Released in 2005 at the Sundance Film Festival, The Education of Shelby Knox has been used in classrooms and communities to highlight the need for comprehensive sex education, gay rights, and youth activism.
The film tells the story of feisty teenager Shelby Knox of Lubbock, Texas. Although her county’s high schools teach abstinence as the only safe sex, Lubbock has some of the highest rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases in the nation. Shelby, a devout Christian who has pledged abstinence until marriage herself, becomes an unlikely advocate for comprehensive sex education, profoundly changing her political and spiritual views along the way. When Shelby’s interest in politics leads her to get involved in a campaign for comprehensive sex education in her town’s public schools, and then to a fight for a gay-straight alliance, Shelby must make a choice: Stand by and let others be hurt, or go against her parents, her pastor, and her peers to do what she knows is right.
3 Comments
May 7, 2010 at 3:50 pm
THIS MOVIE INSPIRED ME SO MUCH AND REALLY MOTIVATES ME TO KEEP PROGRESSING IN THE COMMUNITY. WE WATCHED IT FOR A MOVIE NIGHT IN OUR FEMALE LEADERSHIP ACADEMY HERE IN VISALIA, CA. AND I REALLY TOOK A LOT FROM IT. LUBBOCK IS SO MUCH LIKE VISALIA!!! I THINK THAT YEAR THEY WANTED YOU AS A KEYNOTE FOR OUR ANNUAL EVENT BUT IM SURE YOU WERE SUPER BUSY!! I WOULD LOVE TO ACTUALLY MEET YOU BECAUSE YOUR WORK DOES INSPIRE ME AND OTHERS AND I APPRECIATE YOU HAVING THE COURAGE TO BEGIN A NEW BLOG. ILL BE READING LOVE YA!!!
June 22, 2010 at 5:29 pm
Great work Shelby!!! Don’t listen to the criticism of others, you are right on course and right on time with the serious issues surrounding eduction. Keep on asking questions and seeking to find a voice for teens. You are going to succeed, for you have already asked some wonderful questions and are opening doors for others by doing so. Keep on being a leader. This world needs people who have vision and a willingness to step up and take some action. Keep it up!
June 22, 2010 at 5:30 pm
I spelled education wrong…ahh…typing too fast…pardon me!~;)