To the Editor:

I was very interested to read both Anne Levin’s piece (“Five Year Strategic Plan Outlined at Sexuality Education Fundraiser,” p. 7, Oct. 17) and the co-authored reply proposing a public debate on sex education (“Supporters of Abstinence Education Dispute Claims in Recent Article. Ask For Public Debate,” Mailbox, Oct. 24). While a student at Princeton University several years ago, my classmates and I founded a student group that aimed to enrich the University’s sexual health programming by providing additional resources on building healthy relationships and on the benefits of sexual abstinence. The students we represented and served came from a variety of educational, ethnic, socio-economic, and religious backgrounds, and some did not practice any faith at all. But all shared the same frustration. The sex education they had received prior to college and continued to receive while at Princeton was failing them. My peers found that they struggled to understand the role of sex within the greater context of human intimacy, and that their education – and the habits and attitudes that spawned from it — left them ill-equipped when pursuing more significant romantic relationships.

From my undergraduate and professional experience, I know the importance of educating young men and women to be confident in and responsible with their sexuality. And I have seen the effect their sexual education can have on their ability to relate to others in a meaningful and deeply personal way. I enthusiastically support the proposal for a public debate on sex education, because it is essential that we — as parents and as a community — honestly evaluate our programs and how it prepares our youth to be confident men and women who are able to develop successful and stable relationships down the road.

Cassandra Hough

Loetscher Place