Sex Education // Current

Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Syphilis are blooming in USA

Latest stats are showing double digit increase in STD for last year in USA. It affects... more

condomelite1
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3 days ago
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Sex Ed Breaks Up With Abstinence

It's been a mainstay of sex ed for more than a decade. Now, as the Obama... more

knews121
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24 days ago
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4 comments

Texas schools move away from abstinence-only education

Texas currently has the third-highest teen birth rate in the country and “the... more

Future_America
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1 month ago
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U.N. Guide for Sex Ed Generates Conservative Opposition

"A set of proposed international sex education guidelines aimed at reducing H.I.V. infections among young people has provoked criticism from conservative groups that say the program would be too explicit for young children and promote access to legal abortion as a right.

The guidelines, scheduled to be released by Unesco in a new draft next week, would be distributed to education ministries, school systems and teachers around the world to help guide teachers in what to teach young people about their bodies, sex, relationships and sexually transmitted diseases. They would address four different age groups.

“In the absence of a vaccine for AIDS, education is the only vaccine we have,” said Mark Richmond, Unesco’s global coordinator for H.I.V. and AIDS and the director of the division that coordinates educational priorities. “Only 40 percent of young people aged 15 to 24 have accurate knowledge” of how the disease is transmitted, he said, even though that age group “accounts for 45 percent of all new cases.”

A draft issued in June has been attacked by conservative and religious groups, mainly in the United States, for recommending discussions of homosexuality, describing sexual abstinence as “only one of a range of choices available to young people” to prevent disease and unwanted pregnancy, and suggesting a discussion of masturbation with children as young as 5.

“If you ever have a situation where kids need to be taught earlier than their adolescence, this is not the way to do it,” said Colin Mason of the Population Research Institute, an anti-abortion organization based in Virginia. “It’s very graphic and encourages practices like masturbation, which conservative Christians and others feel are wrong.”

The diversity of views around the world on these issues renders any universal approach “culturally insensitive,” Mr. Mason said. “We think it’s a kind of one-size-fits-all approach that’s damaging to cultures, religions and to children,” he said.

“The main effort is to try to empower young people with knowledge that could actually save their lives,” said Mr. Richmond, the Unesco H.I.V./AIDS coordinator. “We want to give them the opportunity for more informed choices than currently exist.”

But for some conservative and religious groups, the guidelines are too detailed and too uniform in their recommendations across different cultures, and they remove responsibility from parents.

Conservative groups have also criticized the draft guidelines for discussions of condom use, sexually transmitted diseases and the assertion that “legal abortion performed under sterile conditions by medically trained personnel is safe.” The guidelines suggest discussing “access to safe abortion and post-abortion care” and the “use and misuse of emergency contraception” with those ages 12 to 15. The guidelines recommend that “the right to and access to safe abortion” should also be discussed.""A set of proposed international sex education guidelines aimed at reducing H.I.V.... more

DeliaTheArtist
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3 months ago
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International Sex Ed Guide Generates Opposition

PARIS — A set of proposed international sex education guidelines aimed at reducing... more

unimatrix0
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3 months ago
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4 comments

Should parents be able to pull their kids out of sex ed?

Personally I think not, it's something they all need to know about... what are your views?

horseeyes
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3 months ago
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170 comments

Sex Education not welcome here

Here in the United States, poll after poll shows that both teenagers and parents want... more

dariustwin
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3 months ago
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Sex Ed: The Series – The Future of Television Development?

Last night I was invited to a screening of a pilot for a television series as part of the Independent Television Festival, and it might just be a peek into the future of television development. Directors and feature films have been going down this road for years, and you’ve seen the results. Festivals like Sundance and SXSW swell with independent films, studios get into bidding wars for the hot movies, directors get plucked from the indie freshwater stream and dunked into the saline-rich waters of the studio ocean, and the wheels of film-industry keep on turning.

But what about television? It’s an expensive landscape to develop in, but Sex Ed: The Series was created solely as a spec pilot, and creators Tamela D’Amico (director/producer) and Ernie Vecchione (writer) shot it in 11 days using Panasonic HD cameras, and put together a fairly impressive cast that includes Joanna Cassidy of Blade Runner and Six Feet Under fame. During the question and answer session, it was very clear that they were looking for a cable network to step in and buy the series, and they were eager to put it through the development process. It was a bit rough around the edges, but you could easily see it turning into a series on Showtime or Starz.

The premise is fairly straightforward: it’s set in a sex education class at a small college somewhere in Anytown, USA, and there’s a multicultural gaggle of students that weighs heavy on the Caucasian side, with a few token students of other ethnicities tossed in to try and balance the mix. In the first class, ballsy Professor Trevase (Cassidy) tells the students “If you don’t like me, get out!” … and everyone leaves except for the main cast. Their first assignment: partner up and sculpt each other’s genitals. Predictably, everyone has a different reaction to this, and things play out accordingly. There’s a nugget of a possible overarching storyline at the end of the episode when Cassidy reveals to dreamy blonde student Dean (Matt Barr) that she has brain cancer, and she swears him to secrecy. Future assignments listed in the press notes include: threesomes, penis envy, breakups, and more.

Is this a harbinger of things to come? Television development isn’t any more expensive than shooting a feature film, and in some cases it might be significantly cheaper. Last night’s pilot wasn’t quite a full hour, and if you’re working on a half-hour sitcom, you could cut that in half. Plus, it has to look attractive for a network. It’s a like a live-action storyboard for a pitch session, making it that much easier to say yes or no. Will it change the fact of television development? That remains to be seen. But given the turbulent ebb and flow of independent movies, it makes sense that creative types might try their hand at putting a series together on spec.

We’ll see if Sex Ed: The Series gets picked up anywhere, and budding writers might want to check out the full script for the pilot, which was posted online.

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I'm excited because this was shot by a friend, DP Christy Fiers! Gonna try to catch the encore screening tonight @ Sunset Laemmle in LALast night I was invited to a screening of a pilot for a television series as part of... more