Sex Education

The NYPR Archive Collections | Jan 1, 2000

This program is the second part of a previously broadcast program on sex education (150177). The program begins with a 12-year-old male student, who discusses his recently developed interest in girls.

Ben Park tells that this program will pick up later in young people's sexual development.

Don Herbert interviews a young woman, 18-19 years old, who is undergoing a divorce. She has little interest in sex. Since her separation from her husband she has had very little sex and has had no interest in it. She discusses being assaulted.

Park returns to tell us that she was one of the worst off. It is revealed that she has contracted syphilis.

Herbert continues his interview with the young woman. They discuss her lack of sex education in schools. What she knew of sex she knew mainly from other girls at school. They discuss her daughter and what she might tell her daughter about sex.

Commercial break.

Ben Park returns to talk about parental concern about their children's sexual development. They speak to a doctor, who discusses the interaction between parents and their children and its influence on the children's sexual development. Adolescents turn from their parents, seeking advise from their peers. Children want to be independent and to be cared for - this frustrates all involved.

Don Herbert interviews a high school girl, who argues that parents ought not to wait to discuss sex with their children. Adolescents might get odd ideas otherwise, from learning from other adolescents. She discusses her own sexual development and the boundaries she has developed. She discusses sexual mores among adolescents in the United States and worldwide.

Park argues that child guidance experts and religious leaders agree that sex education is one of the primary means through which character may be built among young people. They are their "pattern forming" years. Parents can only make use of that opportunity if they have gained their children's trust from the time of birth on.

Park previews the next week's program about dental problems.


Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection


WNYC archives id: 150115
Municipal archives id: LT1963

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