I just this morning opened a new book, Sacred Economics: Money, gift & society in the age of transition by Charles Eisenstein. (You can read the entire thing online, as well as watch a video that I haven’t watched yet, on that website.) Opening a new book like this – one that is outside of […]
Archives for empowerment
Condom Week: Buying condoms with teenagers
I know I’m not the only one out there doing this. But I know that most young people don’t ever access contraception until they need it – right then! That’s not a time or a place to try and do something as different and unusual and potentially scary as buying condoms. I take groups of, […]
Vagina Madlibs
If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, or talk with me about my classes often, you probably know that my college classes wrap-up with a big creative project. Some of them are amazing (some examples here). This last semester I had a student who was torn about her final project and e-mailed me several […]
This little thing called rights
People often ask me how I got into the field – sex education is a pretty fascinating topic from many angles. I even have an e-book coming out this year that will tell many sex educators’ stories of their entrance into the field. But after a conversation with Heather Corinna yesterday, I wanted to write […]
A granddaughter, daughter, mother, and future grandmother’s thoughts on abortion
I have been in Germany for the past month, wandering through Amsterdam’s red light district, seeing condom ads plastered across public walls in Germany, generally enjoying myself. I spent most of my time with my mother and my daughters. Immersing myself amongst the females in my family was well-timed. I returned just a bit before […]
Can we learn from a place of power?
This weekend I had a conversation about education and classroom dynamics. In it, I said: We need to remember that students will have a wide range of reactions to any curricula or activities we bring to the classroom. There will always be some who are not drawn into an activity and others who love it. […]
Sex with Mom and Dad (a guest post)
(The following is a guest post from a female college student who contacted me recently because she wants to work in the field of sex education. I asked if she would like to write occasionally for my blog, and she said yes.) When my parents gave me “the talk”, the first thing my mother said […]
Saying good-bye, and thank you, to a class
One of my middle school classes just ended about an hour ago. On these last class days, among other things, everyone gets a blank book and we all write notes to each other, the students, myself, and my co-teacher. Then we all hug, say good-bye, and go our separate ways. After spending fourteen weeks together […]
How to do sex ed, NYC style
One of the most common questions I get from parents is how to start the conversation with their kids about sex. I was recently on a little vacation in New York City, and because I rarely take a mental vacation even if I’m taking a physical vacation, I took pictures of a few items of […]
Say No to Crazy, Yes to Legal Rights!
There is a video making the Internet rounds of a crazy woman giving an anti-LGBTQ rant at a Lincoln, Nebraska city council meeting. And I assure you, it is well worth watching for the utter hilarity of figuring out how she ties together the television show Winter Wipeout, “orgyers,” Whitney Houston’s death, Hillary Clinton’s lesbian […]