sexEdvice

_{Unpublished post, originally written 12/24/08 for my now defunct state of sex education blog on gURL.}

The only club I ever successfully started in high school was a short lived animal rights group. We held meetings, tried to convince people to become vegetarians, and plastered the halls with handmade posters promoting our cause.

I’m sure a lot of you have done similar things, and if activism and organizing is your bag, why not think about starting a sex ed. program at your school? That might sound a bit more daunting than trying to raise money for prom or organize a spring break trip, but depending on your school, it might be a lot easier than you think.

Here are three great resources that can help teens establish sex ed. programs in their schools.

Planned Parenthood’s REAL life kit:

SIECUS’s Community Action Kit:

The ACLUs Take Issue Take Charge

Sex ed. is a crucial aspect of teen health. Taking charge and making it happen can be a great thing to do personally and for your community.

If you have any experience getting sex ed. into your school let us know about it in the comments!

_{Unpublished post, originally written 12/24/08 for my now defunct state of sex education blog on gURL.}

What’s our problem? Why is the American teen pregnancy rate twice as high as Canada’s and the UK’s, and eight times as high as the rest of Western Europe’s?

Why do teens still get STDs in record numbers?

How can we fill our TV shows and billboards with images of sultry looking preteens, yet turn around and punish kids for actually experimenting with their sexuality?

And ultimately, how can we, as a society, help teens grow into sexually healthy adults?

When it comes to young people and sex, we are nation of hypocrites. One way to improve the sexual health of our youth is to call out our contradictions. We need to accept that culturally we aren’t on the cutting edge of this issue. We also need to be willing to challenge some of our most deeply ingrained assumptions about the risks of teen sex, and acknowledge some of the benefits to having a more open attitude about a topic many people still consider taboo.

Now that is a pretty tall order.

But there is something concrete we can do to get to that place. Comprehensive sex education, not just for teens, but for adults as well.

This isn’t just a crazy idea. it’s something I’ve actually seen work.

A few years ago, I ran a sex ed. program for the parent’s of my HIV peer educators. It turned out that having never gotten sex ed themselves, a lot of the parents I worked with knew even less about these issues than their kids! But offering a few seminars for them made a huge difference both in their knowledge, as well as in their attitudes towards their kids’ sexuality.

But convincing parents that they need sex ed on a large scale is a tall order. Do you think your parents would take a sex ed class if your school offered one? Would you even want them to?

_{Unpublished post, originally written 2/26/08 for my state of sex education blog on gURL.}

When I was a kid, the “Just Say No” slogan was huge. Everyone from Nancy Reagan to LaToya Jackson was telling us that all we needed to stay drug free was the ability to politely but firmly decline a pusher.

But “just saying no” didn’t actually keep kids away from drugs. As early as 1988, it was found that there was no relationship between the No campaign and a drop in teen drug use.

Despite this, in 1994 a measure was approved to provide government funding to programs teaching abstinence from substances. The most famous one to get this money was D.A.R.E., a program which warned that a sip of beer could easily turn into a full-fledged heroin addiction.

Needless to say, drugs aren’t the only things the government wants you to say no to. Sex, of course, is another. The similarities between the two go beyond the message. Like the drug programs, ineffective abstinence-only programs, continue to be paid for by tax dollars. And much like it ignored the findings on drug programs, the current administration seems to be ignoring studies showing how unsuccessful and damaging abstinence programs are. Given its track record disregarding science (global warming, anyone?), this shouldn’t come as a big surprise.

Since scientific studies don’t seem to be giving the government enough of a wake up call to revise their ideas on sex education, maybe the one million American cases of chlamydia will. That or Jamie Lynn Spears’ pregnancy. Somehow, she (like a lot of other teens) seemed to have missed the memo about just saying no.

back to my website: sexedvice.com