Collective Summary

In the article "Chilren Having Children" by Jessica Fields The main purpose to examine the links between abstinence-only sexual education and stereotypes of race, gender, and sexuality. She did so through examining school board meetings about the topic of sexual education within a heavily African-American dominated school system. The debate surrounds the idea of childhood innocence that children only know what they are taught. However, Fields' also brings up the 20-60-20 principle which is the notion that 20 percent of children in the class room are at high risk anyways (essentially, a lost cause), 20 percent are the high achievers who retain and apply what they learn at home and in church, and the other 60 percent are highly influenced by what they hear in the classroom and from their peers. This is also linked to race because Fields says that the 20 percent of children at high risk are partially compromised of the stereotype of hypersexualized African American girls. To combat the use of stereotypes when talking about children and sexuality the phrase "children having children" was developed. This phrase is sex, gender, and sexuality free, meaning that one cannot determine the type of child who is pregnant or who has children from the phrase; this is how they prevent stereotypes from influencing one's point of view.
Overall, the online diablog project was a creative way to communicate with our peers. We all contributed equally to the conversation and had accurate, but slightly different views and ways of connecting to the Fields article. Leading the class discussion and hearing the different ways that students had experienced sex education was interesting and although we didn't have a lot of time for our class discussion, it in general, went well.