A parent of a newly minted high school student recounted a story to me today where his daughter cussed at him for the first time. It was a relatively mild cussing event, but it upset him. He pulled her aside, talked about the issues he has with cussing, and encouraged her not to do it [...]
Archives for communication
Oh, the questions they ask!
I have a Jar’o’sex. It’s actually an old applesauce jar that I’ve painted with those words. I pass the Jar around my college Human Sexuality classes, especially toward the beginning of the semester, and have students drop in anonymous questions. (I have a similar process with my younger students, but we use a different container.) [...]
Those pesky personal questions
There is an article in yesterday’s NYTimes called Q. Did you ever smoke pot? A. It’s Complicated, that is far better than I feared. It’s about whether or not to tell a preteen or teenager about one’s own drug use - either as a doctor or as a parent. Many of the same issues and [...]
It is not your fault
One of my best friends is named Alice. She is an amazingly strong, beautiful woman. Years ago - just out of college - she was in an abusive relationship. Part of Alice’s healing process has included ongoing writing about her experience. The following is something she wrote recently, and gave me permission to post here.
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I [...]
What does prevention mean?
A friend of mine with a 7th grade daughter and I were just talking on the phone, and as we were saying goodbye, she mentioned that her friends with 7th grade children have disparate views on what prevention means. She didn’t have time to into what she meant, but wanted to save the conversation for [...]
Judgments
This morning a fellow teacher who, according to his degrees and professional standing, appears competent to do research, perform statistical analysis of the output, and make balanced statements about populations made such an outrageous statement to me that I am still having a hard time comprehending it. He said:
“Fat women all hate prostitutes. The skinny [...]
