Sex on the curriculum

In America, sex-ed is a lesson in the complex legacy of religion. Sex education is a battlefield over morals and young bodies and has exposed fractures in American life for over a century. Kristy Slominskiis, an assistant professor of religion, science and health, looks at the US's fractured history towards sex-ed programmes and how it has become entangled in today's culture wars. She also contemplates how religious involvement can help us better understand America's messy and ambivalent approaches to sex today. "Looking back on this history prompts the question of why scientific professionals needed religion in the sex-ed movement in the first place. Besides the resources and experience that Protestant reformers brought to the table, in the words of the scientists themselves, science was not enough. Early sex educators knew that data and facts were insufficient for changing sexual behaviours. One pointed out that doctors still contracted STIs, even though they knew the most about them, so something more than information must be needed to convince and motivate people to follow sexual health guidelines."