Is there a sexual education that is an expression of a cultivated intelligence?

¿Cabe una educación sexual que sea expresión de una inteligencia cultivada?

David Reyero García, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, España

DOI

10.22550/REP79-1-2021-05

Abstract

This article aims to show how sex education today responds to the dominance that philosophies of suspicion have achieved over intellectual life, a dominance that hinders a normative judgment of human sexuality. Any attempt at regulation is suspected of concealing some kind of domination by some over others. The lack of regulations makes meaningful education about sexuality impossible and only allows for education that is superficial, instrumental, and limits itself to managing unwanted consequences such as teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. This work shows that there is another way of understanding intellectual life that is linked to moral life, open to the truth, and not just dedicated to denunciation. Thinking well involves living within a tradition and on the path of a good life. A concept of a good life supposes a teleological understanding of the human condition and the necessary cultivation of virtues in order to remain within it. In this dimension, sexuality has a meaning that is not merely biological but also relational, generative, and communicative, and it is subject to rules that derive from our personal character and sexuality’s relationship with intimacy.

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Author Biography

David Reyero García. Doctor of educational sciences from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Associate Professor at that university. He is currently Assistant Head of the Department of Educational Studies and Co-director of the Research Group on Anthropology and Philosophy of Education (GIAFE). He is currently Joint Editor of Revista de Educación published by the Spanish Ministry of Education. His publications have covered aspects of epistemology relating to pedagogical knowledge and current issues relating to new technology, civic education, the politics and economy of education, and its moral aims.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9047-532X

Citación recomendada | Recommended citation

García, D. R. (2021) . Is there a sexual education that is an expression of a cultivated intelligence?. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 79(278). https://doi.org/10.22550/REP79-1-2021-05