2005 Documentary: The Education Of Shelby Knox

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Recommended: Pregnancy Prevented By Improved Education

Analytic Essay Assignment #3 The Education of Shelby Knox is a 2005 documentary about a teenager named Shelby Knox who lives in a small town called Lubbock located in Texas. Although, the high schools in her county teach abstinence as the only form od safe sex, Lubbock has some of the rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases in the nation. Shelby Knox is a devout Christian girl who has pledged abstinence until marriage. She is a “graduate” from the popular virginity- preservation program called True Love Waits. She embarks on a journey in being an activist for sex education and the separation of her school and church. As she travels further down her path, her political, social, and spiritual views change along the way. When …show more content…

One major influence that stands in the way for a comprehensive sex education and hinders Shelby’s views is her strong devotion and beliefs to Christianity. Reverend Ed Ainsworth has been a key character within the film. He is a pastor that preaches and educates to upcoming teens and young adults in the approach of abstinence until marriage when it comes to sex. With his program, True Love Waits, he is able to use a religious tactic and quote from biblical contexts to influence these uneducated teens about sex that this method is the only way to being safe from sex and temptations. He says that those who have pre-marital sex will get hurt physically, emotionally, spiritually and financially. This makes Shelby’s battle for a comprehensive sex education program difficult because Lubbock is a community that strongly believes in Christianity. Within a community like hers, majority of the people are bound to strongly believe in God’s words which impacts their decisions because their views are shaped and molded in the context of the bible and refer to it as a source of what is right and wrong. They essentially pick and choose what they want the younger generation to hear so that they can steer them in a certain …show more content…

The reason why teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease rates are very high is because these teens are not fully educated both physically and emotionally. In the article, “Teaching Teens about Sexual Pleasure” discusses how “sexually educators really need to start discussions from the more holistic viewpoint that sexuality is more than sex and that sex is more than intercourse”(pg.13) which is not that case in the public schools of Lubbock. In the film, when students approach the teachers about sex, who are to guide them through high school, dismiss the student’s curiosity and tell them that abstinence is the way to go. This gives Shelby more of the incentive to create a better sex education program because even teachers who live in that community have a strong Christianity background and are taught that same way. If Lubbock had a better program then, they can teach their students and faculty that sex is not an act but a behavior with a lot of grey areas. Lubbock needs to “learn to make a critical distinction between feelings and behavior. Sexual thoughts and feelings are not harmful. Sexual behavior is what we must worry about” (pg. 13). All teens wonder and become curious about the possibilities in life and sex is a part of that. The system of sex education in Lubbock disregards that learning process and the students are forced to find and behave in their

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