Education is the Best Prevention Strategy Against Violence

I have been helping out a co-worker of mine with research for her Resisting Violence: Rural Women and Girls TakeAction project. So for days I have been reading and rereading articles about Women’s Rights, Activism, Feminism, Law and Education. Today I was reading through a journal called Canadian Women Studies and found an interesting article that really struck home for me!

 I had probably skipped by the article about ten times before I finally took the time to read it. The title “Sustainable Justice through Knowledge Transfer” didn’t seem like it would really connect with the project I was helping with, which is probably why I passed by it so much, eventually my curiosity gave in. I read the sub-text; Sex Education and Youth by Jessica Yee. I have been a fan of Jessica Yee since she came to my community to train me and two others to be youth facilitators in our community. It is because of her that I am trained to teach sexual education to youth!

 I quickly became engaged in the article, no longer for any benefit but my own personal interest. This article really stuck with me, it was exactly what she had spoken to me about when she was training. The article explains why good-quality education is important for our youth and that every program delivered must be specially designed to accommodate who it is being delivered to. Through the entire article I got many great messages, however, the message that I had deemed the most important would be that Education is the most effective prevention method, especially in violence against women.  

 I really found it interesting how she explained the difficulties of teaching youth about sexual health and how she chose to overcome oppression from teachers and parents who thought that her training was irrelevant. The struggles that she had experienced are very similar to what other educators and facilitators can relate too. The article over all is interesting, enlightening, and honest! Yee writes about many things that are often overlooked especially in Sex Ed. She lists what creates a healthy person, a healthy relationship, and pleasurable and safe sex. I loved the article, it helped me appreciate myself and realize the common issues that rise when facilitating a workshop and how to solve them.

Canadian Women Studies is a great feminist journal with many interesting articles on a variety of topics! I urge everyone to read it, and get a fresh, feminist view on common issues in our world.

- Guest writer Kathleen Shy