Wednesday, February 4, 2015
An Op-Ed Piece from the Atlantic
I found this opinion piece, Let's Talk About Sex - In English Class, whilst surfing the web. I've always found sex education in high schools (or the lack thereof) to be an interesting topic. The author argues that it isn't fair for teachers to fear getting fired over assigning readings that deal in heavier topics, especially sexuality. There are important lessons to be learned about sex and sexuality that can be taught in English classes, and sheltering high schoolers from the realities of life (both the good and bad parts) isn't doing them any good. I thought it related well to our discussions about women being viewed as almost asexual in the mid 19th century. American school systems also fear that children exposed to "risque" material will undoubtedly become sex addicts.
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Thanks for sharing, Emily. I'll definitely check it out. It's also an opportunity to reflect on how our own classes (other than Health) did or didn't address these topics. My friends and I all read the V. C. Andrews books in middle school - they were on our summer reading lists - but as more popular or "low brow" literature. These books are famous for their incest-based plots and strong sexual content, however within a strong moralistic framework in which desire and indulgence in desire is always in some way punished. The problem to my mind is not that these books were on a school reading list, but that there was no way of using them to jumpstart a conversation about sexuality in literature. We read them, talked about them amongst ourselves, and kept them hidden from our parents!
ReplyDeleteOn a related note, my favorite NPR podcast - Pop Culture Happy Hour - recently did an episode on Broad City (yes!) and about required reading in which they talk about the pleasures and pains of required high school reading. Worth a listen. http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2015/01/23/379319986/pop-culture-happy-hour-broad-city-and-required-reading