Using Science to Argue for Sexual Education in U.S. Public Schools

Abstract

During the Progressive Era, Dr. Ella Flagg Young instituted the first sexual education program in U.S. public schools. She garnered support for her “Chicago Experiment” by integrating scientific appeals about sexual education into popular discourses on modern research methods, education, and physical health. Although Young lived in an era when respect for science was at an all-time high, she created arguments for public sexual education that balanced scientific information about sex with audiences' ideological/moral concerns. This rhetorical history builds from critical rhetorical theory to offer implications for contemporary health advocates attempting to steer sexual education policy in new directions.