Last week my attention was mostly elsewhere. Some of that attention was on writing a piece for RH Reality Check about creating and implementing effective sex education programs about sexual assault and rape. A recent New York Times piece mulling over whether it is more appropriate to target education in gender-specific ways (i.e., for men [...]
Archives for teaching
Educational psychology and sex ed
My Ph.D. is in Educational Psychology. My time in graduate school was relatively evenly split between researching, reading, and talking about (1) how teenagers grow and develop, particularly around issues of sex and sexuality, and (2) how people learn, and how to support their learning in the most effective ways possible. This prepared me pretty [...]
Say “No.” But nicely.
On of the activities I do with my middle school students is have them role-play saying “No” to sexual advances and requests for a date. I do this not because I think they are in the thick of needing to say no to would-be-suitors and would-be-sexual partners, but because they will eventually be in the [...]
Who should do the sex education?
The parents.
I want to make it very, very clear that I strongly believe that the parents are the first and primary sex educators for their children, and in an ideal world would continue to be the primary sexuality educators through adolescence. Most of what I do is help parents learn how to be open and [...]
A write-up on my SXSW presentation
Austin 360 wrote a piece on my SXSW presentation called Sex Ed Online: How Teens Self Savvy. It’s a great synopsis of the hour-long conversation.
The gist: From terminology to kissing techniques, kids use Google as a sexual resource. It’s their Dr. Ruth. “In some ways, kids are much more naive about sex,” says Rayne, an [...]
When maybe means…?
Last March I wrote a post about preventing rape through sex education. It just got a new comment, so I went back and read my way through it again.
I recently used the story I described in that post of a date rape told from two very different perspectives in a college classroom. We had a [...]
My newest trick (no, it’s not what you’re thinking…dirty minds, all of you!)
Oh my goodness, it has been far too long since I’ve written here. But I had a really good reason, I promise! On Saturday, I co-ran a huge holiday fair at my daughter’s school. As some of you may remember but probably not all of you know, it’s a private school for grades K - [...]
