[Sex education. An experience in elementary and middle schools]

Two nurses at a Primary Health Care Center started up a "Sexual Education Project" in schools in an urban Basic Health Zone. Over the course of the five years this project has been in operation, classes in Sexual Education have been taught in two Middle Schools and six Elementary Schools. During this time, some 4500 questions and doubts have been received and processed. The teaching staffs have shown tremendous interest in this project; furthermore, no school placed any impediments for the development of this program. The types of questions asked did not vary substantially according to the different ages of students taught. The program instructors became aware of the need to provide sexual education information to adults beyond school age. The program directors discovered that it was necessary to establish coordination among the schools and health centers as well as to enlarge this kind of program to other areas of the general public. This experience demonstrated that teaching activities employing nursing personnel as educators in sexuality provides very satisfactory results.