![]() Public schools repurposed adult-themed informational materials originally intended for soldiers during World War I, driving home the message that one’s choice of mate carries societal repercussions. Along with physical traits, many believed that personal qualities were also hereditary, including monogamy, lying, criminality, poverty and intelligence - or, in the parlance of the day, “feeblemindedness.” The understanding of heredity in those days was primitive in comparison to today DNA’s double-helix structure wasn’t discovered, after all, until the 1950s. Rather, the first few decades of sex education focused on biological reproduction, cell division and heredity, shying away from any mention of human sexual intercourse. The controversial topics we typically think of when it comes to sex education - menstruation, puberty, dating, marriage, parenthood, abstinence - weren’t added until World War II, prompted by rising divorce and juvenile delinquency rates during the Great Depression. More people began to view sex as a public health concern, and public schools as the place to address it. At the turn of the 20th century, the situation changed, Haager said. In the 19th century, sex education was instilled by parents in the home and was of a religious and moral nature, focused on marriage and monogamy. While previous scholarship considered the overt role of eugenics in incarceration and forced sterilization, Haager’s research explores how the ideology influenced less legally focused venues, such as sex education in public schools. I had worked with pregnant teens in public schools before, so I wanted to know more about the history of public school sex education,” she said. “I was interested in sex education from my own background. Her project - “Teaching Responsible Reproduction: Eugenics and Sex Education in the United States from the Progressive Era through World War II” - was the only one in the humanities selected for the honor. ![]() ![]() ![]() Haager was a finalist for the 2022 SUNY Chancellor’s Distinguished Dissertation Award. ![]()
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