Social-Hygiene Education: Report on a Social-Hygiene Program Given at Teachers College in the Summer Session of 1920
Item
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Title
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Social-Hygiene Education: Report on a Social-Hygiene Program Given at Teachers College in the Summer Session of 1920
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Creator
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Teachers College Bulletin
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Description
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In the summer of 1920, the subject of sexual hygiene was first being introduced in New York schools. To address educators' needs, the Teachers College of Columbia University in New York City invited high school and college educators, social workers, and public health nurses to attend a program of courses, conferences, and exhibits in how to teach social hygiene. The program was created in collaboration with wider federal agencies and expert organizations, including the United States Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board, the United States Bureau of Education, the United States Public Health Service, and the American Social Hygiene Association.
The guiding principle of the program was the belief that social hygiene education in schools and colleges should not be taught exclusively by a single specialist or in a designated course. Rather, sexual health should be folded into regular school subjects, specifically biology, general hygiene, nursing, physical education, sociology, ethics, literature, and homemaking. To support this interdepartmental vision of hygiene instruction, the program instructed educators in how to incorporate the teaching of sexual hygiene in their regular courses and to prepare educators in how to delicately teach this information to young people.
Following the conference, this Report was created and disseminated to educators across the state of New York by the Teachers College. It outlines why social hygiene should be taught in schools, who should teach it, and exactly what kind of information should be included in its instruction to young people. The Report sheds light on educators' ongoing feelings of unease at being ill-equipped to inform their students about topics related to sex.
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Publisher
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Teachers College, Columbia University
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Date
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February 26, 1921
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Source
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University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Digital Library
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Rights
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This item was published in the United States more than 95 years ago and is therefore in the public domain.
