Baby Boomers often learned about sex from a peer bragging about his or her sexual exploits, real or imagined. Or from a coach who was assigned to teach health class and whose idea of sex education included forcing students to shout aloud, in unison, verboten words for reproductive organs.

The Ozzie and Harriett days of the ‘50s gave way to the sexual revolution of the ‘60s that remains with us today.

Although modern teens and preteens are more sophisticated, some of them still learn about sex from older peers, and that’s not always a bad thing. After years of watching teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases soar, North Idaho school districts, in cooperation with the Panhandle Health District, have hit on an abstinence program that seems to be helping: PEAK (Peers Encouraging Abstinent Kids).

Before you reach for your pen to denounce abstinence-only education, hear us out.

We encourage a comprehensive approach to sex education that promotes abstinence as the only sure-fire way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases but also recognizes that some teens will be sexually active no matter how much they’re warned to be careful. A well-rounded sex-ed curriculum should include teaching on the use of condoms and other safe-sex methods for sexually active teens as well as the consequences and responsibility of sexual activity. Both approaches should be applauded for the role they’ve played in reducing unwanted pregnancies and protecting teens from devastating disease.

PEAK, like student-driven Spokane Peer Abstinence Movement, encourages young teens and pre-teens to choose college, set goals and make healthy choices rather than succumbing to their sex drive. Under the PEAK program, high school students are trained as mentors to teach younger students how to say no to sex. They do so, according to instructor Monica Hillard of Post Falls, through humor and straight talk, skits and games, videos and visual aids, role-playing and question-and-answer sessions.

The older teens connect with the younger ones and pre-teenagers better than an adult would.

“Kids who won’t talk to their parents or teachers talk to us,” PEAK presenter Sarah Carlino told The Spokesman-Review last year. “Because we are closer to their age, we can be more effective, kid to kid.”

Statistics show PEAK has made a significant impact in the lives of North Idaho’s teens and preteens.

The health district has reported a 43 percent decrease in teen pregnancy rates since the program was first offered in North Idaho eight years ago. Now, with the aid of $360,000 from federal Title V funding and state matching funds, schools elsewhere in the state could begin the program as early as next spring. “I’m hoping that will be duplicated in all districts from Bonners Ferry to Arco to Idaho Falls,” Panhandle Health Director Jeanne Bock told this newspaper, “and teen pregnancy rates will continue to fall.”

All of us can share in that hope.