The Dutch have developed a sex-education system that seems to work

A better way for sex education

In sex education, as in so many things in life, there's a right way and a wrong way. In Canada, we're hanging on to the wrong way for dear life. As a result, the Canadian teenage pregnancy rate is 43 pregnancies per 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19.

There's an even worse way, which the Americans are clinging to and have the stats to prove it: their rate is 93 per 1,000. The Dutch have sensibly chosen a different path. The teen pregnancy rate in Holland is possibly the lowest in the world at eight per 1,000 and most of those pregnancies occur primarily among newly arrived immigrant teens who have not had the benefit of years of sex education.

Sex education briefly captured public attention last week with the news that it ranges from being totally ineffective to actively harmful. In a research review of 26 trials, conducted by a group from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., the group found that the various programs did not delay the initiation of sexual intercourse, improve the use of birth control or reduce pregnancy rates. In some programs, including four abstinence programs, there was an increase in the number of pregnancies among partners of the boys who participated in the programs.

Canadians of all ages are familiar with the wrong way to dispense sex education: slides of fallopian tubes accompanied with a lecture given by a teacher who'd rather be explaining long division, internal-combustion engines or anything except the speed that sperm travels along the fallopian tube. Nowhere in the lecture is there any discussion of relationships, or love, or physical longing. No advice on negotiating what kind of protection to use or how to say no or how to say yes, either.

In Holland, it's a whole different approach. Sex education begins in primary school, where children are taught about reproduction and pregnancy. At the secondary-school level, students are told that sex is fun and exciting and if they want to try it, they should use condoms. Even sex-education material provided by the Dutch Catholic Church emphasizes the positive aspects of sex.

They are also bombarded with messages about the need to act responsibly and to know their feelings and what it is they are looking for in a relationship. Teen magazines come with free condoms. The government publishes on billboards and television a constant stream of public-information ads about responsible behaviour. Dutch teenagers say it is practically impossible not to know about the proper use of contraceptives, the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases and the basics of forming loving sexual relationships.

As a result, Dutch teenagers feel they have much more control over their own reproductive health and sexuality than teens in most other countries. Among Holland's teenagers, 85 per cent use a condom, contraceptive pill or both when they have intercourse for the first time. The next highest rate for use of a contraceptive at the first sexual experience is in France, at 74 per cent. In North America and Britain, it's less than 50 per cent.

In the Netherlands, asked why they had sex the first time, 55 per cent of teenage boys said they were in love. In Britain, only 15 per cent of young men cited love as their reason for having sex the first time. Placing sex within the context of a relationship, as is done in Holland, helps young people conduct their first romances in a spirit of respect and caring.

In North America and Britain, teenage sex is viewed with moral alarm at the least and outrage at worst. Neither attitude is helpful. Teenage parenthood is, granted, difficult for mother, child and the society that must support them. Teenage mothers and their children are more likely to live on welfare, to stay on welfare for a number of years and have low educational achievement.

Teenagers everywhere say they want open and honest discussions about sex and the people they would most like to have these talks with are their own parents. And not just about the physical act, but about their feelings and relationships. They want help with real-life problems, like negotiating respect in the context of a sexual relationship or help in how to voice sexual desires. They don't want to be lectured on the mechanics and then told scary stories to stop them from having sex.

Everyone wants to do the right thing when it comes to sex education, but so many things interfere: embarrassment, fear of pushing teens into sex prematurely, lack of knowledge. Holland's experience shows there's another way, one in which everyone pulls their weight - parents, schools and government. Plus, they're successful at preventing teen pregnancies and we're not. We should give their way a try.

Janet Bagnall is a Montreal Gazette  editorial writer
Thursday, June 20, 2002