Because I am dealing with post-COVID exhaustion, and am almost constantly in the midst of hacking up a lung, in lieu of my usual letter, I wanted to share an excerpt from one of the two pieces I recently wrote for Rewire News Group. Echoing some of what I wrote last month, it is a plea to schools to do right by our kids, and includes a rundown of what good, quality sex education can actually accomplish.
Without further ado…
This past summer, as students were released into the hot, hot heat of summer, into weeks at art and soccer camp, into weekends down the shore, school districts began a mad scramble. You see, back in 2020, New Jersey (my home state) had adopted updated Student Learning Standards for Comprehensive Health and Physical Education. This fall, those new standards are due for implementation.
Here’s the thing. Shortly after those updated standards were adopted, we all got distracted by a worldwide pandemic.
You know the one.
The pandemic led to school closures and hybrid schedules and remote learning and an uproar over whether or not mask mandates for teachers and students should exist.
It was a lot.
So, districts could perhaps be forgiven for waiting until the last moment to update their health education curricula in order to align with the updated standards.
But now they’re rushing things in order to meet a fast-approaching deadline and, as attention has shifted back toward inclusiveness in education, sex ed opponents have shown themselves to be highly displeased.
To read the rest of this piece, head over to Rewire News Group, where you’ll also find another piece that went up last week on how conservatives are inciting fear around education. I also wrote a post for Book Riot on the banned sex ed books that are required reading in my home. Man, I’ve been productive for someone whose August was particularly cruddy.
Full Disclosure: Sex Ed in the News
This piece by Sam Ames of The Trevor Project is about how LGBTQ+-inclusive education saves lives.
In Washington state, a sex shop that provides education to youth has been targeted by vandalism.
I love this Instagram reel of gender-neutral compliments put together by educator Sarah Kate Smigiel.
On a less delightful note, a Texas school board has banned use of the word “transgender” in their district.
The children truly are our future. Where schools have failed to provide adequate sex education, teens are stepping up.
My Favorite New Sex Ed Resources
Typically, I would share just one resource here but, since my opening letter is lighter than usual, I want to give you more bang for your buck:
Back in late 2021, a group of folks at the Center for RISC at the University of Chicago, a social science nonprofit research center, approached me to get my input on the state of sex ed… and what might be done to improve it. Then, just the other week, I received word that they’d created the Sex Index, a series of quizzes about sex and relationships for high schoolers and college students intended to provide relevant sexual health information in a fun and engaging way. Share it with your not-so-young one.
Megara Bell of Partners in Sex Education recently gave a presentation to members of the Sex Education Alliance on the push-back against sex education in schools and what we can do to combat it. Megara made so many good points, which make me think they’re overdue for a Sex Educator Spotlight interview. But until then, here's one of the resources Megara shared: messaging guides from ASO Communications on everything from education to gender justice to health and more.
And finally, Red Wine and Blue first came on my radar a month or so ago. They’re a group of suburban women organizing for the greater good in their communities and beyond, and they have a bunch of fantastic initiatives going on. But what feels especially relevant these days is their Book Ban Busters page, on which you can search for reported book bans near you, file your own report, host a reading, donate books, and more. This is good stuff.