In his back-to-school speech yesterday, President Obama had this to say about education in general:
But the truth is, an education is about more than getting into a good college or getting a good job when you graduate. It’s about giving each and every one of us the chance to fulfill our promise; to [...]
Archives for sex education
What is the purpose of (sex) education
Why Middle School comprehensive sex ed?
Most middle school students are not yet sexually active. Many of them are not even on the skinny end of the sexually active bell curve (that is, they don’t have boyfriends or girlfriends yet, they haven’t had a first kiss, they might not have even started their periods or had their [...]
Why are we learning this again?
I spend a lot of my time teaching, and I love it. Sometimes I teach classes that are associated with formal schooling, and so I need to formally grade my students. Other times I teach informal classes through churches, private schools, or parenting groups and I do not grade my students.
Ultimately, I prefer the non-grading [...]
Summer school
My first college summer class teaching human sexuality starts today. I’ve taught summer school before, but it’s generally been developmental psychology or educational psychology or one of those other topics I teach on occasion. Experiencing a classroom that is focused on sex is just different than other topics, and so I wonder what this whip-lash [...]
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 [...]
Teaching about rape
Rape is one topic that I have a harder time covering than most. Part of the issue is that I’m never quite sure how the class is going to react. Here are two extreme examples from my college classes:
Last semester one of my college classes on rape was dramatic and emotional. Every single woman in [...]
LGB…T…QQIA…LMNOP…what?
I’ve been asked to break down these various initials recently by a number of friends and students, so I thought I’d write a bit on them. LGB is a group of initials that most people are familiar with to one degree or another:
Lesbian (women who are attracted to women)
Gay (often referring to men who are [...]
Ignoring what’s in front of you
When parents ignore what’s in front of them, they lose the chance to have meaningful conversations about choice with their teenagers. Here’s an example (if you’re receiving this via e-mail or RSS, you’ll need to come back to my site to watch the video):
What could the mom or the dad have said here - how [...]
Finding your sexual identity
I am thinking today about sexual identity.
But first, a short introduction to the concept of sexual identity. Essentially, our identity on any given topic answers the question ‘Who am I?’ So in regards to a sexual identity, the question becomes, ‘Who am I, sexually? What do I like, dislike, how do I approach sexuality, what [...]
How the law impacts our sexuality
I talk with my college students about the law interacts with individual sexuality at some length every semester. It’s always a fun, interesting class with some great activities. But I’ve struggled in the past with how to introduce the class. I begin every class with a song that pertains to the day’s topic in some [...]
