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Kayla Burr
UWRT 1102
Instructor: Fran Voltz
19 February 2016

My proposal is about the lack of decent sex education in America. Topics included will
be the lack of talk about contraceptives and homosexuality as well as how current sex education
uses shame and scare tactics to keep teenagers from having sex. In the proposal I will focus on:
the effects this has on the population concerning pregnancy and STDs, which sex education
curriculums work better than others, establishing what consent is, and removing the stigma
around sex, specifically pertaining to girls. My main focus is sex education with the other topics
as parts to the larger picture.
I would like to know what parts of my proposal are well thought out, which parts need to
be improved, and which parts need to be removed. I have the ability to go on a tangent so being
kept on track is key. What questions would you like answered in this paper? Is there something
you were looking for and did not find? Was there something there that you did not expect to
find? Do you agree or disagree with what I am proposing? If there is anything else you think
should be mentioned let me know. This is an issue that affects our entire society. We need good
sex education because most humans will engage in it and if not done carefully enough can have
disastrous effects.

I chose this topic because in August I saw a video on YouTube Last Week Tonight with
John Oliver about the lack of sex education in our country. It made me reflect on my own sex
education in school. I had Catholic schooling from the first day of preschool to high school
graduation. This does not mean that I know nothing about contraceptives and sex because in our

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health classes we are required to know about certain things however I did not know the correct
way to put on a condom until this video. What I really learned from my sex education in school
is all the guilt and stigma surrounding it, especially for girls. Dont get me wrong it was an allgirls high school but in everything it seems that girls are the ones who get a bad rap when it
comes to sex. The sex education talk I remember most from high school was in my sophomore
year religion class. My teacher had three cups: a Styrofoam cup, a ceramic mug, and an antique
china tea cup. Girls that have a lot of careless sex were the Styrofoam cup, good for a cup of
coffee but ultimately thrown out. Girls that have sex and then decide to be born again virgins or
girls that do not have random sex were the ceramic mug, liked and well used. Virgins until
marriage were the tea cup, special, cherished, and only used on special occasions. At the time
this upset me and a lot of the girls in my class, especially those that had already lost their
virginity. She basically told a bunch of fifteen and sixteen year old girls that if they were no
longer virgins, then they were no longer special. Now it makes me angry and makes me wish that
I had spoken up in class and said something about no matter what the consequences.
Why do we have such terrible sex education in America? It is actually not regulated by
the government, but the state. It actually varies from school to school for the most part. Only
twenty-two states mandate that sex education be taught, and only thirteen of these states require
that it be medically accurate. (3:22-3:32, Oliver) What is the point of sex education if it is not
even medically accurate? Does this mean that the government should set a standard for sex
education in schools? This is a two-faced question because there is seventy-five million dollars
set aside to encourage schools with funding for abstinence only curriculums. (7:36-8:05, Oliver)
I can tell you from an abstinence only education background, this does not work. I knew plenty
of girls in my high school who had sex. I also have heard stories from my grade school that a

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good amount of the girls in the two classes above me have had children out of wedlock. While I
do not know the surrounding circumstances, I do know a family that had two of their daughters
pregnant out of wedlock and I know that there was no form of birth control talk in their home or
school.
I already know plenty about abstinence only education and I know about how dubious the
ideas of consent are. What I need to know are the statistics. How many teenage pregnancies
occur in areas with awful sex education versus how many happen in areas with good sex
education.
10 Questions:
1. Is there a way to teach sex education without it looking like we are encouraging teenage sex?
I believe there is. A while back I had read an article about sex education that gives
students all of the facts, but also encourages them to wait until they were ready. This is different
than teaching abstinence because it does not paint sex to be some wicked desire. It tries to get
students that it is an adult action that needs to occur only between careful, rational, adults.
2. Should this be a nationwide initiative?
It should be, but we need to make sure that it is not the abstinence only curriculum that is
currently encouraged.
3. Is there a way to force private schools to teach a specific sex education curriculum?
I think so but I need to find out more.
4. What would the long term effects be from having a nationwide standard for sex education?
Look at other places that have this in place and see what the standard is.
5. What should be a part of our nationwide sex education curriculum?
6. What should we do to teach about consent?

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7. Should it be a class part of a mandatory sex education curriculum to establish what consent is?
8. Should we also include preventative measures to being raped in this curriculum?
While it is not the victims fault we should try to educate one on protecting themselves
from assault. We should also encourage people to look out for high risk victims to try and make
sure that they are okay.
9. How do we remove the stigma around sex?
Breakfast Club Quote about being either a prude or a whore.
10. How do we promote this to our nations leaders and cause change to happen?

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Sex Education (HBO)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0jQz6jqQS0
Good times in the video: 3:22-3:32, 6:07-7:11, 7:36-8:05, 8:38-8:52, 12:04-12:26, 13:00-13:14,
15:20-15:48, 16:38-16:59, 17:24-17:42
I have also reserved a book about Sex in America from the library.

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Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Sex Education. Prod. John Oliver.
Youtube. Google, 9 Aug. 2015. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0jQz6jqQS0>.