ABSTRACT
Back in the “good old days” when everybody thought that sex education was a good idea, no one gave much thought to what, exactly, sex education programs ought to accomplish. The field of sex education was a “child,” and programs were allowed to experiment, to learn, to grow. The field now appears to be emerging from a rather turbulent adolescence: a complicated and emotional period filled with idealism and one that was severely misunderstood (and criticized) by a sober public. Now sex education is almost grown up, and like grown-ups everywhere, it is expected to support itself.
