{"id":2,"date":"2020-02-27T20:31:46","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T20:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/education-1015-spring-2020\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2020-05-16T13:49:04","modified_gmt":"2020-05-16T17:49:04","slug":"the-problem","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/education-1015-spring-2020-paguirre\/","title":{"rendered":"The Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

The <\/span>lack of comprehensive sex education in the U.S. is a <\/span>major <\/span>flaw of our education system a<\/span>nd is a serious disservice to students, families, and communities alike. <\/span>The U.S. is unique as a wealthy Global North nation that <\/span><\/b>does not have a federal mandate for medically accurate and comprehensive sex ed<\/span><\/b>\u00a0(Daugherty, 2018, p. 82). Of the 34 states that require any sex ed at all, several require emphasis on abstinence and maintain an anti- <\/span>LGBTQ curriculum (Daugherty, p. 83). <\/span>Whether for cultural or religious reasons, state-required emphasis on abstinence can be detrimental to student health and well-being.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Many elements of abstinence-only education are non-inclusive of diverse gender identities and sexualities, which adds to pre-existing stigma rather than working towards dissipating it.<\/span>\u00a0Compared to other Global North nations, the U.S. also has very high adole<\/span>scent birthdates and rates of STI transmission. Within the U.S., these rates tend to be higher within conservative states.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\"\"<\/p>\n

Why Texas?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Texas <\/span>has among the highest teen birthrates and STI transmission rates in the <\/span>U.S., and<\/span> is also one of the largest conservative states in the country. <\/span>Across Texas there are a variety of sex ed approaches being used;\u00a0abstinence-only<\/span>\u00a0and abstinence-plus curriculums are used as well as ones which exclude sex ed entirely. <\/span>A lack of comprehensive and medically accurate sex education is a problem across America,<\/span><\/b>\u00a0and urban areas are no exception. <\/span>Texas is a point of interest not only because it has among the highest teen birthrates in the country as well as the highest <\/span>repeat pregnancy rate, but also because it is a large conservative state in which several of its large cities are liberal hubs. <\/span>I chose Houston<\/span>\u00a0as the focal point for my research because it is Texas\u2019 largest city and known to<\/span> be<\/span> a<\/span> liberal<\/span>\u00a0center.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>While conservative states ideologically are more <\/span>likely to agree with <\/span>abstinence-only education, liberal cities provide <\/span>community members with the numbers to organize for change.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The lack of comprehensive sex education in the U.S. is a major flaw of our education system and is a serious disservice to students, families, and communities alike. The U.S. is unique as a wealthy Global North nation that does not have a federal mandate for medically accurate and comprehensive sex ed\u00a0(Daugherty, 2018, p. 82). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/education-1015-spring-2020-paguirre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/education-1015-spring-2020-paguirre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/education-1015-spring-2020-paguirre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/education-1015-spring-2020-paguirre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/education-1015-spring-2020-paguirre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/education-1015-spring-2020-paguirre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/education-1015-spring-2020-paguirre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}