How they do it in Norway

Although the primary focus of this blog is sex education in the United States, examining the practices of other countries can be helpful to further understand the strengths and weaknesses of our own system.  To do this, I examined the sex education practices of Norway.

In Norway, there is a national sex education curriculum from ages 6-16 (Svendsen, 2012).  In contrast, sex education is legally mandated in 23 U.S. states and D.C.  33 states mandate teaching about HIV/AIDS, but only 13 require that information to be medically accurate (Guttmacher Institute, 2014).  Essentially, this means that U.S. students have a 13 in 50 chance of receiving an education that includes medically accurate information on sexual health and HIV/AIDS.

The Real Education for Healthy Youth Act of 2013, was introduced to the U.S. Senate in February, 2013.  The bill proposed providing grant money for the incorporation whole or portions of evidence-based sex education curriculum into adolescent education.  The full text of the bill can be found here: https://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/372/text.  Currently, the bill has yet to pass the Senate, but hopefully legislation such as this will lead to the adoption of uniform, accurate sex education across the United States.

In Norway, LGBTQ-related topics are incorporated into each age category at developmentally appropriate levels.  Below is a table adapted from the Svendsen (2012) that outlines the sex education curriculum in Norway.  LGBT-related portions are highlighted. I was struck by how inclusive of LGBT issues the curriculum is.  It appears that LGBT-related issues are introduced at an early age and become more comprehensive as the years progress.

Topics included in the Norwegian sex education curriculum
Age	Students should be able to…
6-9	Talk about the human body from conception to adulthood Talk about tasks in the family, about different family arrangements, including single providers, extended families, families with same sex parents, and families with several sets of parents
10-12	Explain what happens during puberty, and talk about differences in gender identity and variations in sexual orientation Talk about ethics in relation to different family arrangements, the relation between the sexes, differences in gender identity, and the relation between generations Discuss how languages can express and create attitudes towards individuals and groups of people Discuss variations in sexual orientations in relation to love, sexuality and family
13-16	Discuss Problems in relation to sexuality, differences in sexual orientation, contraception, abortion and STIs Discuss the relationship between love and sexuality in light of cultural norms Reflect on ethical questions concerning human relations, family and friends, heterosexuality, youth culture and body culture Discuss how language can be used for purposes of discrimination and harassment

References:

Slater, H. (2013, June 21). LGBT-Inclusive Sex Education Means Healthier Youth and Safer Schools. Retrieved August 2, 2014, from http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/lgbt/news/2013/06/21/67411/lgbt-inclusive-sex-education-means-healthier-youth-and-safer-schools/

State Policies in Brief: Sex and HIV Education. (2014). Guttmacher Institute. Retrieved August 7, 2014, from http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/spib_SE.pdf

Svendsen, S. (2012). Elusive sex acts: Pleasure and politics in Norwegian sex education. Sex Education, 12(4), 397-410. (2012, September 1). Retrieved August 2, 2014.