The article "Children having Children: Race, Innocence, and Sexual Education" by Jessica Fields discusses the debate of abstinence-only sexual education vs. abstinence-plus sexual education in a low-income, largely African American school in North Carolina. The debate was largely gendered and racist amongst the parents, the term "children having children" was given to all of the low-income "at risk" African American girls in the school. Fields states that this debate "reflects a history of controlling myths about African American women's excessive and corrupted sexuality--a history that dates in the United States to the enslavement of black women and men". One thing I found interesting is the fact that when talking about the children all of the adults, discussed them as being raceless beings. Stating, they both "only wanted the best for the children".
The article discussed teen pregnancy and sexual diseases in the South as a social problem left up to the rest of society to solve. It stated both sides of the argument, and the risks that come with them. Abstinence-only education argued that if school's were to teach the children more than only abstinence, it would encourage a large majority of the students to become sexually active. To support their argument the used the very interesting 20-60-20 statistic. Abstinence-plus education argued that because of the already high pregnancy rates, teaching the children about safe sex would decrease these rates.
The article mainly focused on female sexual education rather than male sexual education, occasionally stating that African American males were considered the "trouble makers" of the classroom. White children were considered to be "innocent virgins", one example of this was seen when a fifth grade white girl stood up in front of the board to only say, "I don't want the school to teach me about condoms". This is only one demonstration of the wide racial divide in this debate.
This article brings up many questions, such as who should decide what type of sexual education is taught in schools, the parents, administrators, or other? Why are children viewed as sexually innocent beings when the age people have sex keeps getting lower? Is sex education in the North greatly different than the South? If so, why?
The questions you raise are very interesting, especially after watching the film in class on Monday. I find it interesting how sex education varies so much in the North and the South. From the film, it seems as though religion is the cause of the way that sex education is taught as abstinence-only. There was also a large emphasis in the film about religion in the home, and that the church should be the place for sex education.
I agree. I never thought much about how different the North and South really are, the film especially brings up some very interesting differences with Religion and even politics with the mention of Christianity being non-tolerant of Liberals. The article and movie both bring in a view of Sex Education that I never really have considered. Do you know if in the North abstinence-only arguments are also driven by religion as much as in the South?
I received a sex-ed program in my church that was based on a more comprehensive curriculum. Granted, it was a very liberal church, but I think regardless of religious view, the church or a denomination steps in when dealing with issues that a public school shouldn't enforce (even though they are), and the home setting is too personal for discussing sex (although I don't think it should be). It picked up what the public school left out.
As for who should decide on what is being taught should depend on the age of the people receiving the education. I think anyone in high school is capable of deciding what they want to learn and the education should depend on them. Middle school and elementary school are more controversial, but also the education maybe shouldn't be as in depth as in a high school health class. This is, or course, just based on my experience though.
How early should a teen or a child learn about sex? A year or two before they start having sex?