“Kids Know What They Are Doing”: Peer-Led Sex Education in New York City

Abstract

The reasons for peer education's ascendance as a core pedagogy in sex education are as much historical as they are reasonable or ethical. This article traces the history of peer-led sex education from the 1970s to the 1990s against the backdrop of New York City's financial ruin, social unrest, and a public health crisis. Starting with an analysis of the Student Coalition for Relevant Sex Education's Peer Information Project, founded in 1974, it investigates the application of new pedagogical techniques, the interplay between pedagogy and bureaucracy, and the transformation of school culture. Peer education thrived when educators and activists agreed that young people were more likely to accept advice from other young people, a reasonable contention that was nonetheless underassessed. Yet peer education's least intriguing attribute proved to be its most important characteristic: it could be quickly and inexpensively enacted. When HIV/AIDS began to decimate New York City's adolescent population, and the Board of Education proved slow and contradictory in its actions, the city turned to peer education, henceforth coupling the concepts of sex education and peer education.

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“…They established an affinity group called Youth Education Lifeline (YELL) to develop sexual education programs to “save lives” (Elbaz 1997 , p. 12). In 1989, there was a lack of compressive sexual education and prevention programs that would go beyond abstinence-based teaching in NYC public schools (Andersen 2019 ), even though there was evidence that high school students were sexually active, and that using condoms was highly effective in preventing transmission of HIV (Solomon and DeJong 1989 ).…”

“…Outreach extended to distributing condoms and creating and passing out pamphlets with information about transmission and prevention of HIV (Anderson 2019 ). YELL’s postmodern approach was effective and popular among teachers and students.…”

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“…mit den Akteuren der Jugendbewegung nach 1900 aber auch den 1960 und 1980er Initiativen geschehen war (vgl.Strange u. a. 2002;Andersen, 2019), ist bemerkenswert. In anderen Beiträgen und Beitragsformaten relativiert sich diese Neutralitätssetzung der sich zeigenden Einflussnahme natürlich etwas, kommen doch wiederholt Mitarbeiter:innen des Kanals in den Blick, die als herausgehobene Peer-Expert:innen dieses Wissen verwalten und durch ihre persönliche Sichtbarkeit verantworten.…”