Sara Brown Brown 1

Professor Gabriela Rios

English 1102
20 August 2014
Are Educators Really Educating?
A Critical Observation of American Schools Conservations of Nudity and Sexual Education
Growing up, I would sometimes be asked to cover my ears or close my eyes. I would
follow these instructions because I knew that whoever was asking this of me was doing it
for my protection. Normally I would ask what it was I could not see or hear. What I
should have been asking, though, is why? Most of it I understand now, like shielding
myself from seeing violence, since it would give me nightmares, or not listening to
profanity, so I would not repeat it and get in trouble or hurt someones feelings. The part
I could not figure out is why I had to be protected from nudity and sexual education.
Many limits are placed by schools and lawmakers as to what we know about our bodies
and when we learn it in our educational systems. Shadee Ashtari, Rebecca Klein, and
Tara Culp-Ressler dig deeper into expanding our sexual education programs in the U.S.
to reach broader perspectives and encourage more states to include sex education in their
curriculum. Kathleen Horning and Marilyn Story observe the topic of nudity in public
situations. To bring all the other pieces together, I observed a piece by Richard Vatz on
rhetoric and relate his ideas to my own topic.
Ashtari, Shadee. "Louisiana Lawmaker Says Lack of Sex Education is Really a Form of Child
Abuse." Huffington Post, 17 Mar. 2014. Web. 6 June 2014.
In the article written by Shadee Ashtari, she makes recognition to the points made by a
Louisiana Rep. named Patricia Smith on why Louisiana banning sex education from all
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elementary schools is only causing more trouble. Teenage pregnancies and STD rates are
higher due to the lack of education. Smith gives recognition to the people who claim that
it should be the parents responsibility to decide when and how their child is to be
exposed to information on sex. The lawmaker reassures these people that the children
will be sent home with a waiver and if the parents refuse the education, then they do not
have to sign the waiver and the child will not witness the video or speaker. Abstinence
shall still be promoted but will not be the only focus. Abortion will not be discussed.
Smiths proposals were all denied by majority when presented to the board.
I agree with Smiths attempt at educating the young on sexual education. In my own
personal experience, I never witnessed any sexual education in school throughout all of
K-12. It may have been due to the fact that I attended private school for all of elementary
school, and they may not be required to abide by the same rules as the rest of Florida
public schools, but my naivety certainly made things uncomfortable for me as I merged
into middle school as my first public school. Many of the other students already knew so
much about what the other students looked like and how everyones body works, but I
was slightly in the dark. To think that all of Louisiana and a few other states could feel
that way in comparison to the rest of the country, it is hard to understand why all this
hiding and covering up is so necessary. Since it is statistically proven to prevent
unwanted pregnancy or spread of disease, it is only logical to teach children at a young
age about the bodies they live in so their safety and health will be put first.
Culp-Ressler, Tara. "Most Teens Don't Recieve Formal Sex Education Until After They've
Already Started Having Sex." Think Progress, 9 Apr. 2014. Web. 6 June 2014.
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This article focuses not only on what is wrong with not teaching sex education, but also
what the problem is with the way many teach it now. Many states adapt to the general
publics wants for sexual education to prevent pregnancy, but there are still plenty who
do not. A majority of the ones who do have sexual education programs are either teaching
strictly about abstinence only or they are teaching to a population of beings who have
already lost their virginity. The abstinence only programs only focus on teaching
shame-based messages about sexuality to youth (4). Many argue that teaching younger
generations about ways to perform sexual acts safely will encourage them to become
more sexually active. Culp-Ressler is quick to call this a false accusation in her writing
and lists five recognized and medically reliable sources who agree that sexual education
should teach complete courses to students, not just focus on abstinence. Students
eventually might be taught about birth control and saying no to sex, but Culp-Ressler is
shocked to hear that 83 percent already participated in intercourse before a classroom
discussed this with them.
I agree with this articles strong opinions against protecting the safety of minors. Some
may argue that it should be the parents responsibility to dictate what their child knows
about sex and protections for it, but Culp-Ressler states that out of a sample population,
a quarter of them said they had never discussed the issues with their parents (3).
Schools are designed to educate and help students reach higher intellectual levels than
they started with, and I see it necessary to include information about these topics that
could protect them from diseases along with unwanted and unsafe pregnancies.
Horning, Kathleen. "The Naked Truth: Librarians Stood by Maurice Sendak, No Stranger to
Controversy." School Library Journal, 1 Aug. 2012. 58: 32. slj. Web. 3 June 2014.
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In The Naked Truth, Kathleen T. Horning investigates the censorship of Maurice
Sendaks childrens book In the Night Kitchen. Sendaks dreamlike story discusses the
way that young Mickey falls out of his clothes and reveals the sensuality of jumping into
milk and dough as hes baked into an enormous cake (11). During its time of
publication, Sendaks book was reviewed as controversial and most likely to cause a
disturbance due to some drawings of the character Mickey displaying full frontal nudity.
Horning questions just how shocking of a reaction did the story actually receive from the
public? Apparently, some librarians had infamously painted diapers on Mickey to avoid
controversy (6). It did not make sense to her that this book received the Caldecott Honor
in 1971 from the same librarians who were supposedly painting over these books in their
own facilities. Horning discovered that these cases were minimal as opposed to how
media described them. The only cases found were a staff member of the Caldwell Parish
Library and some copies for a kindergarten class in Springfield, MO.
People expected this book to be less accepted than it actually was. Even the author
assumed the people at the library probably like having that particular book checked out
so they do not have a childrens book displaying nudity in their facility (5). The media
played on this assumption seeing how they obviously exaggerated the situations of
librarians painting over books. From personal experiences, nudity has always been
inappropriate for children. The media indirectly encourages ideas of sheltering our
children from nudity. They make it seem as if more people are participating in the
shielding of childrens eyes than there actually are, and it creates the thought that keeping
children in the dark about their bodies is normal.
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Klein, Rebecca. "These Maps Show Where Kids in America Get Terrifying Sex Ed." Huffington
Post, 8 Apr. 2014. Web. 6 June 2014.
Klein starts off her article with many opinionated terms. Even in the title, she calls the
sex education in America terrifying. Before displaying the maps that color the states
that qualify to the descriptions red, she says Prepare to be horrified (5). Her goal is to
shock us and attempt to help us see reasons as to why the United States has the hightest
teen pregnancy rate of any other developed country (3). The majority of states claim that
if sexual education is provided then it does not need to be medically accurate. A good
portion of Central America appears to find it okay to teach children about abstinence
without acknowledging contraceptives. Three states require any same-sex education to be
negative. These are only a view of the maps that were recognized in Kleins article.
The laws are saying that it is okay to serve incorrect information to students when
referring to their sexual education. The word education implies knowledge and
learning, hopefully of facts. Construing knowledge based on what the teacher prefers to
say as opposed to the truthful thing to say is unethical. Also, for the people who are not
religious or their religious beliefs do not restrict them from practicing safe sex, it is unfair
to them to hide the existence of safety when involved in sexual contact. Contraceptives
do not only prevent pregnancy, but some can highly reduce your chance of extracting
STDs, even some of the most harmful ones. I can only assume that these laws about not
warning children about how to stay safe if they are to practice sex before marriage are put
in place as a result of Christianity not believing in contraceptives. This becoming a law,
though, defies the separation of church and state defined in the First Amendment of the
Constitution. Contraceptives are not illegal, so why should education of their existence
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not be required in the same states that require education on abstinence? The states that
require same-sex negativity is restricting free speech because if a curriculum wishes to
teach children of the societal happenings with gay marriage attempting to take its steps
towards legalization, the only way for them to discuss these events is through negative
terms or they will be in violation of the law.
Story, Marilyn. "Factors Associated With More Positive Body Self-Concepts In Preschool
Children." The Journal of Social Psychology, Jun. 1999. 108: 49-56. Print. 6 June 2014.
Marilyn D. Story writes an article on statistics of a sample of preschool children and what
factors made the biggest difference in determining whether they had a positive body self-
concept or a negative one. The examination consisted of an interviewer asking the child
questions, such as pointing at a cartoon diagram of a human with the same sex and race
as the child and asking Do you like your ____ or What part of your body do you like
the (best/least)? Why? (52). She observed many different factors and the only ones that
proved to be truly relevant in differences of body self-concepts were the sex of the child
and the nudity classification of the family. According to the studies, nudism was found to
be a more important variable than sex (53). Results of this study showed that non-
nudists preferred parts such as their hair, eyes, nose or mouth (53). Nudists, however,
referred to their genitals most often when asked what they liked most about their body.
As far as least liked, nudists typically had none, and non-nudists would say genitals more
often than other parts. Marilyn did not have much opinion towards the results but was
more attempting to state the facts she found from her study.
Based on Marilyns findings, I make the observation that the children of nudists are being
somewhat biased when favoring their genitalia over all other parts of their body. Since
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society in general tries to frown upon full nudity in public places, families who identify
as nudists are standing out as different from the majority of Americas population. These
people made a personal choice to differ and must convince the child that it is okay and a
good thing to be different in this way. Every other child is told they must hide their
genitals, but these children are told to be alright with being exposed in public when
appropriate. This change in thought probably makes them feel special and, in turn, causes
them to associate their exposure of genitals as a feeling of being different in a positive
and special way. Exposure of genitals could result in expulsion or jail time if displayed in
a non-designated area. These punishments could be the cause of why non-nudists choose
their genitals as their subject of the area the like the least on their body. People are
shamed and discouraged from revealing these parts of their bodies, so the association
results in nudity equating to a feeling of embarrassment. I find this observation important
because everyone has a body they live in, and most are generally similar. No good comes
from being ashamed of any of your body because it is a part of you and probably will be
for the rest of your life. Could viewing nudity as negative and inappropriate be poorly
affecting our self-esteem?
Vatz, Richard. The Myth of the Rhetorical Situation, Philosophy & Rhetoric 6 no. 3 (Summer
1973): 157. Quoted from The New Rhetoric; Perelman, 116-17. 19 Aug. 2014.
Richard Vatz, a professor, editor, and member of The Board of Trustees, writes a critical
review of Lloyd Bitzers The Rhetorical Situation. Bitzer claims that Rhetorical
discourse is called into existence by situation, but Vatz takes a different perspective
(155). Vatz argues that rhetors have more control that Bitzer gives credit for. The world
is not a plot of discrete events Vatz rebutes (156). In this, he refers to how every day,
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there are uncountable amounts of events that take place. It is the rhetors choices to
decide which are important enough, in their opinion, to look into and make public for the
rest of the community. They rhetors also make the decision of how to display these
situations, either in a positive light or negative one. The way these situations are
displayed, Vatz argues must be a translation of what the particular situation the rhetor
perceives (157). With translations, there could always be chances of parts being left out
or construed in a way different from their intentional meaning, if there were to be one.
I find that the argument Vatz makes can be related to the way education systems display
nudity and sexual education. The school systems rules controlled by the state determine
what information the children of our country are exposed to and in what fashion it may be
displayed. Laws are in place about restricting knowledge in sex education to only focus
on abstinence and other laws in some states limit any knowledge of any same-gender
activities being taught to students may only be taught in a negative fashion. Instead of
giving nonbiased information to the students and allowing them to decide on their own
original opinions on the matter, the law determines their first impressions on these
subjects for them. The way the information is displayed has great effect on the way we
perceive said information. Sharing information is an interpretive act, and meaning is
not discovered in situations, but created by rhetors (157).