What’s sex education got to do with dispute resolution?

If you have to ask, maybe you should go back to high school.

Wait, that’s a terrible idea.

Instead, you might watch the Sex Education series on Netflix, which just dropped its third season.

The premise is that an unlikely duo of high school students set up a business to give students sex advice.  Ok, it’s an implausible premise and the characters and stories are mostly implausible.  But it’s an hysterical take-off on the high school sitcom genre – that sneaks in good messages about good communication.

Although some characters seem unsympathetic, the program helps us understand their perspectives.  The series doesn’t let adults off the hook, showing our foibles too.

Many of the characters are Black or have various national origins.  They have various sexual preferences and generally are very sex positive.  The series takes place in the UK where such differences are presented as normal and unremarkable, unlike in the US, where this is so highly charged.

Although there is a fair bit of discussion of sex, it’s really about sexual relationships.

It’s a great diversion from the troubles of the world.  And you never know – you might learn something.

Netflix also started showing another series about high school I love, Friday Night Lights.  It’s a drama centered around a high school football coach in Texas, where football is the state religion.  It tells nuanced and touching stories of dispute resolution involving the football players as well as other students and adults in their world.