Sexuality Education as Moral Education: Past, Present, and Future

• In Event: Beyond Heinz: New Directions in Moral Research

Abstract

This paper briefly examines the history of sexuality education in the U.S. and role of moral education in it. I then turn to recent decades where battles between progressives and Abstinence Only Until Marriage advocates led liberals to abandon talk of ethics for the language of science and “evidence”. In so doing progressives narrowed the purpose of sexuality education to address health concerns within a discourse of personal choice when larger ethical and social justice issues are at stake. Sexuality education curricula that focus too narrowly on personal choices miss the opportunity to encourage moral behavior and sexual citizenship. A new Sexual Ethics curriculum that brings philosophical inquiry and a citizenship perspective to sexual topics begins to address these issues.

Author

• Sharon Lamb