I know. It seems like the last day of school was just last week. But as I write this email, the end of July is hurtling quickly toward me and, my god, soon I’ll be packing lunches again and ferrying my daughter from school to soccer practice to Girl Scout meetings.
How can it already be that time??
Not that I’m complaining. I’ve had just about enough of this:
Anyway. With August and September come other changes, too. I almost forgot, having been smothered into complacency by the July heat, but this fall marks the deadline for implementation of the new health education guidelines in New Jersey. Which means that, at about this time, faculty in my district should be making headway on their revisions of the health education curriculum.
And I should really review that updated curriculum.
After all, if I don’t know how they’ve decided to implement the guidelines, how will I know whether or not I have to raise hell?
Let me rewind.
Back in early 2020, new health education guidelines were adopted in NJ. These guidelines are intended to help administrators ensure that the curricula they use is inclusive and comprehensive. In some cases, this may mean adopting new curricula. In other cases, it may mean updating already-existing curricula.
Typically, an update like this would cause a serious uproar among conservatives.
But then COVID happened and everyone got distracted.
Now that we’re all pretending the pandemic is over, though, conservative groups have turned their attention back to sex ed. And, well, let’s just say that folks are displeased.
I have two articles coming out next month on the opposition to these guidelines, and on the tactics being used by a regressive minority to shut this shit down, and I’ll share those in my next newsletter. But for the moment, I’ll just say that the opposition has been loud, and local administrators and BOEs are getting cagey.
When I attended the New Jersey State Board of Education meeting at the beginning of the summer, having submitted a statement in support of the new guidelines, board members felt called to announce that the guidelines would not be revoked (hallelujah).
But local districts are nevertheless finding creative ways to skirt the guidelines.
And when I attended my first district curriculum committee meeting, the curriculum director acknowledged the controversy that surrounded the health education updates… and then assured meeting attendees that, "Anything we deem controversial, we won't put in there."
Which was obviously not what I wanted to hear. Because, lately, it feels like everything is controversial.
Here at Guerrilla Sex Ed, I typically focus on how parents can take the lead on their kids’ sexuality education. I do, after all, believe that we are the most important educators in our kids’ lives.
But I also believe that what our kids learn at home should be reinforced, as much as possible, at school.
Also, as hard as I dream it, I know that not all parents are having these conversations at home. But all kids deserve to have this aspect of their humanity acknowledged and nurtured.
I’ve only just begun getting involved and, at the very least, informed, about what’s going down in my own school district. You should consider doing the same.
What might this look like?
Educate yourself about what’s going on in your district. Districts are tyipcally required to make their curricula available to the public for review.
Attend Board of Education meetings, whether to observe or to speak up about what you believe in.
Send letters to the superintendent of your district in support of inclusive and comprehensive health education.
Send letters to the editor of your local paper.
If both of the aforementioned bullet points sounds intimidating, you could even share your opinion via a Facebook post!
Also (and perhaps most important of all), talk to your kids about what they’re learning in school, and engage in thoughtful discussion about those lessons.
This is a reiteration of some of the information on the advocacy page of Guerrilla Sex Ed. For more detailed action steps, check out this Community Action Toolkit from SIECUS and this quickstart guide to speaking up from Educate US. Advocates for Youth also has a fantastic blueprint for coalition-building within your community.
I’ve already spoken to my local curriculum director and health education supervisor about how I don’t want opposition from a very vocal minority to affect my child’s education. I’ve sent the letters and I’ve written the op-eds.
But I know I have to keep speaking up. We all do.
They’re waiting for us to run out of steam, folks.
We can’t give them the satisfaction.
Full Disclosure: Sex Ed in the News
Here’s how the Roe v. Wade decision will likely have an impact on sex ed.
And here’s another piece on why sex ed is even more vital now than ever before.
If you’re interested in the research behind all this, here’s a recent paper on the case for comprehensive sex education.
SIECUS has also released their latest sex ed state law and policy chart so you can see at a glance how your state’s doing. In the meantime, I’m hard at work updating all of my state legislation pages and will make an announcement when they’re complete.
My Favorite New Sex Ed Resource
I'm still in the middle of reading one, but I love and trust the work Cory does, and I am loving their framing of everything from sex to joy to justice.
In a bright graphic format featuring four dynamic middle schoolers, You Know, Sex by Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth grounds sex education in social justice, covering not only the big three of puberty—hormones, reproduction, and development—but also power, pleasure, and how to be a decent human being.
Centering young people’s experiences of pressures and joy, risk and reward, and confusion and discovery, there are chapters on body autonomy, disclosure, stigma, harassment, pornography, trauma, masturbation, consent, boundaries and safety in our media-saturated world, puberty and reproduction that includes trans, non-binary, and intersex bodies and experience, and more.
Racially and ethnically diverse, inclusive of cross-disability experience, this is a book for every kind of young person and every kind of family.
This is so timely! Thank you for all the resources and insights. I'm already mentally listing all my reasons why "I don't care what the founding fathers wanted"!