The Sexes: Vive I'Amour

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In the French town of Belfort (pop. 65,000), Philosophy Teacher Nicole Mercier, 28, was asked by her high school students to discuss a widely circulated pamphlet entitled Apprenons à Faire l'Amour (Let's Learn to Make Love), which recommends that teenagers engage in sexual intercourse of all varieties. When she agreed, one pupil told her father, an army colonel, who cried out: "This is not sex education! This is an invitation to debauchery!"

Within 24 hours, authorities arraigned Mme. Mercier for an "outrage" against public morals, a crime for which she faced up to two years in prison and $3,600 in fines. Mme. Mercier's fellow teachers struck Belfort's three schools for several days in protest, and there was even talk of a nationwide strike.

Last week all charges against Mme. Mercier were thrown out of court, and the Ministry of Education announced a compromise. Starting next fall, for the first time, students will receive "information on reproduction" as part of their regular high school biology classes. To learn more than that about lovemaking, they may enroll in special after-school classes to be run by physicians and representatives of birth-control organizations.