Sex Education Benefits Denied

The results of a survey of ents' effectiveness in impartmg Ann Arbor clergymen refute religious and moral attitudes the rationale for the family about sex to their children is ing and sex education program reduced by having their chilin the Ann Arbor Public dren particípate in detailed disSchools, a spokesman for cussions about sex in the class-, zens Organized For Decency in room. Education (CODE), told the Board of Education last night. The questionnaires, distributed in September to all local clergymen and returned by about 30 per cent, indicate that the majority who responded do not believe that the young people in their congregations have been hurt by a lack of knowledge about sex, the group says. The 23-question survey also indicated that 60 per cent of the respondents do not feel that pre-marital pregnancies and the incidence of venereal disease a m o n g young p e o p 1 e would be reduced by an expanded sex education program. Presently, the family living and sex education program is taught in grades K, 1, and 5 of all Ann Arbor public elementary schools. It is expected to be expanded to grades 2 and 6 next year. Some 65 per cent of thej clergy said the viewing by elementary school boys and girls in each other's presence of visual aids depicting sexual organs is an "invasión of the child's privacy." Some 60 per cent of the clergy also feit the prime responsibility for sex educatkm belongs to the parents. But 65 per cent of the respondents said they do not believe that par „ , - __. - - - ■■ ■ ' L_ A total of 85 per cent of the clergy said classroom teachers should not be required against their wishes to teach sex education. The majority also felt that divorced teachers and those with "marital or psychological" problems should not be chosen to teach sex education nor those who "openly advocate pre-marital intercourse."