About Me

In my first semester in the Master of Arts in Teaching program at Hamline University, I took a class called “Education and Cultural Diversity”. Over the course of the semester, my classmates and I delivered presentations to each other on various topics related to our assigned readings. These topics ranged from second language acquisition, to anti-racist education, to comprehensive sex education. It was during a peer’s presentation on sex education that I learned that while the state of Minnesota does require public schools to teach sex education, it is not required to be comprehensive or medically accurate. 

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I remember that as I wrote down this fact in my notes while I was listening to the presentation, I underlined it three times followed by several question marks. So many questions immediately raced through my mind; how is it possible for a state not to require that education be medically accurate? Does this mean that schools are allowed to teach curriculum that is intentionally inaccurate? What could the possible justification be for willfully miseducating students? What does a comprehensive sex education actually look like? Once I returned home, I started looking into the topic more thoroughly. I wanted to learn about the benefits of a comprehensive, consent-based sex education that is inclusive of the LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) community’s identities. Additionally, I wanted to learn about how this type of education can be introduced in an age appropriate manner with students as early as kindergarten.

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While finishing my Master’s program at Hamline, I was given the opportunity to create a Capstone project that addresses a ‘burning question’ that I had. When deliberating what topic I should choose to write about, I couldn’t get that presentation on sex education from my first semester out of my head. I decided to research the topic of sex education more fully. This led me to the research question: What are the benefits of incorporating comprehensive sex education into a curriculum as early as kindergarten?

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There are a variety of benefits that students, schools, and communities experience when comprehensive sex education is implemented. These benefits include positive changes in student mental and sexual health, positive changes in violence reduction, and positive changes in community norms. I believe that parents and educators should be aware of these benefits and have access to this information in order to make more informed decisions about how to incorporate comprehensive sex education into their homes and classrooms.

 

I decided that the best way for me to reach the greatest amount of people with this information was to create a website. For my Capstone project, I've created this website to advocate for comprehensive sex education in the state of Minnesota. I hope that this website is a resource for both parents and educators to learn about comprehensive curriculum, the current sex education standards and where they are lacking, and to have the option to encourage legislators to change the standards so that comprehensive curriculum is a requirement for all students.