Celebrating sexuality: My curriculum of gratitude

Abstract

I feel more gratitude for the curriculum of my sexuality than for my learning in any other area of life. In this article, I explore that curriculum autobiographically, recalling the people and experiences that shaped my sexual self. While much of that learning was bodily, many of my most important teachers were the women who shaped my thinking about sexuality in person and on the page. Appreciative reflection on these women and what they taught me weaves in another area of learning: my curriculum of gratitude. Wise women, and their lessons on sexuality, are just some of the teachers of my life curriculum, considered here as currere, the whole of my journey. I feel gratitude for them all. I believe that if more people experienced a sexual curriculum that was joyful, accepting, celebratory, judgement-free, and replete with gratitude, there would be a great deal more happiness, and even more gratitude, in the world.

Keywords:

• Sexuality
• gratitude
• mothers
• adolescence
• discovery
• acceptance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Isabel Nuñez

Isabel Nuñez is professor of educational studies and director of the School of Education at Purdue University Fort Wayne. She has published three books with Teachers College Press and authored chapters in books from Peter Lang, Routledge, SAGE, and the Oxford University Press. Her work has appeared in Educational Studies, the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, and Teachers College Record. She is currently vice president of AERA for Division B, Curriculum Studies.