Abby Dow - Primary Source

For my primary source assignment this week, I closely read the Family Life/Sex Education Guidelines published by the California State Department of Education in 1987. The specific excerpts I posted on the blog (there were 28 pages of the guidelines) come from the section of the guidelines that focus on the criteria of evaluating family life/sex education materials. Specifically, the ones I chose to include deal with how the materials should be judged in terms of their treatment of key issues such as STD prevention (and specifically AIDS), homosexuality, and STDs. This source is very useful for my topic because it shows the way California (a state generally considered to be progressive) dealt with HIV/AIDS in the context of sex education. The “morality” component clearly comes through in the wording of the standards; for example, under the Homosexuality section, the source reads, “Family values and monogamous, heterosexual relationships are affirmed throughout the program.” Additionally, the push for abstinence education clearly comes through. For example, under the STD section, the document states, “There is no safe sex.” This entire source, as well as the specific excerpts I included, are very important for my paper on how the AIDS epidemic (and specifically Surgeon General Everett Koop’s push for education in 1986) affected sex education in the U.S.