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Sex Education, Liberalism, and Autonomy: Bridging the Traditionalist vs. Anti-Traditionalist Gap
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Abstract
This paper explores the theoretical underpinnings of the debate over the content and
scope of formal school-sponsored sex education in liberal democratic society. This dispute often pits parents with deeply held religious convictions and fairly conservative understandings of human sexuality against more secular-minded citizens who are often resentful of what they perceive to be an attempt by the former to erase the boundary between church and state. I suggest that this policy debate regarding what, when, and how schools should teach young people about sex is appropriately viewed as a manifestation of a deeper conflict between divergent conceptions of the good society held by those who align themselves with a robust form of Millian liberal individualism and adherents to the natural law tradition. I argue that, although they draw from different and at times competing intellectual traditions, proponents of these two perspectives share a common belief: all citizens should have the benefit of the kind of education that will assist them in living lives that are healthful, freely chosen, dignified, and self-directed. This consensus moves us a good way toward developing the rough outlines of a sex education model that vindicates aspects of each account of the proper role the state may play in educating young people about sex. Sex education, although it is not a panacea for all of society’s ills, is a useful and promising tool the state may use to promote autonomy and better the health, reasoning, empathy, and morality of the next generation.
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Abstract
This paper explores the theoretical underpinnings of the debate over the content and
scope of formal school-sponsored sex education in liberal democratic society. This dispute often
pits parents with deeply held religious convictions and fairly conservative understandings of
human sexuality against more secular-minded citizens who are often resentful of what they
perceive to be an attempt by the former to erase the boundary between church and state. I suggest
that this policy debate regarding what, when, and how schools should teach young people about
sex is appropriately viewed as a manifestation of a deeper conflict between divergent conceptions
of the good society held by those who align themselves with a robust form of Millian liberal
individualism and adherents to the natural law tradition. I argue that, although they draw from
different and at times competing intellectual traditions, proponents of these two perspectives
share a common belief: all citizens should have the benefit of the kind of education that will assist
them in living lives that are healthful, freely chosen, dignified, and self-directed. This consensus
moves us a good way toward developing the rough outlines of a sex education model that
vindicates aspects of each account of the proper role the state may play in educating young people
about sex. Sex education, although it is not a panacea for all of society’s ills, is a useful and
promising tool the state may use to promote autonomy and better the health, reasoning, empathy,
and morality of the next generation.
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