sex education
What Would Maria Do? One Sex Educator's Ever-Evolving Manifesto
One of the things that has a great influence in both how I enact sexuality education and how I conceptualized my approach from the get-go is my background with teaching in the Montessori Method.
Overall, the primary way Montessori works is this: as educators, we observe our students, and based on our observations of what their self-directed interests, skills and questions are -- basically, what they're drawn to in terms of what activities they choose for themselves and what activities and areas they express interest in -- we choose what materials to make or find and to present to them. In doing this, we're also trying to help students learn to be observers, as well as working to empower them when it comes to trusting their own interests and instincts and to be self-motivated and self-directed, rather than reliant on -- or vulnerable to -- others to give them directives. Montessori teachers see ourselves more as helpers, as guides, than as directors or founts of knowledge. We see ...
Read more...Young Adults Testify Against Abstinence-Only Sex Education
In the last week, a congressional committee began -- finally!
... Read more...I don't know anything about sex.
Okay, let's be completely open and honest! I've had sex a couple times with my boyfriend, with protection of course, but honest, I don't get it!? How do you have sex? How do you do all of it!? I am so lost when it comes to anything. I was raised in the LDS church and taught that abstinence is the key. So I was never taught anything about anything and I would really like to know as much as possible! Thanks a bunch!
Bingo!
According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute and other reliable sources, a sexually active young adult who does not use contraceptives has around a 90% chance of becoming pregnant within just one year. That's not a new statistic or anything a lot of people don't know, but it's one that makes clear how important it is for sexually active teens to find, have and use a birth control method which works for them.
... Read more...Sexualityandu.ca
Illinois Public Schools Sex Education Study
I came across an interesting study on the state of sex ed in Illinois today. Illinois, like most states, receives money from the federal government for abstinence-only sex ed. Some highlights of the study include:
... Read more...Vote for Sex Ed Vids: For Teens, By Teens
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... Read more...Choose Wife?
CHOOSE WIFE.
That was a sign being held up by a protester this week in front of the clinic where I work in addition to my job here. Two words, but they speak volumes. (Though I confess, it took me a little while to get pissed, because I couldn't stop saying it in an Elmer Fudd voice for a few minutes.)
... Read more...Teen Pregnancy Rates Up in the U.S.: 10 Likely Reasons Why That Aren't Just About Sex Ed
You have probably heard that the teen pregnancy and birth rate is up in the United States, for the first time since 1991. As is reasonable, the primary issue most talking about this are addressing is abstinence-only sex education and, due to the way the U.S. has only given federal funding to those programs since 1996, the lack of comprehensive sex education. Of course, too, the ab-only corner is immediately coming to the table with the strange idea that pregnancy and birth rates are up because of comprehensive sex education. Logic and sound data obviously is not the order of the day for that faction, including in their curricula chock-full of intentional medical and practical misinformation, so it's hardly a shocker that they either haven't looked at the facts here or have, but don't care about misrepresenting them.
It's not tough to find the flaw in that supposition: we've only had the abstinence-only mandates, and the popularity of those programs, in this country since 1996, and ...
Read more...VOTE!
Attention Scarleteen Readers 18+ and eligible to vote in the US: Election Day is Tuesday, November 6. If it is an election year for your jurisdiction, please head out to the polls on Tuesday to cast your ballot. It's a quick-and-easy way to make a difference, as well as a right and responsibility of being a citizen. The right to choose and access to accurate, inclusive sex education are two major issues that Scarleteen is all about.
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