbooks “WPP2015_POP_F01_1_TOTAL_POPULATION_BOTH_SEXES” and “WPP2015_POP_F07_1_POPULATION_BY_AGE_BOTH_SEXES,” available at https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp.
- 8.
Gilda Sedgh et al., “Intended and Unintended Pregnancies Worldwide in 2012 and Recent Trends,” Studies in Family Planning 45, no. 3 (September 2014): 301–14; Paul A. Murtaugh and Michael G. Schlax, “Reproduction and the Carbon Legacies of Individuals,” Global Environmental Change 19, no. 1 (February 2009): 14–20.
- 9.
Richard Kollodge, ed., The Power of 1.8 Billion: Adolescents, Youth and the Transformation of the Future (New York: United Nations, 2014).
- 10.
Rutgers WPF, “Sexuality Education for Young Children,” 2015, www.rutgerswpfindo.org/en/module/sexuality-education-for-young-children; UNFPA, The Evaluation of Comprehensive Sexuality Education Programmes:A Focus on the Gender and Empowerment Outcomes (New York: 2015), 34–35.
- 11.
UNFPA, UNFPA Operational Guidance for Comprehensive Sexuality Education, 6; Lesley R. Craft, Heather M. Brandt, and Mary Prince, “Sustaining Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs in Schools: Needs and Barriers Identified by School Leaders,” Journal of School Health 86, no. 4 (April 2016): 258–65.
- 12.
UNESCO, Education 2030: Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action: Towards Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education and Lifelong Learning for All (Paris: 2015).
- 13.
Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA), Standards for Sexuality Education in Europe: A Framework for Policy Makers, Educational and Health Authorities and Specialists (Cologne, Germany: 2010).
- 14.
UNFPA, UNFPA Operational Guidance for Comprehensive Sexuality Education; Nicole Haberland, “The Case for Addressing Gender and Power in Sexuality and HIV Education: A Comprehensive Review of Evaluation Studies,” International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 41, no. 1 (2015): 31–42; UNFPA, unpublished report of a conference on CSE advocacy, 2016.
- 15.
Individual studies are cited in UNESCO, International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education, 15, 17; Deborah Rogow and Nicole Haberland, “Sexuality and Relationships Education: Toward a Social Studies Approach,” Sex Education 5, no. 4 (November 2005): 333–44.
- 16.
UNESCO, Emerging Evidence, Lessons and Practice in Comprehensive Sexual Education: A Global Review (Paris: 2015), 38.
- 17.
Ministerial Declaration: Preventing Through Education, first meeting of Ministers of Health and Education to Stop HIV and STIs in Latin America and the Caribbean (Mexico City: 1 August 2008); Maria Antonieta Alcalde, presentation on comparative progress in the implementation of Preventing Through Education, 2008–2015, in UNFPA, unpublished report of a conference on CSE advocacy.
- 18.
United Nations, Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development (Montevideo, Uruguay: August 12–15, 2013).
- 19.
UNESCO, Young People Today. Time to Act Now. (Paris: 2013).
- 20.
UNFPA, “Y-PEER: Empowering Young People to Empower Each Other,” May 26, 2006, www.unfpa.org/news/y-peer-empowering-young-people-empower-each-other.
- 21.
Authors’ calculation based on United Nations, World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision, Excel workbook “WPP2015_POP_F07_1_POPULATION_BY_AGE_BOTH_SEXES”; UNESCO, Sexuality Education in Asia and the Pacific: Review of Policies and Strategies to Scale Up (Bangkok: 2012); Jo Sauvarin, UNFPA Bangkok office, personal communication with Mona Kaidbey; Abby Young-Powell, “Six of the Best Sex Education Programmes Around the World, The Guardian (U.K.), May 20, 2016.
- 22.
UNESCO, School-based Sexuality Education Programmes: A Cost and Cost-effectiveness Study in Six Countries (Paris: 2011); Evert Ketting, on behalf of the European Expert Group on Sexuality Education, “Impact Assessment of Holistic Sexuality Education Programme in Estonia,” in UNFPA, The Evaluation of Comprehensive Sexuality Education Programs (New York: 2015); Kai Haldre, Kai Part, and Evert Ketting, “Youth Sexual Health Improvement in Estonia, 1990–2009: The Role of Sexuality Education and Youth-friendly Services,” European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care 17, no. 5 (2012): 351–62.
- 23.
Evert Ketting, Minou Friele, and Kristien Micheilsen, “Evaluation of Holistic Sexuality Education: A European Expert Group Consensus Agreement,” European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care 21, no. 1 (2016): 68–80.
- 24.
Advocates for Youth, Adolescent Sexual Health in Europe and the United States (undated), www.advocatesforyouth.org/storage/advfy/documents/adolescent_sexual_health_in_europe_and_the_united_states.pdf; World Bank, “Adolescent Fertility Rate (Births per 1,000 Women 15–29),” data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.ADO.TFRT.
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Kaidbey, M., Engelman, R. (2017). Our Bodies, Our Future: Expanding Comprehensive Sexuality Education. In: EarthEd. State of the World. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-843-5_15
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