The Education of Shelby Knox

I saw this film at the 2005 Hot Docs festival in Toronto. This film follows the life of 15-year-old Shelby Knox, a teen living in conservative Lubbock, Texas. Though from a conservative Christian Republican family, Shelby is a feisty and compassionate campaigner for sex education in the public school system, feeling that their "abstinence-only" policy is ignoring the obvious, including higher than average rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The film follows her over a period of three years, as she begins to question the easy answers offered by her church, her school, and her community. She works with a city-funded group, the Lubbock Youth Commission, but when local politicians force the group to tone down its activism, she quits and begins working with a group of gay teens to help them start a Gay Straight Alliance group at school. Despite the fact that Shelby herself has pledged to remain a virgin until marriage, she recognizes that not everyone in her community wants (or in the case of the gay students, is able) to make the same choice. This film is a balanced and compassionate look at one young woman's political and spiritual awakening. In light of the currently raging culture wars, it's a must-see for people on all sides of these issues.

Caught this inspiring and entertaining documentary at SXSW 2005 - it's a great film for teens and families to watch together.

The film follows Shelby Knox, a Lubbock, TX teen, as she fights for sex education in her conservative school, and later for gay rights, while trying to stay true to her Christian beliefs and principles. Though far from a "warts-and-all" documentary, Shelby isn't always cast in a sympathetic light, and many of her peers do question her motivations and perceive her as a spotlight-grabber.

What makes this film truly great is the interaction with Shelby and her conservative Christian parents - though they often disagree, their support for her and willingness to let her come to her own conclusions is truly inspiring and shows how important honest communication can be between parents and teenagers.

I can certainly see why some reviewers here felt this film was anti-Christian and made a cartoon villain of the abstinence-preaching pastor. However, the pastor is actually given plenty of screen time and gives several convincing arguments on why "safe sex" can be truly unsafe, and the film doesn't try to disagree with him. In fact, the movie itself doesn't take a hard stance one way or another on the issue of sex ed, it simply follows the internal struggle within Shelby and what it takes to be a liberal Christian in today's world.

Overall, this film was one of the favorites of many people I talked to at the SXSW Film Festival, and deservedly so.

Saw it at Sundance. Loved Shelby's passion. Was amazed at conservative parents support. I also got to meet Shelby... She is now eighteen and in college she is still fighting for what she believes in.

When Shelby and her parents were introduced they got a standing ovation! You could tell she had grownup she handle the crowds questions and press like a pro.

Hope this movie is seen by many. Honest and Correct education of any kind should not be suppressed. In my career we call it LUCK ...Laboring under correct knowledge !!!

If Shelby runs for president in 2030 I'll vote for her !!!!

Perhaps we could all take a moment to look back to when we were fifteen years old. What were we like? How did we fill our free time? It's doubtful that many can attest to being involved in real world politics in the fashion shown in the documentary "The Education of Shelby Knox". The film follows an intelligent, young Southern Baptist (Shelby Knox) for four years as she and a youth-run organization work to allow their Lubbock, Texas schools to teach sex education beyond the mere chillingly brief words of 'abstinence only'. These youth come from a strict, conservative town that just happens to have the highest teen pregnancy rate in the country. It is truly inspiring to watch Shelby while she struggles to overcome the bureaucracy that plagues lawmakers and citizens alike, as she begins to question the foundation of her belief system, and as she blossoms into a strong, convicted woman with a mission. This is a reminder to everyone who might take our rights for granted, and who might not realize that as life on earth becomes more complicated some people are still withholding knowledge from the future owners of it.

The film definitely takes the side of it's heroine, which is fine, since the documentary is really about her and her views of the issues, rather than the issues themselves. The camera work is truly exceptional, and some of the more candid shots arrive at particularly choice points in the narrative. A fine example of this would Ms. Knox's stand against the startling, and personal statement made by the super-intendant of the board of education toward her. Her defense, though is some how made a little less valid by the only flawed piece of editing (my opinion), in how the epilogue handles the man's guilt concerning an affair he had whilst on the job as a sort of 'told you so' moment. Over-all though a nicely handled documentary of an interesting true-life coming of age story.