It is with great interest that I am reading about the Sex Week at Penn.
At one time, there were courses in human sexuality at Penn. My course, “Concepts in Human Sexuality,” at the Graduate School of Education regularly attracted undergraduates and graduate students each semester and we had to put a cap of 100 on the course during the school year. I had graduate students in the graduate programs in Human Sexuality Education assisting particularly for smaller group discussion of the material and attention to the academic work.
Alas, all good things come to an end, as did the course in 2000, in part because of the politics at Penn at the time. One of the death nails for the course was a criticism that Penn students do not need to be taught anything about sex. I am sure that my syllabi were carefully scrutinized and, to the chagrin of naysayers, they usually revealed at least two academic scholarly papers and a final examination, in addition to other assignments. Yet there was criticism that we gave too many good grades and that this was “an easy A.” This too was my fault, as I allowed students to work with my graduate assistants to revise work for a better grade in the hope that they would learn more.
Subsequently, I have taught human sexuality courses elsewhere. I try to honor any request to teach courses like “Concepts in Human Sexuality” because I am an educator and it is exciting that students learn so much. They learn the subject matter. In addition, there is a focus on how the material applies to what might be their professional work (I have worked with a wide range of professional students — those in law, health care, psychological and social services, educators, etc.) and as a bonus, how the material applies to their own lives.
I have a theory that the students I have taught have changed in their openness to seeing new perspectives. I help them learn to identify and affirm their own values and to acknowledge and appreciate that others may have different values. I see a decrease in dogmatic thinking and increase in tolerance. These, for me, are the sine non qua of education, scientific inquiry … and life.
Andrew E. Behrendt earned his Ph.D. from the School of Arts and Sciences in 1989 and was a lecturer at Penn.
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