24 States require Sexual Education in their public schools. The majority of these 24 are abstinence-only and heterosexual-focused programs. I was quite astonished when I learned how archaic the existing system for Sexual Education is. Why are we using the same curriculum from 100 years ago? Why do we continue to miseducate students who are vulnerable to misinformation? As my partners, Maya and Emma researched this topic more and realized that FVS is not exempt from the lack of proper Sexual Education issues, we decided to present the topic at Unity Day 2022. Our aim was to outline the history and point out the counterintuitive teachings that are still in place in order to begin a conversation about what Sexual Education should look like in schools. For Unity Day, we prepared a presentation including but not limited to, the history of Sexual Education, the sexism in Sex Ed, and the misrepresentation of information. In addition, we made resource brochures and organized a game.
The first part of our Unity Day was our game. We played “Cap or Fact” which served as an ice-breaker and to point out the misinformation that was commonly taught. For example, one of our myths was “a good to tell if a female has had sexual intercourse is if her hymen was intact”. After our ice-breaker, we started our presentation. We made sure to preface the slideshow by explaining how everyone's opinions and questions are welcome, and that if anyone felt uncomfortable at any point they were welcome to step out. We started with the history of Sex Ed in the US. I explained how it was first introduced in schools in the 1920s so that soldiers could be better protected from STIs; these courses were only for males. In the ’80s, Sex Ed gained popularity after the AIDs crisis. In addition, we talked about how today there are three types of Sex Ed programs: Abstinence-only, Abstunenc-plus, and Comprehensive Curriculum. Afterward, I talked about the harm of separating males and females in Sex Ed as it contributes to a stigma towards mensuration that affects women all over the world. There are many women who miss 10-20% of school days because they are not allowed to go to school when they are menstruating. After my section, Emma spoke about the sexism within the system and Maya spoke about how LGBTQ+ groups are left out of Sex ED.
The last part of our Unity Day was a conversation. Everyone in the room talked with their neighbor about their answers to our discussion questions. The groups talked about their own experiences with Sex Ed and what they saw for the future of FVS’s curriculum.
Overall, I appreciated the opportunity to begin the conversation about such an important topic. Through Unity Day we found many shared experiences and hopes with each other. A couple of people thanked us for the workshop. Bringing awareness to a topic that affects all of us was worthwhile and advantageous.