PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Mary Lou Rasmussen is Associate Professor of Education at Monash University, Australia.
"""In the US comprehensive sexuality education has been a lightning rod for vigorous debates about the intersections of politics, religion, and public schooling. Rasmussen (education, Monash University, Australia) investigates the roles and functions of secularism in progressive sexuality education in the US, Australia, Aotearoa-New Zealand, Canada, and Ireland. She contends that progressive sexuality education should not eschew religious beliefs and values. Such an omission fosters the binary perspectives of modern and scientific versus traditional and backward, and a consequence of secularism is the neglect of the contexts of culture, kinship, and belief systems that influence the meanings of sexuality among youth. Rasmussen examines the influence of secularism on elements of the sexuality education curriculum, including homophobia, pleasure/desire, and pregnancy decision-making, and she identifies problems of secular freedom. Rasmussen’s advocacy for open inquiry, which thinks about sexuality in relation to religion, may be informative to sexuality educators and scholars."" --P. Lefler, Bluegrass Community & Technical College, CHOICE, November 2016 Vol. 54 No. 3"
