| Abstract: | A survey was conducted among 102 prospective elementary school teachers enrolled in a required school health education course in a southeastern university in the United States in an effort to determine how these teachers view the need for and their roles in providing human sexuality education. The final sample included 90 females and 6 males. 96.9% of the sample perceived their own knowledge of human sexuality as being adequate or better, but over 1/2 felt that they were not adequately prepared to deal with the subject in the classroom. 70% indicated they would teach sex education only if they were required to do so. These prospective teachers seemed to feel most uncomfortable about the possibility of having to cope with parents who might object to human sexuality education in the schools. They also expressed fear of having to deal with questions their students asked which would be embarrassing. They were equally concerned about not knowing the factual answer to a question a student asked. 50% of the respondents consider the primary purpose of sex education in the schools to be increasing knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the reproductive system and enabling students to have their questions about sex answered in an objective and factual manner. |
