PBS is premiering the new season of POV with the program titled "The Education of Shelby Knox" about a teenager in Lubbock Texas who is taking on the abstinence-only, celibacy-is-the-only-way-to-deal-with-teenage-sexuality culture in which teens are being raised.

I was thinking, as I listened to Shelby and the documentary POV film maker Marion Lipschultz being interviewed by a local NPR station. I was remembering my own school-sponsored sex eduation back in rural Indiana in the 70's. And I was extremely glad to have been raised at that time, in that place, and taught by people who really cared about knowing that I had all the facts I would ever need.

I had comprehensive sex education back then. We were told everything, shown everything, given a chance to ask questions--no question was off limits, and told about ALL of our options. This was about 4 years after Roe v. Wade.

My own comprehensive sex education of my children started as soon as they could find the inside of their diapers. I am proud to say that my son was probably the only boy in his Kindergarten class who know the word "vulva". Actually, now that I think about it, I'm proud for us, but sad for all the other parents who couldn't/wouldn't even teach their kids the correct names for parts of their own or their siblings' bodies.

The world is, virally-speaking, a much more dangerous place than it was when I was 14. Why do some people think that the way to respond to that is with less information, not more? As a person of faith, it incenses me to think that damnation/hellfire is being used to scare people from expressing sexuality in ways that can be healthy and respectful if everyone at least has all the correct information.

I say hooray for Shelby and for others like her. I plan to watch this show with my own 14 year old daughter.

That's my POV...