(13 of 14)
In 1981 the Reagan Administration instituted a program to, in its words, "encourage teenagers not to engage in sexual activities" and foster "good communication between parents and child about sexual matters." The plan has won favor with conservative church groups but has been derided by family-planning advocates as an unrealistic "chastity act." Terrance Olson, professor of family sciences at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, is using funds from the new program to develop a conservative sex-education curriculum. Olson's offering stresses abstinence, and, he says, "we try to involve teenagers with their parents in understanding the issues of marriage, family and reproduction." The program has been tested in selected schools in Utah, California and New Mexico since 1982, but, he admits, "we don't have a lot of evidence yet that we've changed behavior."
Changing human behavior is, of course, always an elusive objective. When Researcher Douglas Kirby, head of the Washington-based Center for Population Options, studied the behavioral effects of sex education, he found them to be few and far between. Sex-education graduates certainly knew more about reproduction, but that did not significantly affect their habits. There was, however, one important exception. Kirby found that when sex-education programs are coupled with efforts to help teenagers obtain contraceptives, the pregnancy rate drops sharply.
The model for this type of program was the Mechanic Arts High School in St. Paul, which in 1973 became the first public high school in the U.S. to have its own full-service health clinic in the building. Set up by St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center, it offered everything from immunizations to sport physicals to treatment for venereal disease. Significantly, it also advised teenagers on contraception and dispensed prescriptions for birth control devices (provided that parents had agreed beforehand to allow their children to visit the clinic).
Such clinics now exist at four other St. Paul high schools (Mechanic Arts High has been closed). The results have been dramatic. Between 1977 and 1984, births to female students fell from 59 per thousand to 26 per thousand. Even girls who did become pregnant seemed to benefit from the counseling. At Mechanic Arts High, their dropout rate fell from 45% to 10%, and only 1% had another unwanted pregnancy within two years of the first. The controversial clinic at Chicago's DuSable High School and ones at other schools around the country were modeled after St. Paul's pioneering program.
For all their apparent success, in-school clinics do not necessarily get at the emotional wellsprings of teenage pregnancy: the sense of hopelessness and resignation felt by many underprivileged girls. In Milwaukee, Janice Anderson, a successful black businesswoman, is trying to do something about it. Anderson, 36, was inspired to act last March when she read that her hometown led the country in birthrates among black teenagers. "I sat up in bed at 2 a.m. and wrote down the name of every black professional woman I knew," she recalls. "I came up with a list of 42 names and wrote to each one, asking them to come help their sisters." Anderson's early-hour inspiration evolved into Reach for the Stars, a volunteer program that pairs inner-city adolescents with black role models who are successful achievers.