Hey, Sex Ed!

Finding ones voice in the delivery of sex education

2011-04-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

By: Melvin

The work of a[ human sexuality educator], I propose includes all that is proper for a human, and is one in which all men who are born into this world should share… Our first wish is that all persons should be educated fully to the maximum capacity of humanity; not only one individual, nor a few, nor even many, but all humans together and single, young and old, rich and poor, of high and low birth, men and women- in a word, all whose fate it is to be born human beings; so that at last the whole of the human race may become educated, men and women of all ages, all conditions, both sexes and all nations. Our second wish is that every man and women should be wholly educated, rightly formed not only is one single matter or in a few or even in many, but in all things which perfect human nature.

John Amos Comenius

The Great Didactic, 1632

Excerpt from Crisis in the Classroom, 1970

Education is an ongoing journey. As any weary traveler can contest, the road to the most desirable destination can have many challenges, self-discoveries and feelings too powerful to fully understand. The same can be said of education. Learning can be riddled with feelings that can only be summed up as painful. Yet, it is also a process of self-awareness and growth. This growth is both physical and intellectual. Taking this into account, I see each student as a unique individual searching for sustenance while making a pilgrimage through life (Sears, 1992).

As an aspiring sexuality educator, I serve as the nutrient to stimulate growth for learners. I have a responsibility to those that I meet. That is, I have a duty to adapt to each and every student. The role as a facilitator of learning does not entitle me to treat a student as a number, a test score or a test of my abilities. Rather, I am being allowed into a student’s mind to nurture growth and I recognize that this is a privilege that I must respect. Therefore, I am not only teacher but also a student of that student’s story. His sharing allows me to grow, and perhaps, in return, I am helping him to grow. In prescribing to a modified constructional model, I try to allow each student to search for his or her strengths and likes. My goal is to teach tools for future endeavors. Making a connection to something relevant in the student’s life may feed a hidden passion. In meeting the students’ desire for knowledge, I am fully aware of the fact that I am the passenger in the student’s journey (Hedgepeth & Helmich 1996).

Everywhere in society today, newspaper headlines, evening news shows, talk radio, and local town meetings, the public is bombarded with the message that students cannot read and graduates cannot compete in the world market place with graduates from other countries. Over and over the message sent is that all these conditions would change if teachers would just teach and force children to learn. The failure of this simplistic solution is that it does not recognize the multiple pressing issues that learners carry with them into the classroom. Today’s sexologist is responsible for possessing more than mastery of their respective content area in order to be successful educators ( Eggen & Kauchak, 2006). Upon observation of the most homogenous student populations lie hidden diversities, which make teaching the masses a task for the most hardened educator. Thus, there is no one designated way to create a learning environment. Teaching eschews prescribed ideas about normalcy, which are most often subjective, dated, and ethnocentric. A good sex educator is able to bridge educational, social, and emotional gaps in order to produce successful members of society—sex positive and sexually healthy. Yes, there are as many good sexuality educators in our schools as there are varieties of good apples in our supermarkets ( Reinhartz & Beach, 2004).

The first quality of a good teacher is the ability to acknowledge and validate each student. This concept seems very basic; however, with the demographics changes within many of traditionally homogenous school districts, teachers are faced with the challenge of meeting the needs of an ever-growing diverse population. This diversity comes in the form of socioeconomics, English as a second language, and ethnicity. It is imperative that sex educators acknowledge these differences and adapt their pedagogical perspectives to embrace the richness of a heterogeneous student population. Teachers must be dedicated educators in order to embrace this quality because one must be a lifelong learner and continuously grow as a professional educator in order to meet the changing needs of the American student (Breuss & Greenberg, 2004).

The second quality of a good teacher is the ability to guide a student through the learning process. In years past, teachers have relied on the one size fits all formula for educating American children. With the expectation of memorization and recitation as a measure of competence in a given content area, many students were left behind. As a result of this deficit, sexuality education needs to look beyond the test scores and inspire children to learn. To do this effectively, educators must take ownership of what they are doing or not doing to facilitate learning in the classroom. When sex educators stifle the students’ ability to grow academically by forcing a status quo classroom culture, the learning process is severely hindered (Reinhartz & Beach, 2004). Thus, sexologists must take the time to focus on the strengths of the student and motivate students to capitalize on their assets

The third quality of a good teacher is acceptance. Too often, teachers assume that their perspective is the only appropriate view point. This can be problematic for a student who is from a different culture or socioeconomic group ( McCollum, 2010). Rather than criticize a student for thinking that appears “out of the box” it is important to consider culture and embrace the diversity of perspectives. A good teacher is able to focus on the strengths of a student and not be critical of the student’s social status.

In today’s complex educational world, simply being a content expert does not make for a good sex educator. A quality educator is at the mercy of creating a quality culture for learning that considers a student’s socioeconomic and cultural background in order to ensure academic success. We strive to bridge the educational, social, and emotional gaps in order to produce successful members of society who are sex positive and sexually healthy. While each child and sexologist represents a good apple, it is their shared flavor that makes all the quality of the great American pie.

REFERENCES

Breuss, C., & Greenberg, J. (2004). Sexuality education: Theory & Practice (4th Ed.). Boston: Jones & Bartlett.

Brown, J., Keller, S., & Stern, S.( 2009). Sex,sexuality, Sexting, and SexEd: Adolescents and the Media. The Prevention Researcher. 16(4), 12-16.
Eggen, P. D., & Kauchak, D. P. (2006). Strategies and methods for teachers: Teaching content and thinking skills. Boston: Pearson.
Gilbert, G. C , & Sawyer, R. S. (2000). Health education: Creating strategies for school and community health. Boston: Jones & Bartlett.
Hedgepeth, E. & Helmich, J. (1996). Teaching about sexuality and HIV. New York: NYU Press.
McCollum, S. (Fall 2010). Country Outpost: Teaching Tolerance, 38, 32-34.
Reinhartz, J. & Beach, D. (2004). Educational Leadership: Changing School, Changing Roles. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Sears, J. (1992). Sexuality and The Curriculum: The Politicss and Practices of Sexuality Education. New York: Teachers College Press.

16 and Pregnant – A teachable moment?

2011-04-16T17:11:00.000-07:00

I have to admit it: one of my guilty pleasures these days has been watching the TV dramas 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom 1 & 2 (soon to be 3). At first I rationalized my interest in these shows as research for my job, though this quickly faded as I became consumed with the characters and plot. I speak about them like they’re any other drama on TV but the difference is that these shows depict true life examples of teen parents, their challenges and triumphs, and general life paths throughout a season on MTV.

Though these shows are highly dramatic and entertaining for the audience, I can’t help but think about the potential impact they have on teen attitudes and beliefs regarding parenting. What I’ve heard from my own students is that “the teens on TV don’t seem to have trouble being parents.” It’s no wonder why young people in our society are so confused by the messages about teen parenting. The media often sensationalizes it while we educators are caught trying to impart the consequences and realities that most teens face (albeit not always those teens featured on MTV). While these shows are presented as docu-dramas, what “reality” are they really depicting? Are they creating misperceptions about teen parenting, or are they offering some great teachable moments on which we can capitalize? How can we use these popular teen TV shows for great sex education?

Enter media literacy.

According to the Media Literacy Project, media literacy is “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media. Media literate youth and adults are better able to understand the complex messages we receive from television, radio, Internet, newspapers, magazines, books, billboards, video games, music, and all other forms of media” All of this analysis helps to differentiate between fantasy and reality and give youth the tools necessary to make informed decisions. Great sex ed opportunity..? I think so!

Media has been shown to be a significant influence on young people’s lives and media literacy skills are an important aspect in education (Gilbert & Sawyer, 2000). Even the National Health Education Standards address media literacy as essential to education.

One example of using a media literacy activity to promote critical thinking skills is to choose a program for students to analyze (i.e. 16 and Pregnant). Divide the class into small groups and give each group a character from the show to watch and evaluate. Ask them to observe how parenting affects the teen’s life, considering the challenges and types of support that teen may receive (familial, financial, etc.). After watching the program, discuss what the students noticed about teen parenting. Also, ask them to make up their own ending to the teen’s life (since their life lasts much longer than a season on MTV).

While this is only one example of a media literacy activity, there are many others available. MTV even puts out discussion guides for the shows available on www. stayteen.org (great website for sex ed info) which also provides stats, resources and questions to consider. Discussion around these shows is critical for students to examine the realities about teen parenting and also be able to better personalize how parenting would affect their own lives.

I am always interested to hear how other educators are using the media to connect with youth and capitalize on those teachable moments in order to provide great sex ed. What methods and activities have you found effective in getting students to analyze media messages?

-Rebecca Roberts

Resources

Brown, J. (Ed). (2008). Managing the media monster: The influence of media (from television to text messages) on teen sexual behavior and attitudes. Washington, DC: National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. Retrieved from www.thenationalcampaign.org/resources/monster/Media_Monster.pdf

Gilbert, G.G. & Sawyer, R.G. (2000). Health education: Creating strategies for school & community health (2^nd ed). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Palante Technology & Bazant, M. (n.d.). Media Literacy Project. Albuquerque, NM. Retrieved from http://medialiteracyproject.org/learn/media-literacy

The Joint Committee on National Health Education Standards (2007). National Health Education Standards: Achieving Excellence (2nd Edition). Atlanta, GA. American Cancer Society. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/SHER/standards/index.htm

www.stayteen.org/16-and-pregnant

Enhancing Educators’ Presence “On Stage” – Importance of Platform Skills

2011-04-10T13:33:00.001-07:00

By: Emily Yantis

As a trainer of peer educators in my practicum experience, I have begun to understand the importance and need for educator “platform skills.” As a student myself, I have very little understanding of teaching platform skills and have started researching the subject to try and add this to the training plans for my peer educators. My own knowledge of platform skills comes from my background in theatre and music; having good posture, making significant eye contact, wearing the correct things, managing gestures, etc. Other than personal experiences, I don’t have much knowledge to train with.

While searching through the various books we have for 625/626, I did find some information. Eggen and Kauchak (2006) include platform skills and other effective techniques under “Essential Teaching Strategies.” Teacher characteristics such as modeling and enthusiasm and personal teaching efficacy promote learner motivation and increased student achievement (Eggen & Kauchak, 2006). Some of the most important key factors to teacher effectiveness are communication, organization, and feedback (Eggen & Kauchak, 2006). Although I find it mighty obvious that educators need to communicate clearly, connectedly, and with emphasis (Eggen & Kauchak, 2006); these qualities may not be natural to educators and need to be taught…but HOW? Part of the effectiveness of platform skills comes from the educators’ ability to understand their audience feedback (Eggen & Kauchak, 2006). What skills does it take a trainer to teach others how to feel for audience feedback? And give their audiences appropriate and helpful feedback in return?

These are just a couple of the questions that have surfaced throughout my search to train undergraduate students about educator effectiveness and platform skills. Unfortunately, I have not found much to help so far so I look forward to hearing others’ stories about their own experiences enhancing their platform skills and even teaching platform skills to others.

Reference

Eggen, P.D. & Kauchak, D.P. (2006). Strategies and models for teachers: Teaching content and thinking skills. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Tips on Co-Teaching

2011-04-09T19:32:00.000-07:00

There are many complicated things about teaching sex education but the most difficult for me has been learning to work with other people; other people that have different ideas about what education looks like. This is something that teachers no matter what they teach face when they are co-teaching. It takes a special set of skills to work with someone you do not necessarily agree with on a regular basis.

There are a lot of times that co- teaching can be advantageous to both the students and the teachers. The students can learn from two or more teachers that may have different ways of teaching the same material. The teachers have more support when co-teaching. They are able to share both their success on their good days and their hard days (Hurley-Chamberlain & Friend, 2010). To figure out how to co-teach effectively you first have to know what co- teaching is not. The first being the most obvious co-teaching is not a process where each teacher teaches a different subject and there is no communication between the two teachers.

It is not co-teaching when one teacher’s ideas and thoughts are the only ones used in teaching the students. This has a tendency to happen when one of the co-teachers is older and has been teaching the topic longer than the other teacher (Hurley-Chamberlain & Friend, 2010). This is an example of a power dynamic that is not helpful to the co-teaching process.

So now that we have touched on what co-teaching is NOT we need to look at what it really is. Co teaching is two or more teachers that are sharing the responsibility for teaching one group of student’s specific content. There is a need for communication and trust in order for co-teaching to be a successful venture.

Cook (2004) came up with some elements to the cooperative process of co-teaching. The first element is Face to face interactions. Co-teachers have to decide when where and how often they are going to meet. They are also going to have to decide how much of that meeting time will be during school hours. They also need to develop a way to communicate between meetings.

Positive interdependence is also something that is essential to the cooperative working of co-teaching. There needs to be a feeling that the teachers are each individually responsible for all of the students learning and that they are pooling their knowledge and skills for the benefit of the students that they are teaching.

Interpersonal skills include the both the verbal and nonverbal components of communication and of trust-building. They are also useful skills in conflict management and creative problem solving. Effective co-teaching and any partnerships in general encourages each member to improve their social skills. Without this development co-teaching would be at a disadvantage.

Monitoring the progress is important in any partnership and any teaching adventure. It is equally important when dealing with co-teaching because both teachers have to be on the same page about improvements in the classroom.

Individual accountability is very important because each person has to be personally accountable for what they have agreed to do and contribute to the learning process for these students.

I believe that if some of these elements are taken into consideration then co-teaching can be a great experience and be great for both the students and the teachers, but if they are not then I think a co-teaching experience can be very draining and unproductive. (Hurley-Chamberlain & Friend, 2010)

Lindsay

References

cook, L. (2004). Co-Teaching: Principles, Practices and Pragmatics. California State University , 2-33.

Hurley-Chamberlain, D., & Friend, M. (2010). Is Co-Teahcing Effective? Retrieved April 9, 2011, from Council for Exceptional Children: http://www.cec.sped.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=7504

Improv Theater is an Effective Sexuality Education Teaching Method: “Imagine That”!

2011-04-05T20:45:00.000-07:00

As a teenager in high school I was a proud member of an improvisational (improv) theater troupe in Spartanburg, SC called “Imagine That.” Improv theater is defined simply as: acting without a prepared script (United Nations Y-PEER, 2003). We would perform skits or scenes on social issues affecting our peers and adults such as: individuality, depression, suicide, teen pregnancy, discrimination, racism, drug and alcohol abuse, violence, STD’s including HIV, date rape, peer pressure, bullying, etc. We would perform about 5 of these scenes at schools, churches, community centers, public libraries, special events, correctional facilities, as well as at national youth conferences around the country. Our director would process each scene with the audience facilitating discussion about what they experience, and the positive and negative outcomes they perceived, thus forming an hour-long show or presentation.

Why should you care about this? Well, besides it being a really special time in my life that helped shape who I am as a person today that has helped steer me towards a career as a sex educator, I participated and witnessed first hand an extraordinarily effective teaching method. I believe the interactive education we carried out by performing improvisational theater scenes was much more effective than programs such as “D.A.R.E.,” that was determined to either have no effect or a detrimental effect on lowering rates of teen drug use (Kanof, 2003). “D.A.R.E.” was a federally funded Drug Abuse Resistance Education curriculum used by schools nationwide in the 1990’s. It and other programs like it used in classroom and authoritative instruction settings informed students that whenever they were tempted by their peers to use drugs to remember the “NO USE” pledge they signed, refuse the offer, and encourage the student to report the incident to an officer of the law (www.dare.org).

I believed that our method of using improv theater was effective, especially with our teenage peers, because it drew in or “hooked” the audience from the beginning. At the start of every show we would perform an opening scene that was loud, eye-catching, attention grabbing, unnerving, scary, but most importantly thought provoking and emotional. It would usually involve us (the cast) coming to life from frozen positions dispersed throughout the audience wearing white facemasks interacting with one another and the audience as we worked our way up to a picture portrait grouping in front of the auditorium, cafeteria, or stage. Trust me, people would scream, gasp, and have to go use the restroom sometimes to prevent spoiling themselves because they became so excited!

However, looking back, I think it was the “hook” we provided with the opening scene as well as the interactive audience participation in verbally processing their feelings and thoughts about what they just saw us perform theatrically. Therefore, I have always planned to use improv theater as a teaching method someday when I am advising a peer health education group on a college campus. Yet, I started to wonder if improv theater was a truly effective teaching method or if my involvement in the troupe just made me leap to assumptions. Therefore, I have sought out research that supports my theory that improv theater is in fact an effective teaching method for health and sexuality education, especially when using peer educators.

Using theater as an effective teaching technique in health and sexuality education is supported by numerous theories. The first theory and the one that offers the most support for theater in health education is the theory of reasoned action that states that “the intention of a person to adopt a recommended behavior is determined by: 1) the person’s attitudes towards this behavior and his or her beliefs about the consequences of the behavior, and 2) the person’s subjective viewpoint about an issue and the normative or society’s standard based on what others think he or she should do, and whether important individuals approve or disapprove the behavior” (Y-PEER, 2003).

Therefore, peer health educators are the perfect tool because they have the potential to highly motivate their peers to change their behavior based on the fact that adolescents are significantly influenced by the perceived expectations of their peers, displayed through live theater. For example, a young woman who thinks that using contraception will have positive results for her, will have a positive attitude towards contraceptive use” especially if she perceives that her peer (in this case the peer health educator) expects her to do so (Y-PEER, 2003). This scenario could easily be extrapolated into a 5-7 minute improv theater scene highlighting the positive and negative outcomes of a character debating on whether or not to use contraception. In other words, peer health educators show that it is cool to engage in healthy behaviors, thereby making it a standard in society. If an individual is not using condoms when they have sex, then they could potentially harm their reputation or likability with their friends or peer group.

While this is just one particular theory, Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, Beck’s Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Moreno and Blatner’s Role Theory, Tompkin’s Script Theory, Roger’s Diffusion of Innovations, Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory, and Miller’s Chunking Theory all provide theoretical support for using theater in peer health and sexuality education. Elaboration of exactly how these theories provide support within the context of peer health education can be found in Y-PEER’s Peer Education: Training of Trainer’s Manual (Y-PEER, 2003) available online at the web address listed below.

Theories are a respectable foundation, but what about real life implementation and evaluation to discover if the theories actually apply and produce sound data that theater in health education is effective? Accordingly, several researchers have evaluated the effectiveness of using theater in peer health and sexuality education.

Cimini, Page, and Trujillo in 2002 found that peer-led improvisation theater was effective in reducing high-risk behaviors associated with alcohol use and increasing protective behaviors. Another pre-post test analysis study which evaluated Planned Parenthood’s New Image Teen Theater revealed that participants reported “after viewing teen theater, more willingness to discuss sexual topics (t(80)=10.01, p.001), a greater intention to use birth control (t(43)=3.02, p.01), and greater sexual knowledge (t(92)=10.01, p.01) (Hillman, et al, 1991).

A researcher in Canada performed a case-study methodology on four groups of high school students and their peer leaders that resulted in “reports of increased self-confidence to reduce risky behavior, increased communication about sexual health issues, the development of greater compassion and tolerance, along with the desire to avoid stigmatizing HIV-positive individuals and sexual minorities” (MacIntosh, 2006).

Finally, a WHO and UNAIDS-sponsored review assessed community-based peer education programs that targeted youth in lower-income countries that directly effected behavior change. This review discovered 3 of 3 programs showed significant reductions in the number of partners, and 5 of 7 programs showed increases in condom use. Most of the programs included in the review were able to reach large populations of youth, distribute condoms, and in some cases, change community norms around youth and sexual risk taking (Adamchak, 2006).

As one can see, theater peer education has been found effective in changing behavior and attitudes of adolescents across the world. It is also the recommended teaching method of several well-known and respected organization such as the United Nations, World Health Organization, and Youth Peer Net. Therefore, peer education is practiced worldwide despite the lack of a large peer-reviewed body of evidence demonstrating its effectiveness. While we may not currently have the means or methods to determine the extent of effectiveness of theater peer education on participants lives five years out, it has proven a crucial tool to accessing hard to reach audiences in diverse cultures (Y-PEER, 2003, Adamchak, 2006).

My hope for the future is that researchers will be able to show that not only is theater peer education effective, but that it outstrips many other teaching methods that are now outdated, or in other words do not engage the modern student. I encourage sexuality educators to utilize the Training for Trainers Manual (Y-PEER, 2003) listed below as well as any continuing education courses they come across that will prepare one to employ peer theater education. For it, I believe, is the most promising solution today for connecting with adolescents on a level where they become open to discussion and actually begin to change their behavior.

References:

Adamchak, S. E. (2006). Youth peer education in reproductive health and HIV/AIDS: Progress, process, and programming for the future. Youth Issues Paper 7. YouthNet.

Cimini, M.D., Page, J. C., & Trujillo, D. (2002). Using peer theater to deliver social norms information: The Middle Earth Players program. Report on Social Norms 8(2).

Hillman, E., Hovell, MF., Williams, L., Hofstetter, R., Burdyshaw, C., Rugg, D., Atkins, C., Elder, J., Blumberg, E. (1991). Pregnancy, STDS, and AIDS prevention: evaluation of New Image Teen Theatre. AIDS Education Prevention, 3(4), pp. 328-40. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1777341

Kanof, M. E. (2003). Youth Illicit Drug Use Prevention: D.A.R.E. Long-Term Evaluations and Federal Efforts to Identify Effective Programs. Washington, DC: General Accounting Office.

MacIntosh, J.M. (2006). Theatre-based peer education for youth: A powerful medium for HIV prevention, sexuality education and social change. University of Victoria. British Columbia, Canada. Retrieved from http://gradworks.umi.com/NR/30/NR30158.html

The D.A.R.E. Mission: Teaching students good decision making skills to help them lead safe and healthy lives. Retrieved on 4 April 2011 from http://www.dare.org

United Nations Y-PEER. (2003). Joint Interagency Group on Young Peoples Health: Development and protection in Europe and Central Asia – Sub-committee on Peer Education. Peer education: Training of trainers manual. Retrieved on 12 March 2011 from Youth Peer Education Electronic Resource.

Getting Your Message Across Without Putting People Off

2011-04-03T15:23:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I attended a presentation on Veganism. It was someone else presenting at my practicum site, so I wasn't there specifically to hear the program, though I generally don't have anything against the veg-eating folk. It's just not something I'm particularly passionate about. Call me neutral. The reason I decided to blog about it is that I left that presentation feeling attacked and completely alienated from the topic. I never want to make anyone feel like that in a presentation. Ever.

In case you aren't familiar with the arguments for Veganism, there are a number of very graphic videos on youtube depicting cruelty to animals. The presenter started with one of these videos and went on to explain how our bodies aren't designed to process meat and that raising animals for food hurts the environment. There was actually quite a bit of evidence that made sense for what was being put forward. The problem was, right from the very beginning, I was made to feel ashamed for eating and liking to eat meat. I have had discussions about Veganism before, as my former boss is vegan and she would explain her view on the subject. Not once did I come away from those discussions feeling ashamed for eating meat like I did from this program. I felt like I was being bullied and when you are in that situation you don't open up to new ideas – you get defensive and shut down.

What does this have to do with sexuality education? Well, there are many an issue that we as sexuality educators can come from a place of “I'm right, what you thought is wrong”. One example is sexual assault prevention. Often the message given to men on college campuses is that “no means no, no matter what”. What about the fact that women in our culture are often taught to play coy? That “no” might mean, “you're going to have to work for it”, or “make me want it”? If the only thing we teach is “no means no”, when often it doesn't, does that really get the students to listen, or do they ignore the message because it is contradictory to their reality?

Another issue that is at the core of my passion is fat sex. I realized half way through that program on Veganism that it would be incredibly easy to alienate participants from my ideas on fat sex because it is hard to give people the space they need to think, reflect and rethink their position about fat and fat people and then connect that to sex. I know that the first step is to own my bias (something the vegan presenter did not do) and let others know that this is not necessarily an easy topic to come around about.

So the questions I want to pose are, how else might I approach this topic without shutting people down? And what are some of your sensitive topics that you have encountered and how did you navigate the hard points well (or not so well)?

~Rachel Girard

Developing a Curriculum for Medical Professionals

2011-04-03T11:09:00.000-07:00

When you think of where people get their sexual health info, your mind might jump to 10th grade health classes, or friends, or even porn. Perhaps you think about social norms delivered through TV or the most recent Sunday sermon. However, when it comes to questions around sexual health, most adults are still asking their doctors. According to several studies done around the millennium, adults still see their physician as a primary source for addressing sexual health concerns (Metz & Seifert, 1990; Marwick, 1999). While this may change slightly with advancements made online, the physician is still a main-stay in sexual health concerns in the U.S. If you ask a medical student or physician, they may note how common sexual concerns are in a patient visit, often referring to sexuality questions as “hand on the door knob” questions. These “hand on the doorknob” questions suggest the real reason a patient comes to see his or her physician is to address some aspect of their sexuality, but are uncomfortable asking. In fact, a study conducted in 1999 found that while most people would ask their physician about a sexual health concern, they would feel uncomfortable doing it. More so, most people felt that their physician wouldn’t provide them with the information or treatment they were looking for (Marwick, 1999). For men in the 90’s, a study showed that while they wanted to get information from their doctor, they were embarrassed to do so and preferred that the physician initiate the conversation (Metz & Seifert, 1990). This attitude may not have shifted much even today.

One reason people may feel uncomfortable with addressing sexual health concerns with their physician may be that the physician him or herself is uncomfortable. A majority of 4th year medical students reported being uncomfortable with taking sexual histories from older and younger people in particular (Malhotra, Khurshid, Hendricks, & Mann, 2008). Physician attitudes, lack of comfort with sexual histories in general , and general communications issues also added to doctor discomfort (Tsimtsiou et al., 2006), A general discomfort with sexual health issues can make it abundantly clear to a patient that sexual health concerns are off-limits.

So what does all of this mean for us as educators?

1. We want to meet as many people as possible in addressing sexuality, so making sure doctors are just as informed as we are is a great way to do this.

2. Medical schools are obviously not giving the time to train students in taking sexual histories, in addressing student attitudes towards different aspects of sexuality, in working on communication around sexuality, and are probably not taking the time to talk about sexual pleasure or advances in sexual medicine.

3. Our place may be in providing sexual health training for medical students and ongoing education to physicians.

Training medical students or physicians has its pros and cons. Of course the pros are that we are able to make sure another source of sexuality information is on a positive track, but there may be some issues with having this come to pass.

1. First of all, medical students as well as physicians have a reputation of being slightly, umm, big-headed. Many medical students, as surely practicing physicians, may feel they already know everything and that, furthermore, no one outside of the medical community has a right to instruct them. Hopefully this is a rarer occurrence today, but it may be a small battle in organizing a training.
2. Time is an issue for any professional, but for practicing physicians in general, finding the time to enroll in a sexual health training program may be tricky. If you are attempting to add a sexual health training section to a medical school, it may be quickly shot down with the idea that there is already too much in the students’ schedule.

When organizing a program for training medical students, its best to first get the backing of a medical organization or medical school. That way, you have some sort of credibility behind you for the nay-sayers. More tempting would be setting up some sort of earned credit or certification if possible. This would help dismiss the previous concerns, especially if the class was an elective for credit. Furthermore, as Rebecca Bak and Alexis Light noted in constructing their Sexual Health Scholars Program for the American Medical Student Association, its best to approach a curriculum set up in a variety of steps. According to this duo, following these 7 steps will help when attempting to set up a sexuality training.

1. Identify a Need
2. Seek Help
3. Approach the Administration
4. Logistics
5. Create the Curriculum
6. Evaluation
7. Sustainability
(Bak & Light, 2011)

It may be easy to identify the need for a training in any medical community by assessing their current classes, but it is also important to get student backing and document it. When you approach the administration, it will be much easier to set up a training if you can show student interest in the program. Bak and Light also make a strong point to not go it alone. Seeking help in this endeavor is needed for success. For educators, this might be someone with interest in the medical community or a medical student. Perhaps you team up with a few members of your Planned Parenthood community. Any way you do it, having help, and backing, is mandatory for success in such an unpaved route.

For those of us who have little experience teaching professionals, #5 on this list may be a bit baffling. What do we teach medical students about? Many, if not all, already have some basic information in STI’s and the reproductive system as well as contractive methods. In fact, some of them may know more than you do on the subject. Thus, when developing a curriculum, its best to assess what is needed and what strengths you can play to. If you are teaming up with someone, hopefully they bring another skills set to the table as well. All in all, though, do not attempt to teach over your head. While it may be helpful to explain the most recent sexual medicine to them and how it affects sexual wellbeing, we can’t all be Dr. Kellogg. It is just as important to facilitate on attitudes towards LGBT sexuality and older adult sexuality. However, the Sexual Health Scholars and Center of Excellence for Sexual Health have come up similar topic lists that may be helpful when developing a curriculum.

1. Value of Sexual Health in the Medical Field
2. Taking a Sexual History
3. Models of Sexuality
4. Sex and Language
5. Sexual Anatomy, Reproduction, Response Cycles
6. Sexual Function and Dysfunction
7. Body Image and Self Esteem
8. Sexuality Across the Lifespan
9. Sexuality and Illness and Disability
10. Common Sexual Concerns and Treatments
11. Infertility
12. The Internet and Sex
13. Sexual Orientation, Attitudes and LGBT Health
14. Sexual Abuse
15. Sex Workers
16. Media, Culture and Religion
17. Behaviors, Values and Expressions
(Morehouse School of Medicine, 2011; Sexual Health Scholars Program, 2011)

The list could continue, but it should be obvious with this that there are multiple topics that could be and should be included in a sexual health training.

Advanced training in sexuality for medical professionals is a much needed thing. Hopefully this post inspires you to think about the connections that should be made between our field and the medical one. While only a starting point, this post attempts to give a good jump on initiating that connection. While I didn’t get around to writing about how to facilitate to professional groups, for those of you who have had experience training medical professionals or other professionals, please comment!

-Meg Augustin References:

Bak, R. & Light, L. (2011) Creating change, one elective at a time [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from
http://www.amsa.org/AMSA/Homepage/EducationCareerDevelopment/AMSAAcademy/SHSP.aspx

Malhotra, S., Khurshid, A., Hendricks, K.A., & Mann, J.R. (2008) Medical school sexual health curriculum
and training in the United States. Journal of the National Medical Association, 100(9), 1097-1106.

Marwick, C. (1999) Survey says patients expect little physician help on sex. The journal of the American
Medical Association, 281(23), 2173-2174.

Metz, M.E. & Seifert, M.H. (1990) Men’s expectations of physicians in sexual health concerns. Journal of
sex and marital therapy, 16(2), 79-88.

Morehouse School of Medicine (2011) Sexual health curriculum development. Retrieved from
http://www.msm.edu/research/research_centersandinstitutes/SHLI/aboutUs/CESH/programsI
itiatives.aspx

Sexual Health Scholars Program (2001) Tentative Curriculum. Retrieved from
http://www.amsa.org/AMSA/Homepage/EducationCareerDevelopment/AMSAAcademy/SHSP.
spx

Tsimtsiou, Z., Hatzimouratidis, K., Nakopoulou, E., Kyrana, E., Salpigidis, G., & Hatzichristou, D. (2006)
Predictors of physicians’ involvement in addressing sexual health issues. Journal of sexual
medicine, 3(4), 583-588.

Curriculum Fidelity: A Critical Examination

2011-03-27T14:04:00.000-07:00

To complete assignments for 625 and 626, I have developed and written my own curriculum complete with lesson plans. It has been an energizing and empowering experience that gives me confidence in my educational skills. However, recent experiences implementing a curriculum that I did not write has me questioning and pondering curriculum fidelity. It is not that I dislike the curriculum in question- students have responded well to it and it is a great model for pacing and flow of lesson plans. But there have been instances where curriculum fidelity has been difficult. For instance, one session has four activities planned in a one-hour time span. Even with adults this would be difficult, but I am working with 7^th graders! In this instance, curriculum fidelity was not met and I had to cut two of the activities (activities that I really like) due to time constraints. This experience (along with a few others) got me thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of curriculum fidelity. This post raises more questions than answers. It explores, questions, and wonders about the importance of curriculum fidelity.

The Basics

In short, curriculum fidelity is “the degree to which a lesson, program, or curriculum is implemented according to the original intention of the developers” (Gilbert & Sawyer, 2000). Achinstein and Ogawa (2006) add that fidelity is a term used by administrators and teachers to describe strict adherence to the text, pacing guides, and teacher scripts associated with a certain curriculum.

Advantages

The advantages of curriculum fidelity are numerous and heavily emphasized among educators. For educators (or whoever is implementing the curriculum), fidelity means less work! If my lesson plan is already written, rationale has already been argued, and activities are pre-determined, I don’t have to stress each night about what I’m doing the next day (or question if it will work). For evidence-based curriculums that have proven to be effective, curriculum fidelity means that the facilitator can be confident in the quality of the curriculum and its ability to achieve goals and objectives. Other advantages include guidance for inexperienced teachers, equity across educational settings, and coherence and collaboration among teachers (Achinstein & Ogawa, 2006).

Disadvantages

Curriculum fidelity raises some challenges that speak to instructor autonomy and individuality. At its worst, curriculum fidelity demands conformity over quality. Sue, a teacher struggling with curriculum fidelity, says, “What I’m feeling from the district is that teaching and education are not important. What’s important is the program that we’re using and following it, and individual style and teacher’s knowledge, and their abilities and their individuality should not come into play” (Achinstein and Ogaway, 2006). Curriculum fidelity assumes that all educators have the same knowledge and skills to implement the curriculum as it was intended. If an instructor writes their own curriculum, they can tailor it to emphasize their own teaching strengths and weaknesses. When using a curriculum written by others, instructors must put aside their own preferences for activities/methods and implement the lessons as instructed. The danger in this is that lack of investment in material may cause instructors to be less energetic and effective than if they had been using a curriculum that they were invested in.

Special Considerations for Sexuality Education

Curriculum fidelity is often talked about in terms of evidence-based programs. For programs that have shown to have positive results (in behavior, attitudes, or knowledge), curriculum fidelity is the only way to ensure that these results will be the same for all implementations. For sexuality education, this component deserves more attention. Let’s take the examples of a program that produces higher math scores on a standardized test and a program that produces greater frequency of condom use. The math program is called MathWorks! and the condom program is called Put it On! (work with me, people).

Scenario A: I am a math teacher teaching MathWorks! and I notice that yes, my students are learning how to answer test questions about math but I don’t like the teaching methods that are employed because they emphasize test-taking over understanding core principles. In this situation, what is more important: raising test scores to secure funding for my district or teaching math in a way that I feel is most effective?

Scenario B: I am a sex ed teacher implementing Put it On!. My students seem to be developing positive attitudes toward condom use but I don’t really like some of the activities in the program. However, this program is evidence-based and I am told that if I implement it correctly, my students will use condoms with greater frequency. What is more important: increasing condom use or adapting the program to my preferences?

In both scenarios, the desired outcomes are present. In both scenarios, the teacher feels that the lesson plans and activities could use some changes. Are the results of one program more important than the other? Does one program deserve fidelity more than the other?

Final Thoughts

As I said before, all of my pondering and questioning about curriculum fidelity has yielded few answers. I respect the people who write evidence-based curriculum but also empathize with instructors who feel it limits their autonomy and individuality. When I wrote the final section, Special Considerations for Sexuality Education, I was intending to say that yes! - condom use is more important than math scores and fidelity to sexuality curricula that affect real life decisions is more important than fidelity to curricula that are intended to raise test scores. But now I’m not so sure. Thinking about this subject and writing this blog made me re-evaluate a lot of my thoughts about education and curriculum-writing. I’m looking forward to other people’s thoughts about and experiences with curriculum fidelity. Thanks for reading!

Kate Randall

March 27, 2011

Resources:

Achinstein, B., & Ogawa, R. T. (2006). (In)fidelity: What the resistance of new teachers reveals about professional principles ad prescriptive educational policies. Harvard Educational Review, 76(1), 30-63.

Gilbert, G.G., & Sawyer, R.G. (2000). Health education: Creating strategies for school and community health. Boston: Jones & Bartless.

How to be an Effective Educator in Diverse Classrooms?

2011-03-20T21:01:00.000-07:00

Posted BY: Karla Diaz

Classrooms today are more diverse than ever (whether its race, ethnicity, or gender diversity), and as educators we should be prepared to work effectively with the broad range of learners within our classrooms. I usually teach Latinos because it is the population I feel the most comfortable with, but recently my students have been more diverse. This has made me think more about my effectiveness in delivering knowledge and information to diverse groups. I seek to improve my skills on a daily bases and recently I found a book that was very helpful in helping me analyze who I am in the classroom and what I should be doing to help all learners feel welcomed and validated (ideally).
The book is called Tools of Teaching by Gross Davis.
This book provides strategies to help educators become better teachers in diverse classrooms. The strategies are the following:
• Recognize any biases or stereotypes you may have absorbed.

• Treat each student as an individual, and respect each student for whom he or she is.

• Rectify any language patterns or case examples that exclude or demean any groups.

• Do your best to be sensitive to terminology (stay updated on terminology).

• Get a sense of how students feel about the cultural climate in your classroom.

• Introduce discussions of diversity at department meetings.
The book also provides a list of things educators should do to improve the effectiveness of lessons in diverse classrooms. The list that was most beneficial to my professional growth was the “classroom discussion list” which provides guidelines to improve classroom discussions in diverse classrooms. The guidelines are:
• Emphasize the importance of considering different approaches and viewpoints.

• Make it clear that you value all comments.

• Encourage all students to participate in class discussion.

• Monitor your own behavior in responding to students.

• Reevaluate your pedagogical methods for teaching in a diverse setting.

• Speak up promptly if a student makes a distasteful remark even jokingly.

• Avoid singling out students as spokespersons (it is unfair to have a person talk about his or her entire race, culture, or nationality).
These strategies and guidelines were helpful in helping me to conduct myself better in the classroom. Some things that I try to do when I am in a diverse classroom are:
- Gather information about how diverse the classroom is and do some research about them before beginning the class.

- Be attentive to what students needs during the lesson.

- Provide resources that are in the person’s language or tailored to the person culture.

- Offer extra help to students who have doubts about material

And in the classroom:

- Give everyone an equal opportunity to participate while acknowledging the people who raise their hand.

- Listen to the students and use their examples to explain concepts or ideas.

- Use the students name or nickname if this is proffered by the student.

- Encourage the students to critically analyze the lesson material.

- Give the students sufficient time to process information and ask questions.

- Giving feedback that goes along with the discussion.
I would like to know what other educators do to be effective educators in diverse classrooms. Please share your experiences or your thoughts.
Reference:
Davis, B. G. (2009). Tools for Teaching. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Post by: Karla Diaz

Importance of Teacher Self-Efficacy

2011-03-19T12:52:00.000-07:00

By Jamie Zane

According to the theory of Self-Efficacy, if a person perceives that they do not have the ability to do something (and have fears of accomplishment as a result), they will be less likely to participate in the behavior (Bandura, 1983). I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the power of having high self-efficacy – that if I believe that I possess the capabilities of doing something, I have a much stronger chance of accomplishing that goal.

I have spent the last six months working on developing a curriculum for a community nonprofit organization. The primary role of this agency is to advocate for children survivors of sexual abuse. Because I have over six years of experience as a rape crisis counselor and have predominantly worked with adolescents and adults, I was drawn to work with this agency as a way of expanding my knowledge of sexual violence, the impact of sexual abuse on communities and families, and strategies for increasing the effectiveness of prevention education.

And now I have a confession to make. The agency has been working on a pilot prevention education program for third graders in our community since I started working with them in September. Here comes that confession: I am not excited about working with children.

I wondered to myself at the very beginning – how am I going to pull this off? I thought about all of the reasons why children have not been my preferred audience and many of these reasons are quite rational. I don’t have much experience with kids – other than the experience I had as a kid growing up around other kids. I was an only child of a single mom who is also an only child. Most of my friends have either decided not to have kids or have waited until later in life to start a family. I do have three different friends with kids, but I so rarely get to see them that I find myself feeling awkward around their children when I do get the opportunity to spend time with them.

I did babysit for a very brief period of time in high school, but decided that it wasn’t for me and went into the restaurant industry. As a waitress, I’ve worked in many different types of environments that ranged from casual, hip restaurants to extremely attentive fine-dining restaurants. Most places where I’ve worked have not been very kid friendly. In fact, I can’t even remember a time when I’ve worked at a place that offered a special menu just for children.

When I first began the process of assisting with the local community partner agency, I was allowed to participate in assisting with the presenters in the actual third grade classes. I found this to be interesting to be around the kids, but extremely overwhelming. My self-efficacy in regards to teaching children is very low – and simply knowing this about myself hasn’t been a strong enough motivator to create any change.

I do feel that sexual abuse prevention education is very important and should be taught to children in the classroom setting. Although studies have shown that many parents believe that child sexual abuse education should be taught at home, it is also evident in research that most parents are too uncomfortable to discuss sexuality with their children and lack the information or resources to properly conduct these conversations (Kenny, Vjolca, Thakkar-Kolar, Ryan, & Runyon, 2008).

So how did I turn this low self-efficacy around, you may wonder? I realized that for the moment it is more important for me to work with an audience that I feel more comfortable around. Since I have much more experience with adolescents and adults, I focused on building a curriculum that is designed for adult learners. My self-efficacy is much higher in regards to teaching that population and therefore I have much more confidence in my abilities to plan lessons with appropriate rationales for participants who are not children.

According to child abuse prevention organization Stop It Now (2008), adults miss opportunities on a daily basis to prevent child sexual abuse because of stereotypes and misinformation about sexual abuse; therefore it is important for adults to learn to converse with other adults about this topic to better ensure the safety of children (p.2). I decided that I would focus on building a community coalition of adults who work with children in various capacities that could, with proper training, become advocates for children. The rationale is that if adults are working with children as child care providers, teachers, youth-service facilitators, and parents (especially), they have a vested interest in the well-being and protection of children.

There has been research on the topic of teacher self-efficacy, but I have found that most studies on this topic involve the impact of self-efficacy on the stress level and job satisfaction of teachers Klassen, R. M., & Chiu, M. (2010). I would argue that for a teacher to increase effectiveness as an educator, it is important to know oneself first in order to gauge where they are high on the self-efficacy scale and where they may fall short. Gaining teaching experience over time increases self-efficacy in the classroom overall, but it is much easier to start with a population in which one is already comfortable working with in general. It is already nerve-wracking enough to begin a career as a teacher. Why make the job even more difficult?

References:

Bandura, A. (1983). Self-efficacy determinants of anticipated fears and calamities. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45(2), 464-469.

Kenny, M., Vjolca, C., Thakkar-Kolar, R., Ryan, E., & Runyon, M. (2008). Child sexual abuse: from prevention to self-protection. Child Abuse Review, 17, 36-54.

Klassen, R. M., & Chiu, M. (2010). Effects on Teachers' Self-Efficacy and Job Satisfaction: Teacher Gender, Years of Experience, and Job Stress. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(3), 741-756. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Stop It Now. (2008). Prevent child sexual abuse: facts about sexual abuse and how to prevent it. The Safer Society Press: Brandon, VT. Retrieved from: www.stopitnow.org/sites/stopitnow...com/files/.../Prevent_CSA.pdf

Sexual Education for Toddlers?!? YES!!!

2011-03-19T10:20:00.000-07:00

Whether you are teaching preschoolers or have children around you of this age, questions about their bodies and other bodies will emerge. While some parents and teachers think they are off the hook about talking to their children or students about sex until they get much older, this is so not true! In fact, we can use preschooler’s everyday questions and turn them into fabulous learning experiences. In this way, everyone can be a sexuality educator. The child’s curiosity will set the stage for the beginning of their sexuality education experience!

During the preschool years, a child becomes curious about his or her body. They may notice that their older brother looks different “down there” or wonder why their mommy has hair “down there.” This brings up my first point- I believe it is very important to provide children the proper name for body parts and sex organs. I am sure everyone can recall various pet names given to genitals while growing up, but didn’t these names more or less teach us that our sex organs were something to be embarrassed about or secretive of? What is so wrong with calling it a vulva or penis rather than a hoo-ha, willy, or your “privates”? Most individuals would have no problem telling their children that a knee was called a knee or that an elbow should be referred to as an elbow, right? The only difference here is the perceived vulgarity or shame associated with genitals.

When preschoolers ask you questions, try your best to offer them an age-appropriate, direct response. This works best with my young nieces and nephew. Bath time was always a time for questions and in turn an opportunistic time for sexual education. This is when you can explain that boys and girls are different in a number of ways and give them the correct names for their body parts. It is very important to try not to be embarrassed or ashamed during these learning experiences, as the children will most likely begin to believe our genitals are something to be ashamed of and kept a secret. This is the last thing we want! Teach them to be proud of the body they have and who they are! While teaching them to appreciate their bodies and sex organs, you could also use this opportunity to teach them about boundaries (keep in mind, on an age-appropriate level) and what is acceptable and not acceptable in terms of their behavior as well as the behavior of others. While perusing various lesson plans on teaching preschoolers the names and locations of body parts, I was disappointed but in no way surprised when sex organs didn’t make the cut. “Pin the Body Parts on Johnny or Susie” could be all the more beneficial for children if it included ALL of our body parts!

Books can be very helpful when talking to children about body parts, puberty, pregnancy, etc. It’s So Amazing! by Robie Harris and Michael Emberley is one of my personal favorites. Perfect for preschoolers, this book discusses body parts, sex and love, and pregnancy and childbirth. My favorite parts of the book: the drawings sure to fascinate children, the fact that the authors discuss all different types of love (i.e. love for pets, parents, friends), and the way in which homosexual relationships are placed on a level playing field with heterosexual relationships. SCORE!!! It’s Not the Stork! is another straightforward, picture-filled book for preschoolers written by the same authors. I love that this book explains that all different types of families and parents exist, not just man-woman-children. This way, children will learn to appreciate ALL kinds of families they or someone else may belong to…teaching love and acceptance can never occur at too young of an age!

-Robin

Values of a Sex Educator vs. Values of Their Job

2011-03-13T14:37:00.000-07:00

I currently work in a college health setting. I am able to meet and interact with other sex educators in the field at conferences, in class, through advocacy events, at workshops and trainings, etc. Obviously, we come from a myriad of backgrounds and paths to becoming sex educators, and we work in a variety of different environments, structures, organizations, etc. The methods in which we are able to (and ALLOWED to) provide education to our audiences are all different, the content of that education is potentially regulated, and the resources we are allowed to provide are oftentimes limited. I will say that I am VERY lucky to be at an institution that really has yet to regulate any of the education I provide. But in talking with colleagues I know that often is not the case. Because sexuality is such a value-laden topic, morals and values of one’s organization, employer, audience, co-workers, etc., all have the potential to impact his or her work. Some sex educators I know are not allowed to discuss abortion. Some cannot hand out condoms. Some aren’t allowed to use sex toys when educating… I’m sure you’ve all heard these anecdotes before.

One notable story of an educator’s “questionable” methods has been in the news recently. If you’re not familiar, a Northwestern University professor held a optional session for his Human Sexuality class during which a guest speaker was brought to orgasm by her fiance using a sex toy. Not the most traditional teaching method, and it has not surprisingly caught some backlash. But the intention was to educate students. A spokesman for the University has said, "Northwestern University faculty members engage in teaching and research on a wide variety of topics, some of them controversial and some of at the leading edge of their respective disciplines... The University supports the efforts of its faculty to further the advancement of knowledge” (“Northwestern Uni defends sex-toy demonstration”, Associated Press, March 3, 2011)

While I haven’t had any live sex demonstrations during my educatioal sessions (yet?), I already mentioned that I have yet to be restricted from doing something that I believe to be educational and beneficial to my students. That being said, I am nervous that I will not always be in such a lucky situation, and find myself feeling anxious and almost suffocated thinking about, for example, not being able to pass out condoms to my students. As simple as that may sound, I feel like I would really struggle with it! While I understand that condoms may not be within a person’s or organization’s or institution’s value systems… what about my values? As an educator, I feel as though something like that would be directly conflicting with my values. But I also know that some of us do it… and do it REALLY WELL! So I want to learn from you! Do you have any of these conflicted feelings? Is it easier than I am anticipating to quiet them? Or not? Does it make you angry? Frustrated? If so, how do you deal with those feelings both personally or within your work? AM I JUST BEING NAIVE? Or dramatic? Ahhh!

-Colby

What about Bacterial Vaginosis?

2011-03-13T12:49:00.000-07:00

Open any sexuality education curriculum and you will see a guideline for teaching about the usual suspects such as: HPV, Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, Syphilis, or HIV, but how about Bacterial Vaginosis? Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is the most common vaginal infection in women of childbearing age. BV is associated with an imbalance in the bacteria that are normally found in a woman’s vagina. Currently, it is unclear what role sexual activity plays in the development of BV, but what we do know is that BV is prevalent. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), there were 21.2 million reported cases of BV between 1999-2004 (Koumans et al., 2007).

This is how the other conditions mentioned above measure up according to the CDC Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance 2009:

HPV: about 20 million cases currently, 6 million new cases each year

Gonorrhea: 301, 174 cases in 2009

Chlamydia: 1,244,180 cases in 2009

Syphilis: 13,997 cases in 2009

HIV: about 1,000,000 current cases, 56,000 new cases each year

For the most part, untreated bacterial vaginosis doesn’t cause future serious complications in the manner of HIV, syphilis, or HPV. This could be why little emphasis is put on teaching about the infection. However, the condition certainly causes a lot of shame amongst young women and for that reason, educators should take note.

The most common symptom of bacterial vaginosis is a foul, fish-like odor from the vagina. Think about the implications that could have on an impressionable young woman who has little information about her body or access to that information. This young woman may not even be sexually active. She could have gotten the infection from using a new soap around her vagina, wearing too tight non-cotton underwear, or she could have a genetic pre-disposition to getting BV.

On the other hand, maybe she is sexually active. Maybe this young woman thinks that the infection is a result of not washing her vagina well enough, so she douches, uses perfumes and further irritates the matter, but doesn’t realize that (for the most part) her infection can only be treated by a prescription antibiotic. So this young woman continues to have sex, and maybe her similarly uneducated partners take note of her foul scent and talk to their friends about it in school and they talk to another person and before you know it, this young woman has a reputation for being ‘dirty’, ‘smelly’, and/ or ‘diseased’.

How could an educator change this potential situation?

Add BV to your repertoire. Throw it in with the other sexually transmitted infections and related conditions that you typically teach about. Put an end to the myth that women’s vaginas smell bad and educate young people about irregular odors. While doing so, be sure to mention that not all infections are related to sexual activity. If you do that, it will just perpetuate the myth that a smelly vagina is synonymous with those who have multiple partners.

In conclusion, my suggestion is to get to know BV and tell all your friends and students about it too.

Koumans EH, Sternberg M, Bruce C, McQuillan G, Kendrick J, Sutton M, Markowitz LE. The prevalence of bacterial vaginosis in the United States, 2001-2004; associations with symptoms, sexual behaviors, and reproductive health.
Sex Transm Dis. 2007 Nov;34(11):864-9

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance 2009. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 2010 CDC. HIV Prevalence Estimates—United States, 2006. MMWR 2009;57(39):1073-76.

Sex Education: "You Better Work!"

2011-03-06T11:42:00.000-08:00

While watching RuPaul’s drag race this week, I decided that this would make a unique perspective and metaphor on effective sex education. Who is RuPaul? RuPaul is an iconic drag queen that has been in the business for the last twenty-five years, but truly gained her fame in the 1990’s. Currently, RuPaul has her own reality television show in which men compete to be the top drag queen superstar. How is sex education like doing good drag? Sashay this way and I’ll show you…

http://www.logotv.com/shows/rupauls_drag_race/season_3/series.jhtml

Drag 101:

Fierce Make-up! "Let’s go COVERGIRL!" When it comes to drag, I think about foundation, all the layers of make-up, and blending that go into putting on a fierce face for the stage. An effective sex educator is also expected to put on a fierce face or presentation by developing successful lesson plans, scaffolding, and paying attention to detail. A drag queen spends hours putting on make-up for a performance that may only last minutes. In order to do effective education, sex educators can also benefit from spending two to three times the amount in advance, developing the presentation and lesson planning . Layering make-up, like scaffolding, is a useful tool for educators seeking to employee the experiential learning cycle to provide learners the opportunity to process new concepts. Scaffolding is useful for experiential learning, which is appropriate for all ages of learners, and can be an excellent tool to have in your educational make-up bag. Drag queens know they have to get every line and every shade right; sex educators should have their lesson plans fined tuned and be prepared for every possible answer, interaction, and problem that could develop within their class in order to be a successful. Good sex education, like good make-up, should always look flawless and effortless.
The Tuck! "Oh girl, leave your baggage at home, ain’t nobody wanna see that!" A drag queen knows how to hide their man parts to create the illusion of a woman, just like a sex educator must hide their baggage or biases to present appropriate lessons. It is important as sex educators that we manage our feelings and opinions about certain sexuality topics and present them in a manner that allows individuals to form their own thoughts, based on accurate or researched information. Sometimes disclosure can be helpful, but it is the responsibility of the educator to plan what personal facts are necessary to share to create relevant examples and which might take away from students learning. Also sex educators need to embrace a positive attitude and check their problems at the door as a means of keeping students engaged or motivated to learn about the topic instead of wondering what the educator’s dilemma is. Ultimately, personal baggage is like a good tuck, it should be kept secure and hidden.
Diva Dressing "She looks like a hott mess!" You do not want to be caught dead with the wrong drag look. Drag queens must look sharp and well dressed at all times or they will get served/upstaged by another queen. A good sex educator must appear knowledgeable and experienced or they too will be upstaged and ignored. Students want their teachers to be knowledgeable when it comes to sexuality education and so do fellow educators. Far too often sex education is done on the fly, sometimes there is no planning time for lessons or folks attempt to just wing it. It is very important for an educator to review concepts and fully comprehend the material that they are presenting. A true diva brings an element of confidence and an understanding of their craft; sex education should be no different. A sexuality educator should know the material backwards and forwards, don’t fake it until you make it, but rather bring your A game to the stage. In other words, be fully prepared, present, and precise when discussing sexuality topics; it looks poor when you cannot accurately deliver the concepts of the lesson, and of course like choosing the wrong dress, you will be judged for it!
Finding the right wig! "Tap your weave girl!" The final phase of prepping for a drag queen is coming up with the perfect wig and placing it on their heads. For an educator the end stage is the evaluation, does the lesson match the goals and objectives. Is there a clear take home message? Is my wig going to stay in tact for my performance? A sexuality educator must select accomplishable goals and establish objectives that can measure if students are learning. The sexuality lesson should be delivered with a specific tone, preferably sex positive, and the take home message should be clear. A drag queen’s wig is the finishing touch, it can offer personality and display exactly what kind of character or art form the queen is attempting to portray. The sexuality educator should follow suit and be certain that the lesson clarifies any points of confusion, accomplishes the goal, and has a stable tone, not an ambiguous one. Selecting an appropriate take home message and establishing the right tone for a sexuality lesson is much like finding the most attractive or best fitting wig for your stage performance.

     Once all the drag queen preparation is completed the next step is to perform just as an educator then must teach. Doing good drag and good education are quite similar because most of the work is accomplished behind the scenes, prior to performing or actually teaching in front of an audience. Drag queens have to assemble their face and outfits as well as deciding on what mode of entertainment they will bring to the main stage. A drag queen has to practice her jokes, songs, and choreography, depending on what type of performance is best suited for the crowd, or in the case of an educator, the target population. A sexuality educator also must spend time delivering or practicing their lesson in advance, testing out which methodology will be most appropriate for teaching, and adapting the material to fit the particular audience it is intended for.

      A drag queen must have confidence, charisma, and a sense of humor to perform, much like an educator. According to Hedgepath and Helmich (1996), sexuality educators should be confident, comfortable and knowledgeable about the topic and present with an appropriate level of humor. A drag queen is capable of commanding the attention of the audience and an effective educator should be just as captivating. The performance or lesson is the most exciting part of education, but the real work is done beforehand to ensure a fantastic performance. Each drag queen has her own sense of style and finesse, much like a good educator does too, but the development of the performance is the quintessential part of being a successful educator.

     At the end of the day education should be fun and entertaining if we want students to ascertain meaning attribution from the lesson. As sex educators we have to follow our bliss and pursue sexuality education topics that possess meaning for us. According to Kirby (2000), an effective sex educator has the passion for teaching about sexuality topics. Educators who speak with a positive tone about sexuality can guide the lesson so much farther. Bringing sex education to the main stage can often be seen as a battle between the restrictive (abstinence-only until marriage), and the permissive (comprehensive sexuality education) (Goldfarb & McCaffree, 2000). Sexuality educators can benefit from more collaboration and less opposition.

      If too many divas exist in sex education and if we cannot visualize ourselves as equals then we falter. According to Schroeder (2009), competition in sexuality education is debilitating and it would be more beneficial to compromise on one goal, to advance the field. A great drag diva can own the stage, but she also comprehends that her peers can represent and deliver a stellar performance as well to assist the art of drag superstardom on its journey forward. Sexuality educators may be entitled to sense of ego, but if we cannot share the stage or convince people that there is a stage for sexuality education, then we may fail. In short, providing good sex education means, “you better work!”

Ashley

References:

Goldfarb, E. S., & McCaffree, K. (2000). Toward a more effective pedagogy
     for sexuality education: The establishment of democratic classrooms.
     Journal of Sex Education & Therapy, 25(2/3), 147-155. Retrieved from
     EBSCOhost.

Hedgepeth, E., & Helmich, J. (1996). Teaching about sexuality and HIV.
     New York, NY: NYU Press.

Kirby, D. (2000). What does the research say about sexuality education?
     Educational leadership, 50(2), 72-76.

Schroeder, E. (2009). The future of sexuality education in the twenty-first
      century and beyond. In E. Schroeder, & J. Kuriansky, (Eds.), Sexuality
      education: Past, present, and future, 255-265. Westport, CT: Praeger.

The Teacher is Center Stage

2011-02-27T20:16:00.000-08:00

I’ve recently realized how difficult it is to teach. Some of the big tasks a teacher has to accomplish are planning, creating a curriculum, keeping students’ attention, inspiring, and providing new knowledge and skills. Additionally, something I never thought much about, is that during a lesson the teacher is always on “center stage.” Even when not standing in the front of the room, they are permanently the main focus. No matter whether the lesson is at the beginning, middle, or end point, whether they are lecturing, setting something up, or observing an activity, eyes are always on them. This is true whether the teacher is a daily classroom teacher, a lecturer at a seminar, or a facilitator in a workshop.

Although this idea of always being watched may make me sound paranoid, I believe it is very important to think about in order to fully recognize the position of power and influence that teachers possess during a lesson. This awareness I have of always being on-stage when teaching is significant to me because it has helped me to think about the fact that throughout a lesson all of my emotions, reactions, intonations, body language, and expressions are being observed. How the teacher acts can impact the tone and feeling in the room as well as influence what a student learns from a teacher.

Silberman (1990) discusses body language by citing the old adage, “It’s not what you say but how you say it (p. 226).” He goes on to say that research indicates participants remember and respond to only 7% of what is said. The remaining 93% comes from how the teacher responds non-verbally, what Silberman defines as vocally, facially, and posturally. He recognizes that for teachers changing habits that hinder learning is difficult because often they were developed over a long period of time, however, maintaining a constant awareness of body language in front of a group is a helpful first step to change. I would take his suggestion further and say for sexuality educators, not only is it important to be aware of habits, but it is critical to also develop an awareness of personal opinions, beliefs, and emotional reactions associated with various topics. Teaching sex and sexuality often bring up a wide array of personal feelings and responses, and it is critical for sexuality educators to be aware of themselves in order to expect their reactions and to think in advance how to manage them.

For example, let’s imagine a teacher is discussing different physical expressions of love. She details self-love, kissing, intercourse, and sensual massage. A student raises their hand and asks, “What about BDSM? Does that count as love?” The teacher may have a personal reaction in which she says to herself, “Yikes! I am super uncomfortable/opposed/uninformed about BDSM!” The issue may be actual discomfort with the topic, not knowing what is appropriate to discuss in this setting, or not remembering what BDSM means. Because she is front and center at that moment, her facial expressions (panic, fear, or confusion) may be conveying cues to the students that are helping to influence opinions about the topic. There may be someone in the room who engages in BDSM activities or knows someone close to them who does, and the reaction of the teacher has the potential to impact and shape their feeling that they are in a safe space. There may also be people in the room who have never heard of BDSM, but immediately learn from the teacher’s reaction that this behavior is not accepted. This same scenario could occur with any number of topics – masturbation, sexual violence, polyamory, etc.

Hedgepeth and Helmich (1996) say teacher comfort with sexuality education establishes the learning atmosphere and influences the students’ level of comfort. Educators often communicate their feelings about a subject non-verbally, and that plays a part in how receptive students are to the message a teacher is trying to convey and how comfortable the students feel asking questions. If a student picks up on an instructors feeling of embarrassment on the subject, regardless of what the teacher is verbalizing, the student will sense the feeling and the embarrassment or taboo-nature of the subject will be reinforced. Sexuality is a sensitive issue, and if the teacher is uncomfortable discussing the topic, the participants will likely reflect the same discomfort, which will interfere with the learning experience (Hedgepeth & Helmich, 1996). In this way, demonstrating comfort and knowledge through the lesson, regardless of the topic, helps to convey that the teacher is skilled, open-minded, and respectful.

I believe as sex educators we want to be especially careful of our reactions because we are being judged intensely by people inside and out of the classroom. The topics covered in sexuality education have the potential to be more explosive, sensitive, personal, and complex than in other subject areas. In the short amount of time I have with students I want to do my very best not to ostracize any person or activity, to help normalize less common ideas or behaviors, and to create a safe space for all students. To do this I need to provide positive (or at the very least non-judgmental) information AND non-verbal responses.

Silberman emphasizes the need to for teachers to be comfortable and familiar with their own course content. He described the excitement and challenge of delivering a lesson for the first time as a combination of excitement of preparing and learning new material coupled with the nervous lack of experience in delivering that information. In this situation, the teacher does not have any experience with students’ reactions to this information. Silberman advised that if you feel concerned about the questions student might pose (such as with the above BDSM example) consider opening questions up to the group for discussion or writing down questions and promising to get back to the group with the answer as soon as possible.

On the other hand, body language can convey messages and hinder learning when the teacher appears disinterested or has taught a lesson many times. For example, teaching about STDs is not my favorite activity. I can become very passionate and I have a high amount of energy in teaching about other sexual health topics, but STDs don’t excite me that much. I spend all day talking about Syphilis at work, and I develop Syphilis-fatigue. I try to keep in mind the purpose of my job is to educate about Syphilis and encourage risk-reduction. Often, for the people with whom I speak, their time with me is their only opportunity for sexuality education. If I speak to everyone in a monotone voice and convey my tired old speech about Syphilis, I won’t be conveying how serious an infection it can be, my desire to help people reduce their risk, or convey that I am interested and invested in them personally. If I don’t act excited and convey thoughtful and non-judgmental responses, they may not open up to me and feel comfortable having a conversation, and an opportunity for education will be missed.

Silberman addresses what to do if the content is boring because a teacher has taught the same thing repeatedly. In this case he recommends that if you experience this, keep in mind that although the information is second nature to you, it is brand new information for your students. Try to watch the ways people respond to what you say, provide plenty of opportunity for discussion, and incorporate what you learn from students into each new session. He also provides three tips to avoiding burnout: be open and flexible with the lesson plan and try different ways to deliver information or new activities, vary the location and environment you teach in, and watch others teach the same material to get new ideas.

To be effective teachers, we need to have a lot of practice. Some ideas to help us become more aware of body language, reactions, and how we are subtly conveying messages to students include video taping yourself teaching a lesson so you can see first-hand how you act. You could also ask a friend to watch you and critique your performance. As Silberman suggested, you could observe someone else teaching a similar topic to get new ideas about how to act, react, or respond to difficult situations. I also feel strongly that we should educate ourselves as much as possible on as many topics as possible. This is part of the point of the Sexual Attitude Restructuring (SARs) we experience in this program. By exposing ourselves to a wide array of topics and experiences we are desensitizing our reactions and thus developing a level of comfort and familiarity. This is fortunate so that we will not have our first exposure and reactions in front of a classroom.

Ultimately, a teacher is in the challenging position of role model. The quality and effectiveness of their involvement in the material and ability to present can impact what the participants get out of the experience (Wong et al., 2010). For this reason, I believe that it is critical for teachers to be intentional and thoughtful in their self-presentation and mindful of the messages, verbal and non-verbal, they may be sending to participants. Awareness that we will have personal reactions is a first step to managing how we will deal with our reactions. I believe that this is a critical piece of teaching that significantly impacts how successful teachers are in conveying their messages and how receptive student are to those messages.

I’m interested to hear other people’s thoughts about being the center of attention in a classroom. How do you manage your attitude, energy, and non-verbal reactions? In what way do you manage both topic fatigue and disinterest?

Jiná

References:

Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Hedgepeth, E., & Helmich, J. (1996). Teaching about sexuality and HIV: Principles and methods for effective education. New York, NY: New York University Press.

Silberman, M.L. (1990). Active training: A handbook of techniques, designs, case examples and tips. New York, NY: Lexington Books.

Stayton, W.R. (1998). A curriculum for training professionals in human sexuality using the sexual attitude restructuring (SAR) model. Journal of Sex Education and Therapy, 23 (1), 26-32.

Wong, N. T., Zimmerman, M.A., & Parker, E.A. (2010). A typology of youth participation and empowerment for child and adolescent health promotion. American Journal of Community Psychology, 46, 100–114.

RealCare® Babies: A Teen Pregnancy Deterrent?

2011-02-27T18:50:00.000-08:00

I currently teach child development in a mostly white, socially privileged high school. I have also taught child development in an urban setting with mostly black, under privileged students. Within the child development classroom, both groups have one common bond: they all want to have a baby.

No, they do not want to have a real baby but a RealCare® Baby, a baby doll crafted from “soft vinyl” that simulates newborn behavior from birth to three months old. These baby dolls come in an assortment of ethnicities within which there is a choice of male or female and the students cannot wait to take one home. This is the main reason why a 14 - 15 year old, largely female population with the occasional token male, whether privileged or under privileged, takes the class.

Their quest to take home a baby begins when they enter the classroom. Unfortunately, these students must wait almost six months, three months shy of a normal pregnancy to achieve their goal. Along the way they engage in many activities that help them to acquire knowledge regarding developmental theorists, types of families, female and male sexual anatomy, sexually transmitted infections, and how to get pregnant. More knowledge is acquired about how to have a healthy pregnancy, developing fetuses and birth defects, how babies are born, and what happens to newborns after birth. I say knowledge is acquired because a student must have at least a B average to take home a baby. This is incentive to learn as almost no one gets below a B. Once the baby has been “born” in class, the students finally get to pick a baby to bring home for the weekend.

The RealCare® Baby of choice is named by the student and programmed by the educator to “turn on” at 3:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon and to “turn off” on Monday morning at 7:00 a.m. when they are returned to school. The simulation is based on real babies’ schedules. Realityworks, the company that invented the RealCare® Baby, observed and recorded the timing and duration of activities such as eating, burping, urinating, defecating, and the amount of time the babies just needed to be held and comforted during a 24 hour cycle. A real babies’ 24 hour schedule is then programmed into a RealCare® Baby. If the RealCare® Baby is in use longer than 24 hours, a combination of schedules are used to prevent memorization of the schedule. There is actually a different cry used for each activity taped from a real baby and if the students pay close enough attention, they begin to discern the difference between the ‘need to be fed’ cry and the ‘diaper change’ cry. The educator can program easy, medium, hard or random baby schedules, allow for babysitting, or program quiet hours if necessary. There is an infant wardrobe, car seats, Snuggli baby carriers, and even a tab that can be pinned to a bra to simulate breast-feeding.

To have a successful stimulation the student must:

NEVER drop the head.
Decide why the RealCare® Baby is crying...Does it need a diaper change? To be fed? Burped? Or just held and rocked?
Begin care within a minute or so or the RealCare® Baby starts to cry louder.... and louder.
Hold The RealCare® Baby during feeding as the simulator can tell if the bottle is propped.

If all goes well, the student returns the well-cared for RealCare® Baby, a report is generated depicting how well the student responded to the baby’s demands, and the simulation is finished. It is to be hoped that the teenage has had a stressed filled, sleep deprived, anxiety ridden weekend that will result in the obvious conclusion to ‘wait until you are older to have sex so you will not get pregnant and have to take care of a baby.’

All of this as a deterrent to teenage pregnancy: I am not allowed to teach about birth control or to bring in a speaker from Planned Parenthood. Realityworks is a research-based program. My question remains - Does the RealCare® Baby experience really discourage teens from getting pregnant? Wouldn’t comprehensive sex education, which includes birth control information, be more effective?

Dr. Peggy Drexler wrote about a cultural time slip in the 50’s when females began acquiring female sexual independence but lacked access to birth control. (The birth rate in 1957 reached a historic high of 96.3 per 1,000.) Sexual freedom was liberating but sometimes the girls ended up “in trouble.” The disgraced family would arrange an intervention in which the culprit was removed from the community and their life, along with their child were taken away. Nowadays teenage pregnancy is no longer a secret. It has risen from hidden shame to primetime programming beginning with Juno, which purported a happily ever after ending. Glee’s Quinn Fabray carries a baby to full term with no apparent consequences, a Juno reinforcement, and Teen Mom’s search for the next batch of actors has many girls asking what they can do to score a role. Legislating media content is no longer an option. Sex sells and these days media espouses increasingly more sex with inconsistent illustrations of condom use to anyone who has access to a screen.

While the CDC (2009) reported that birth rates for teenagers ages 15-17 declined in 31 states from 2007 to a historic low across all age groups, ethnicities, and races, the U.S. still has one of the highest overall rates of teenage births in comparison to other industrialized nations.

Some facts associated with teen pregnancies:

$9 BILLION: Annual cost of teen childbearing to federal, state and local taxpayers in lower taxes paid and greater demands on public services.

25 PERCENT: Teen moms who go on welfare within three years of the child’s birth.

34 PERCENT: Teen moms who don’t earn their high school diploma or GED by age 22, compared to 6 percent of childless girls.

LESS THAN 2 PERCENT: Moms with babies before age 18 who earn a college degree by age 30.

66 PERCENT: Children of teen moms who graduate from high school compared to 81 percent of children with older parents.

66 PERCENT: Families started by teens that live in poverty.

And what comes as no surprise given the current political climate; the current House-passed 2011 Federal Budget Bill is one giant step backwards in the fight to reduce teen-age pregnancy:

“Family Planning: The bill entirely eliminates funding for the title X Family Planning program, which received $317 million in FY 2010. This program helps support family planning and reproductive health services to more than 5 million people annually at 4,500 community-based clinics. Grantees include state and local health departments, hospitals, community health centers, and private nonprofit organizations. Services provided include the full range of contraceptive services, as well as screening and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, cancer and HIV screenings, education, and other preventive services” (Doyle, 2011).

“Teen Pregnancy Prevention: The bill also eliminates funding for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program (which received appropriations of $110 million in FY 2010). This program makes competitive grants to public agencies and private nonprofit organizations to support evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention efforts” (Doyle, 2011).

Clearly we would be better off preventing teen-age pregnancies. I teach now in a predominantly white community within a privileged socioeconomic status. While no single program model is appropriate for all communities or teenage mothers the Rand Corporation reported that the choice of programs should reflect “community attitudes, dispersal of students, and number of pregnancies.” Culturally in my community, the teenage girls do not want to end up pregnant but they do want to enjoy sexual agency and they do want the experience of being a mom for a weekend. Why not use the RealCare® Babies to provide a pleasant interactive learning experience about caring for a newborn and let me teach about how to enjoy sex without the fear of pregnancy through the use of birth control?

Vicki

Check out the following sites for additional information:

http://www.popeater.com/2010/12/07/teen-mom-pregnant-auditions/

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db58.htm

http://www.ncsl.org/?tabid=22087

http://doyle.house.gov/budget/2011/02/doyle-condemns-house-passed-2011-federal-budget-bill.shtml

http://search.rand.org/search?input-form=rand-simple&v%3Asources=rand-bundle&v%3Aproject=rand&query=teenage+pregnancy

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peggy-drexler/the-juno-effect-media-tee_b_815001.html

http://www.realityworks.com/research.html

Teaching Sex Ed to Parents First

2011-02-20T11:24:00.000-08:00

I want you to imagine that you are presenting a sexuality education workshop to a group of 100 college freshman. You open up by asking how many of their parent’s talked to them about sex and sexuality before 11th grade. How many would raise their hands? 20? 50? All 100? Chances are slim depending on the group, right? Let’s say you continue presenting sexuality education workshops to college freshman once a month, with 100 eager students attending each session (a sex educator’s dream, I know!). You begin your session with the same question each time asking who has the brave parents. How long does it take before you begin to realize the pattern of silent parents? Session number two, maybe three? More importantly, when do you realize that you may be presenting to the wrong group of 100 participants? Don’t panic, this doesn’t mean you are out of a job, it means you may have just created another avenue for sexuality education.

It occurred to me recently, that for all the interventions and curricula designed to help young people navigate their sexuality (choices, decisions, feelings, etc.), we invest virtually no time and resources into helping parents help their children navigate their sexuality. What makes this so interesting is, as educators when we sit down to develop a curriculum we are instructed to do research, research, research, add rationale, and do more research. What better resource could you use to learn more about a child, than that child’s parent or guardian? I am not sure if parents are the only experts on their children, but most parents and caregivers are the first to see how their child’s personality, speech patterns, anxieties, freedoms, questioning style, etc. develop. If this be the case why not build a relationship between sexuality educators and parents that would work symbiotically, with the child as the focus. Something like an individualized sexuality health plan.

So, how would we actually teach this? First, let’s think about a timeline. There are some parents who are geared up and ready to teach about sex education 24-hours post delivery, while others may be ready when their children are of retirement age. No matter when parents are ready (or need help getting ready), here are some helpful tips.

Parents have feelings, too! Discussion and education around what parent’s think and feel about sex and sexuality is a very important element. If you dismiss their anxieties, questions, and concerns, you put parents on the defense. This only heightens their discomfort about discussing sex and potentially slows or stops their feelings of self-efficacy.
Adults need stages, too! Remind parents that they may not have all of the answers now (or ever!) about sex and sexuality and that’s okay. Remind them they are not only learning (or re-learning) about themselves, but they are also learning about their child, so give themselves room to learn and make mistakes. It is perfectly okay to move at a pace that is comfortable for them and their child.
One size does not fit all. Parents may be able to tell you that their first child learned to walk at 9 months and their third child learned at 13 months. Teaching about sexuality is the same way. Children will desire to learn different things at different times in their lives, so be patient with them and yourself when it comes to tailoring information to each child.

Now that you are armed with a few tips on how to teach sexuality education to parents, you are wondering where in the world do you recruit them?! Well, let’s think of places parents with children of different ages may be.

Daycares - Think of approaching daycare centers with organizing a “How-To” sexuality education workshop once a month for parents and daycare personnel.
Faith Centers - If you, or someone close to you is a member of a religious organization, see if any parents would be interested in starting a group to share stories on sex education that are rooted in their particular faith. This could also help parents of younger children get ideas and support from parents of older children.
Local Libraries - Talk with your local library to see if you could survey parents who attend book clubs or reading groups for themselves or their children to gauge interest in learning how to better educate their children on sexuality.
PTA Board - Yes, schools can be a scary place to bring up sexuality education, but if you, or someone you know has a group of parents that spend time together in or outside of PTA meetings see if they would be interested in learning more about teaching sexuality education to their children.

Some may dismiss this notion of teaching parents about sexuality education as too difficult or laborious. That may be true, but when you think back on that imaginary story at the beginning of this blog, and you visualized how many students had parents who never talked to them about sexuality, it seems high time that we reframe the conversation. Many sexuality educators entered the field because of a bad experience (or a series of bad experiences) around how they were, or were not educated about sex and sexuality. At what point do we stop blaming the parents who never taught their kids about sexuality for all for the high rates of infection and pregnancy, and offer help to parents? Silence can be seen as an answer, but if we asked a different question, we just may get a different response.

LaShay

It IS a Democracy: The Value of Participant Input in Program Planning

2011-02-20T06:13:00.000-08:00

I write this blog as someone who believes strongly in the power of democracy as well as in creating a learning environment that feels empowering. I also write it as someone who has delivered and seen thousands of hours of sexuality education programs, many of which involved an educator (sometimes that educator was me) coming into a classroom with a canned curriculum or a series of lessons already planned out and ready to go before a single interaction happened with the participants. Perhaps the content was chosen arbitrarily by the educator or by whoever invited the educator in. Regardless, I think in many cases, this is a mistake. I am advocating that you, the sexuality educator, should be asking your students what they want and need to learn and using that data to plan your programming. This may cause a panic for you if you lean towards essentialism as your educational philosophy, but hear me out.

A wise human sexuality professor once taught me that “Good Education is manipulation.” In essence, as educators, we know where we want our students to get and we take them on the journey. So if good education is manipulation, you may be thinking “Why should I be asking youth to tell me what I should be teaching them?” By asking youth for their input into what they need and want to learn, we instantly create a higher level of buy-in than we would have previously had. They are invested in the program before we even begin to teach. We avoid being another teacher who comes in and arbitrarily gives them “what they need to know” based on our perspective. And as Hedgepeth and Helmich note, we actually encourage the very skills we are trying to build in many sexuality education programs- empowerment and self-efficacy.

Now to clarify, I am advocating for youth input into topic/content selection, not necessarily actual activities or teaching style. I’m not asking for students to write our lesson plans for us. That piece is for you, the expert, to determine. While youth may not be experts in developmental theory or learning styles, there are some things they are the expert on- their own interests and needs. Since sexuality education varies so drastically from school district to school district and family to family, we cannot assume that a specific “basic” sexuality education program will meet the needs of all youth. Some are coming to you having spent an entire semester studying contraceptive methods; some don’t know what the word contraceptive means. By asking for and utilizing student input into topics, you can attempt to avoid teaching a painfully repetitive subject or one that they are missing the conceptual foundation for.

So how can you put this idea into action? In a multi-session program, plan for it in your introductory session- an icebreaker, ground rules, and an activity that incorporates student feedback into what the upcoming sessions should focus on. There a multitude of means by which you can gather this data, but the important piece of the equation is actually using the data to plan your programming. While you need to be clear that it might not be possible to cover every topic they suggest, let students know that you will make an attempt to address the interests they’ve expressed in some manner throughout the course of the program. If you collect the information and then decide it’s not content you want to focus on, you’ve already discredited yourself in the eyes of your audience. So, bottom line, don’t collect it if there is a chance you might not be able to use any of it.

An example of where I’ve seen this work incredibly well is with adjudicated youth or those in drug and alcohol treatment facilities. If these youth have been through the traditional educational system and it has not worked for them, why would they believe your program will be any different? To them you are another person there to lecture to them and they will likely smile and nod and completely tune you out. By asking what they want to learn, you are empowering them and respecting their opinions. You are saying, “I trust you to give me relevant and serious input.” That may not be something they are used to. Youth in these settings (and sometimes youth in general) are accustomed to adults expecting very little from them and not valuing what they have to say. It can be incredibly powerful to give youth the gift of expecting more from them. Often their reaction is to give you their respect in return. The added bonus is, if behavior becomes an issue during future sessions, you can remind students that you are trying to give them what they asked for. The sense of “Oh wait, we did ask for this” can be an effective means of getting participants back on task. I can say firsthand that I have seen this work in groups I’ve taught.

This can also work well with youth who have already been taught a comprehensive sexuality education curriculum. The basic STI lesson may be old hat for them, however, they may benefit from a quick STI overview and an entire session focused specifically on HPV. This is often information youth will willingly share if asked and will allow you to make better use of the time you have with them. This also an effective means for you to build your repertoire as an educator. Often we can get into the rut of teaching the same lessons because, let’s face it, it’s easier. Asking for youth input may require you to seek out new information and design new lesson plans. It may, at times, really challenge you. For example, recently a group I facilitate asked for a session on Transgender Identities. I had not done a Trans specific lesson for teens before and had to put some real work into. The end result? I now have happy students, increased information and another lesson plan in my pocket. Win, win, win.

I know some will argue that they have to teach what the site or grant asks them to, that there is no time to teach to the specific needs of the group. As a community health educator, I certainly can sympathize with these restrictions. If you truly are limited in time or flexibility, consider negotiating with the site to build in 1-2 sessions that you will use to address the topics youth are most interested in. Youth can anonymously suggest potential topics and then you can vote on which will be taught, the topics with the most votes win. Isn’t democracy grand?

Alison Bellavance

Dropping the F-Bomb: Insight on Constructively Incorporating Swearing in High School Classrooms

2011-02-12T21:50:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: There will be swear words in this post. Read at your own discretion.

This blog, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is a blog dedicated to thinking critically about the craft of teaching human sexuality. Although I write this post as a student earning their M.Ed in Human Sexuality Education, I’ve been rocking sex education in American classrooms since 2003. So when the assignment of writing a ‘how to teach sex-ed’ blog post was given, my mind went in a million different directions.

As a sex educator, I have stood in front of a diverse array of American classrooms. I have taught comprehensive sexuality education to high school freshmen. I have taught adults how to become more fully orgasmic, love their bodies more than they thought possible, and how to pleasantly surprise their partners with a lil’ something extra in the bedroom (or on the kitchen counter). I have fielded questions from 12 year olds to 80+ year olds about masturbation, BDSM, safer sex, sex toys and body hair. I have taken high-risk youth and given them sex education and community by being open and honest about sexuality issues that affected them.

Needless to say, that list isn’t exhaustive.

At the end of my reflection on my experiences thus far, the only thing that I could say was constant across all these interventions was swearing.

I am a huge potty mouth. I am of the opinion that there are simply some emotions that cannot be expressed without letting a good four letter word tear across one’s lips. And although substitutes like ‘dang,’ ‘fudge,’ and ‘shoot’ can be used … it’s kinda like watching Arena Football* when NFL and/or NCAA ball isn’t in season. (Or for those of you that aren’t football fans, it’s like drinking de-caf when the pot of caffeinated coffee is empty.) It kinda gets the job done, but is not even half as satisfying.

I also reflected on how the bulk of my experience is in teaching high-school aged teens.

So, as the cliché goes I’m going to write what I know. I’m going to discuss how swearing – something normally forbidden within high school classrooms – can be utilized constructively within the context of a sexuality classroom.

First, I’m going to give you some context for how the use of swearing within my sexuality classrooms was done. Then, I’m going to show you why I have support for allowing swearing in the classroom. Finally, I’m going to pull it all together in a neat little package for your further consideration.

1. You can say, “Fuck Yeah,” but not “Fuck You”

When I told my students they could swear, it was within a context of a larger ground rule entitled, “Respect Yourself, Others, and our Space.” Essentially, my students were told that non-directive swearing, or “bad” language, was fine so long as it was used within the context of respect. Students were also allowed to express any particular words that triggered negative emotions so that other students would be aware and try not to use those particular words.

2. After-School Programming

This particular program was a once-a-week after school program that students volunteered to be a part of.

3. Group Rules vs Teaching Rules

Although I allowed students to swear in the program, I explained to them that it was not cool while they were teaching condom use in freshmen classes during school hours. Although I told them I was aware that freshmen also swear, I elucidated for them that even though we had rules set-up for swearing, not all classrooms were set-up similarly.

4. When I Swore

(And oh did I swear.) I swore judiciously. I either did it as a natural part of my speech patterns during more informal parts of our session, or did it when emphasis that only swearing can provide was needed. And I never, ever tried to use swear words or “bad” words that felt uncomfortable coming out of my mouth.

Other Considerations

· I was a school district employee, but not an employee of any particular school. I actually facilitated three different groups at three very different schools within one school district. So while I tried to respect most school policies and rules, I was only partially accountable to the school administrations.

· I was young-ish when I taught these classes. My students ranged in age from 14-19, and throughout the duration of my teaching, I was anywhere from 23-25.

· I grew up in the neighboring school district to the schools at which I was teaching. I never attended any of the schools at which I facilitated these after-school groups, but I had a pretty good cultural understanding.

Now you know the how. But … did it work? And how do I know it works?

Not surprisingly, there isn’t a whole lot on using swearing effectively in a sex ed classroom. But what I do have is access to Hedgepeth and Helmich’s (in my opinion) amazing text that outlines strategies for making a classroom an effective space for sexuality education.

Thanks to the internet and facebook, I also have access to my incredible, amazing, fantastic, and extremely honest former students. (Yes, I am so biased in their favor. Even though it’s been anywhere from 2-4 years since I’ve spoken to some of them, they continue to inspire me to this very moment.) When I decided to write this post, I asked those of them who had the time to shoot me an e-mail or a facebook message telling me about their lives AND how they felt about being allowed to swear. 18 out of around 90 responded.

So through the use of my (very informal and not scientific by any means) survey in conjunction with methodological considerations, I’m going to break down how swearing fits into the idea of an effective sexuality classroom. When I include how actual, real, living, breathing teens felt about being allowed to swear and hearing their facilitator swear, they will be directly quoted. I will also include three pieces of demographic information about them:

Gender (M or F)
Ethnicity (A = Asian, B = Black, L = Latin, W = White)
Year in Group (’07, ’08, or ’09)

I’m not including their names or the name of the group in order to protect their privacy.

Let’s get started.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

Hedgepeth and Helmich (H&H) discuss how one of the elements of an effective sexuality classroom is the need for programming to respect and empower students.

Right away, H&H discuss how creating respect and empowerment within programming hinges upon interfacing with the reality of students.

Let’s take a look at what some of my students had to say about whether or not allowing swearing reflected their realities:

“I think swearing is an essential part of how teenagers communicate. It is hard enough to be yourself in high school without being able to express yourself the way you want to.” (F, W, ’07)

“I feel like letting us swear … gave sex-ed [class] a sense of reality. ... In reality, most people, if not everyone curses.” (F, W, ’09)

“I think that swearing is just a part of teenage life.” (F, L, ’09)

“I know it makes me feel more real if I didn't have any vocabulary limited when I try to voice my opinion and experience out.” (#1 M, A, ’09)

“C'mon, these folks are in high school. Ya gotta understand that most teenagers incorporate cursing in their day-to-day 'language' …” (#1, F, A, ‘08&’09)

“but as for about swearing? i loved it, like to me swearing is nothing, its like talking regularly.” (#2, M, A, ’09)

It would appear that many of the students who responded to my query agree that allowing students to drop the occasional F-Bomb (that’s ‘fuck’ in case you were wondering) simply reflects the greater reality of how teens express themselves.

H&H also outline how the classroom that fosters “respect, confidentiality, openness, collaboration and mutual support” helps students to become comfortable enough to engage critically with the learning (pg 21).

Amongst many of my students, there was an idealization that swearing fostered a sense of openness for how they could express themselves:

“In regards to swearing in Sex-Ed, I think it helps with allowing everyone to feel comfortable. It's better that you allow people to say what they feel and not let them feel contained in a box, … just knowing that it's allowed won't make students feel like they have to act a certain way, especially if not swearing is way far from who they actually are....” (#2, F, A, ‘08&’09)

“I'm a potty mouth. It was nice being free to express myself during sessions without being judged or hushed.” (#1, F, A, ’08)

“…i felt more free with my expressions. like if i was fairly pissed off, or extremely happy can say what i felt in the words that fit right instead of having to chose words with lesser meaning in my mind.” (F, L, ’08 & ’09)

“Swearing essentially allows everyone to talk about their passions more freely and creates a classroom environment when [sic] students are more comfortable having discussions.” (F, W, ’07)

“Being able to swear in class is awesome. Its like you bring the YOU out of you. You dont have to keep everything in and replace it with something your not, and that is just being true to yourself and everybody. It kept me confident knowing that i could say whatever i want comfortably in front of my peers, even outside of class.. HAHA! Its soooo AWESOME.” (M, A, ’08 &’09)

Although those are just a few quotes, almost every student responded with some form of affirmation that being allowed to swear helped them to be comfortable with either expressing themselves, being in the classroom, or engaging with the learning.

Some also spoke to the importance of the fact that swearing was set up in the context of fostering support, rather than being used for malicious purpose.

“[Swearing] should be used to bluntly express, not to belittle someone.” (F, W, ’09)

“Swearing should be used to empower, not to tear down.” (F, W, ’07)

“…there's a line between sprinkling swear words into a sentence and addressing someone offensively. If swearing doesn't interfere with the learning environment, then there should be nothing against it.” (#1, F, A, ’08)

Creating a Democratic Learning Environment

Within the context of empowering students, H&H discuss how many contemporary classrooms mirror “benevolent dictatorships” more than they mirror the democratic structure in which American students are expected to become a part in the future. I agree with H&H in respect to their assertion that this means encouraging greater student agency over decision making and responsibility in the classroom.

Despite my agreement, I would actually take it a step farther and say that to truly demonstrate ideals of democracy, you have to allow and role-model them. Freedom of expression is our 1^st amendment. The first one. The one our ancestors wanted to make sure got on the books. And yet in classrooms across the country we shut down certain forms of expression completely, rather than role modeling responsible, harm-free use of truly powerful ways to express oneself.

I didn’t, however. As I said, I swore all throughout all three years of running these after-school programs. Here is how it affected some of my students:

“You swearing like we did helped to create a bond.” (M, B, ’09)

“I think when you (Becca) used swear words, it made people more comfortable with you because it let people know that you were here to teach us, not to discipline us like the image people have of most teachers. It also put us all on the same level. Instead of being afraid of you we respected you.” (F, W, ’08)

“When you did it, i felt really comfortable being around you, since i didnt have to watch myself every single time and it felt like you were really one of us. You weren't our boring, get in class, read and get done homework "teacher" you were our mentor and I really did consider you as my friend, because of that I was more than glad to go to class and always excited to learn all the new things you were about to discuss. … I've always had and still do have a huge respect for you.” (#2, F, A, ‘08)

“…but also made me feel that you were one of 'us ' more then someone higher that we had to almost impress.” (#3, F, A, ’08)

“When you swore, it created a more relaxed environment and I felt the teacher/student divide lessened.” (F, A, ’07)

“when you swore along with us it made me feel like we were all on the same level, you werent any greater or lesser than us (even though you did have power haha) it didnt feel like we were being forced to be under your conrto [sic]” (F, L, ’08 & ’09)

“I can look up to you as someone that I can talk to as an equal. … Not only that, when you talked about your day in SES, it was actually pretty amusing to hear a swear word here and there...having your period with the fucking cramps, It just made it more easier to understand how you're feeling and in all honesty, I can totally relate.”(#3, F, A, ’08)

As you can see, my use of swearing did a great deal to change the power differential. Although the students cite respecting me, and looking up to me, there was less of a constraint around feeling like they had to express themselves the way they would to a teacher. Which, going back to H&H’s previous point, also helps the classroom to be an open, comfortable space for exploration.

Let’s Bring This Home

As a potty mouth who had potty mouth students who all loved swearing … I am highly biased toward allowing it to occur.

But what about you and your sex ed classroom? Keeping the aforementioned discussion of effective sexuality education classrooms in mind, here are some questions I would ask myself before hopping on the F-Train.

To Swear or Not To Swear

1. What are your organizations’ rules around swearing?

a. Is the language ambiguous to the point where swearing could be considered appropriate if properly defended?

2. What are your students’ thoughts and feelings about swearing?

3. If swearing is prohibited or frowned upon by your higher-ups, do you think you could convince your bureaucracy of why it’s a good idea?

a. Despite my perceived benefits of allowing swearing to occur in a classroom, H&H do encourage having your administration on your side when setting up sex-ed. I’d have to agree. It’s better to keep your job and prohibit swearing than to allow swearing and risk your livelihood.

4. Is swearing conducive to encouraging comfort and learning?

a. Example: Reproductive biology is sex-ed. Is swearing necessary to help students learn this?

If You Can Let Swearing Go Down

1. Can you defend your reason for allowing students to swear?

2. How can you set up ground rules that make swearing constructive and not destructive?

3. How do you plan to enforce transgressions of any ground rules that occur?

4. If having a power differential is a part of your educational style, how can you ensure that the power differential stays intact, despite allowing a broader range of student expression?

When You Swear

1. What words are swear words that you use normally, if any?

2. If you’re going to swear, what are your motivations?

a. Are you swearing to ‘look cool’?

b. Are you swearing for emphasis?

c. Are you swearing as a part of your normal form of expression?

3. Based on who you are, how do you think teens will respond to you swearing?

4. How can you role model constructive, supportive use of swearing?

5. Are you okay with allowing teens to swear even if you choose not to use swear words?

If the answers to the question are not conducive to increasing learning and engagement based on Hedgepeth and Helmich or the learning philosophy you live by in your classroom, swearing may not be the best strategy for you and your sex ed classroom.

However, if you can manage to make it something constructive, I hope that you’ve seen the possibility for how it can positively affect a classroom space.

Fuck yeah!

Becca Brewer

*My sincerest of apologies to any Arena football players or fans.

Teaching Students How to Evaluate the Evidence

2011-02-12T10:41:00.000-08:00

Teaching adult learners how to evaluate research evidence is an important skill in sexuality education. The term “evidence-based” can be applied to many aspects of sexuality education, including public health practice, medicine, public policy, and curriculum development. For example, in medicine, this concept means “the conscientious explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients” (Sackett, Rosenberg & Gray, 1996). The application of evidence-based research is the gold standard for sexuality education.

However, in my sexuality education doctoral program at Widener, I often hear my fellow learners moan and groan during our required research courses. Many of them say that they are teachers by profession and do not plan to conduct research. So why is it important for them to learn to evaluate the evidence? Research is essential to furthering scientific knowledge, improving current education methods, and informing public policy – all very relevant aspects to being a teacher. However, too often, people hear about new research results through newspapers, broadcast news, or magazines. They may never get the chance to look closely at the methodology and research questions to determine the validity of the study. Convincing adult learners that they should take the time to evaluate the merit of the evidence can be a challenge for educators.

What are some ways to teach this skill to sexuality students? Judging the merits of evidence is a skill that takes practice. However, there are many peer-reviewed journal articles that describe a methodical review and evaluation of the evidence on a specific topic that can be used as teaching examples. One example is an article by Major, Appelbaum, Beckman, Dutton, Russo, & West (2009) which evaluates the evidence regarding abortion and mental health, a topic that has received much press in the sexual health landscape in recent years. The strength of the article is not just the conclusion (that there was no difference in relative risk for mental health problems between women who had abortion and women who did not) but in the way the authors painstakingly describe the various methodological problems with the published studies to explain why they did not pass muster as good evidence. They carefully review common methodological problems such as incorrect application of conceptual frameworks, inappropriate use of comparison groups, inadequate control of risk factors, sampling bias, and use of inappropriate, non-validated measurement tools in language that is clear, jargon-free, specific, and understandable. After reading this article, I came away with a new understanding of what to look for when evaluating published research studies.

This article would be a perfect learning tool for students to read before they practice critiquing published research on their own. Teachers can use this example, or a similar one, to help learners develop a personal checklist of themes or questions to use when evaluating research. For example, APA guidelines suggest looking at the methodology, authors’ framework(s), statistics, theoretical framework, and results (Driscoll, 2010). The acronym MASTR (pronounced “master”) may be a helpful reminder. A classroom exercise where learners must come up with one or two questions for each of those areas and then apply them to multiple articles could be an excellent way to increase their confidence in this important skill – evaluating the evidence.

References:

Driscoll, D. L. (2010, April 21). Social Work Literature Review Guidelines. Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/666/01

Major, B., Appelbaum, M., Beckman, L., Dutton, M. A., Russo, N. F., & West, C. (2009). Abortion and mental health: Evaluating the evidence. American Psychologist, 64, 863-890.

Sackett, D. L., Rosenberg, W. C., & Gray, J. A. M. (1996). Evidence based medicine: What it is and what it isn’t. BMJ, 312, 71-2.

-Shannon Criniti

How to teach about love, sex and relationships to people with high functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

2011-02-06T08:24:00.000-08:00

For the past year and a half I have been working with a teenage girl on the autism spectrum. Although I have had no formal education with developmental disabilities, I have learned along the way many things about autism, and find myself quite interested and passionate about it. Through my preliminary research that I have done so far, the only information out there for sexuality for people with disabilities concentrates on sexual abuse prevention. While preventing sexual abuse among people with disabilities (and in the general population) is important, they seem to forget that people with disabilities are sexual beings as well and may have the desire to have a sexual relationship with the same or opposite sex. Developing relationships requires a certain level of communication skill in order to do things like flirt and feel confident around someone you like. For typical people, having a conversation or flirting is something that generally comes naturally, but for people with autism this is a skill that needs to be taught and practiced.

For those of you who are not familiar with ASD, I will go over some basic information about the disorder: According to the United States Autism and Asperger Association, ASD is a “pervasive developmental disorder” that is generally characterized by impairment in communication skills, such as lack of eye contact, facial expressions and gestures that “regulate social interaction” (usautism.org).

Important things to know about ASD:

1. Asperger’s is a high functioning form of ASD (although much debate surrounds whether or not Asperger’s should be on the ASD spectrum, for the purpose of this blog Asperger’s is a form of high functioning ASD). People with Asperger’s usually are of average intelligence or above average intelligence (try not to think of Rain Man or savants, that is usually not the case).

2. People with Asperger’s don’t have a lack of interest in social communication, rather, they have trouble with making effective social connections, thus making friends and dating is difficult. They often misread social communication, which makes their responses and social interactions seem odd to others (Susan Stokes, 2011).

Sexuality education would serve two main purposes: the first, is educational and used to help them with their social skills, and the second, is to increase their confidence in social interactions. As educators, it is important for us to know the learning style’s and strength’s and weaknesses of people with ASD, and be sure to implement these concepts when teaching them about sexuality and relationships, and of course adapt the level to their cognitive ability:

1. People with high functioning ASD usually have strong visual processing skills, so using a lot of visual teaching methods is important (Susan Stokes, 2011).

2. Many times, teens with ASD exhibit low self-esteem; by adolescence they become very aware of social differences between themselves and their peers. It is important for educators to give tasks that are in small tangible steps and will increase their confidence level in eventually perusing more difficult social tasks (Susan Stokes, 2011).

Educational techniques to use:

1. People with Autism are often uncomfortable with change and are generally stressed and scared when asked to perform a new task. I find it helpful to break down new tasks into smaller steps. Breaking the tasks down into small steps that they can accomplish will increase their confidence. In addition, it will make the new task seem less overwhelming and reduce their stress levels.

2. Typically developed people have certain social scripts that they have learned over the years through observing their surroundings where they learn how to behave in certain situations and places. People with ASD, typically need to be taught these social scripts, writing them down or drawing them out is helpful so that they can read and re-read them as many times as they need to (Stokes, 2011).

3. Many people with ASD have organizational difficulties, in order to help them learn what goes first, second, third, etc. Comic strips cut up into pieces will allow the students to have a visual representation of these social scripts that is broken down into steps, that they can put in the right order, which will help them practice the order in which social interactions occur (Stokes, 2011).

4. Role playing is a great technique for the students to practice the new skills and social scripts they learned in a safe environment (Stokes, 2011).

5. One of the typical features of Autism is the inability or difficulty in reading social cues such as body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice. Social media such as texting, instant messaging and Facebooking can be a great way for people on the autism spectrum to communicate with peers. Social media communication is not as socially demanding as face-to-face interaction, it does not involve the interpretation of social cues and making eye contact (Weisner & Volkmar, 2009).

** a really great book about teenage girls with ASD is "girl growing up on the autism spectrum: what parents and professionals should know about the pre-teen and teenage years" by Shana Nichols, Gina Marie Moravcik and Samara Pulver Tenenbaum.

this is a good book to learn specifically about girls with ASD, it is pretty comprehensive, it talks about friends, schools and even sexuality. most books and material out there is about boys (statistically there are more boys with ASD than girls), but research shows that girls and boys manifest ASD symptoms differently, so it is possible that those statistics are incorrect. and it is also important to remember to adapt curriculum to the gender of the participant.

References

Weisner, L.A., and Volkmar, F.R (2009). A practical guide to Autism: What every parent, family member, and teacher needs to know. Honoken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Stokes, S. (2011). Special Education Services: Intervention and Strategies for success. Children with Asperger’s Syndrom: Characteristics/learning styles and intervention strategies. Retrieved from http://www.specialed.us/autism/index2.htm

usautism.org

Ettie

Standardized Sexuality Assessment Measures

2010-05-10T15:47:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

The purpose of this blog is to facilitate a discussion on the use of standardized measures in relation to sexuality education. For this discussion I am defining a standardized assessment measure as a tool that can be used to test for sexuality knowledge, attitudes, or affective response. These measures can be standardized to understand an individual's response in relation a larger distribution of responses throughout a particular society.

There are several reasons why I think the discussion of these tests is important:

1) Pre/Post testing can be useful for establishing that a particular lesson or curriculum was effective at creating a change

2) Standardized testing can help educators and students understand particular areas that an individual may have inherent strengths or weaknesses

3) There is current debate regarding the effectiveness or relevance of standardized testing and whether the practice is culturally/socio-economically/tester biased

4) Historical voids in research into sexuality topics due to taboo or moral objection

5) The facilitation of knowledge through understanding what other researchers feel is important to know about sexuality issues

I personally have felt that in past work that the use of testing measures were a great help in establishing validity for sexuality education and counseling. In addition to a treatment plan, if I were able to show that a person referred to me for education was able to increase knowledge on the Family Life And Sexual Heath (FLASH) curriculum assessment tools, then I was able to provide greater justification for the importance of sexuality education. In the larger scheme of sexuality education, showing that there is legitimate research that is evidence based can also create greater support for the importance of the field.

As a student and as an educator, I feel that the use of standardized tests help to further my own understanding of sexuality topics by both the data that is being generated and by the presentation by other researchers of the relevance of the information being investigated. During my undergraduate work I found that creating studies helped peak my personal interest in sexuality topics. The furtherance of this type of research can also show how testing has been misled and where biases and statistical errors have been made.

Some good resources:

The Handbook of Sexuality Related Measures
http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Sexuality-Related-Measures-Professor-Clive/dp/0803971117

Here is a link that references several tests of sexual well being in relation to health matters:
http://www.proqolid.org/proqolid/search__1/pathology_disease?pty=1926

So for this week...Please discuss your experiences or knowledge of any methods of testing for sexuality issues. Do you have any recommendations for future test, have any current measures you use or find interest, or have caveats?

Thanks,
Jeremy

Porn in the Classroom

2010-04-30T19:09:00.000-07:00

By now, we as human sexuality students are all acquainted with SARs: Sexual Attitude Reassessments: the use of "emotionally evocative and sexually explicit films and presentations" designed to give the viewer an "opportunity to explore (their) own attitudes, values and beliefs about sexual behavior in a safe, comfortable and nonjudgmental environment." These activities are designed specifically for those of us who work with sexuality issues in the workplace.

While we might each have differing reactions to the SARs trainings we've experienced in the program, the goals of these exercises certainly seems to be positive and productive. As Planned Parenthood defines a SARs activity, it is designed to help educators and clinicians:

- See and study (their) own reactions. Learn to recognize the way (they) respond to sexual behaviors, images, thoughts, and feelings, and see how other people develop sexual attitudes and values.
- Understand sexual diversity. See the complexity of human sexuality and examine the diversity of human sexual expression and experience.
- Learn how to communicate about sexuality. Examine issues involved in effective communication, particularly in the context of understanding sexual behavior and expression.
- Learn to view sexuality more objectively. Understand the impact sexual attitudes have on personal relationships and on providing educational, health and social services.

All positive stuff, right? But we are talking about sexuality educators who are a willing audience for sexuality education, whether it be difficult/uncomfortable/troubling or not. The underlying agenda (since in teaching, there is always an agenda to be taught, even if it's a "worthy" one) is to detail the multiplicities of sexuality in order to create more capable educators. We are not talking about college students taking an elective or high school students grappling with body issues.

So let's talk about taking explicit content into a classroom NOT filled with sexuality educators! And more specifically, let's talk about porn! Some facts on the widespread nature of pornography (in case you didn't already know):

- Every second - $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography.
- Every second - 28,258 internet users are viewing pornography.
- Every second - 372 internet users are typing adult search terms into search engines.
- Every 39 minutes: a new pornographic video is being created in the United States.

And college professors, in particular, have taken note of the social impact that porn has has in recent years. According to the blog "Breaking Free: A Journey Towards Purity in a Sex-Saturated Internet," a number of colleges and universities now offer courses that involve either the viewing or discussion of pornography, including UCLA, UC Berkley, Vanderbilt, MIT, and NYU. Some academics, such as Michael Leahy, the author of Porn Nation, think this has changed the landscape of teaching college students in a profound way:

“Porn is now the norm in our culture, and no one understands that better than today’s college students. From the rapid rise of cyber porn addiction among male and female college students to its role in influencing the high incidence of rapes and prevalence of eating disorders among college co-eds, the growing influence of porn in the midst of an already sexually charged campus culture is taking a very real toll on students’ lives.”

That being said, some professors have responded by using porn against porn: showing pornography content in order to help students "reveal their understanding of pornography." Not unlike our SARs activities.

The viewing of pornographic content, on its own, has its own agenda as a conduit for sexual arousal and stimulus. It possesses the dual agenda: that of the person viewing it as well as that of the person(s) who produced it. Considering perhapshow much pornography is viewed in the United States, utilizing pornography as a tool to demonstrate societal (ab)normativities and counteract some of (potential) effects porn has had on the modern life is one way that sexuality educators can apply their own training to the education of others.

Using porn in the classroom, though? Seems like a racy thing to do, but is it really realistic? After all, just using text with sexual content in it can lead to reactions like this one. For that reason, here are some suggestions for starting out:

1. START SMALL. If you can't get approval to show pornographic content, then find as much written material that expresses the ideas and concepts you want to cover. Push for the concepts instead of the videos; ask yourself if you really need to show something in order to teach the experience of it.
2. RATIONALE, RATIONALE, RATIONALE. The foundation of our HSED learning. What is the point of this class? What change do you want to affect?
3. AFTERCARE. Many journalists and researchers point to the notion that porn does indeed have a profound effect on youth's psychological stasis, so proceed with caution and care. There is a difference between creating a radical shift in standpoint and causing a breakdown.

And above all, get APPROVAL from the school board! Teaching with porn might be a tricky process, but using popular culture to teach about popular culture may indeed be a creative and rewarding way to affect change in student's lives.

Teaching about abortion

2010-04-23T16:18:00.001-07:00

For those of you that know where I work (Planned Parenthood) you will probably not be surprised by my blog topic of abortion education. However, I am a little surprised with myself for choosing this topic mostly because I know so much about it already. But it is for this reason that I should be the one person to write about this topic. I do feel that it’s an important issue and that unplanned pregnancy is so common place in the U.S. that it’s important for teens (really everyone) to know about all their options before experiencing a pregnancy and preferably before they become sexually active.
According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute (2008) approximately half of American women will have an unplanned pregnancy at some point in their lives and one third (35%) will have had an abortion by age 45. In 2005, 1.6 millions abortions were performed in the U.S. which is high for a developed nation. It’s apparent that unplanned pregnancy and abortion is very relevant to Americans' lives and therefore they should be equipped with the tools that are needed to cope with this situation should it ever arise, which according to statistics, is likely.
It’s easy for me to compose an argument as to why abortion should be incorporated into sexuality education. It’s not so easy on the other hand to actually teach this topic. Because it is so controversial and emotionally charging many teachers are hesitant to touch this topic. They may be uncomfortable with the topic themselves and/or feel that they are not qualified to teach about abortion.
Now even though I have never personally taught on the subject, as a counselor (and educator) for an abortion clinic, I can offer some good advice for those of you who may need to teach this topic in the future:

1) know your own values/beliefs/attitudes about abortion. I can’t stress this piece of advice enough. This is something that we spent a lot of class time on during this semester and everything we talked about applies to teaching about abortion as well. Our values matter, but this is one topic in which it’s best to stay as neutral as possible.
2) Know your facts. There are a lot of misconceptions floating around about abortion. If you type “abortion” into Google search, you’ll get a lot of biased and one-sided information that comes up. If you need to look up information using the internet try searching “accurate information” and “abortion”. I’ll list some good reliable sources below.
3) If you are uncomfortable teaching this topic or are unable to answer questions students have, ask for help! There are people who are better equipped to teach this subject than others – like me! Having a guest speaker or presenter is one way to take the weight off your shoulders. You can use the guest speaker as a learning opportunity for yourself – observe how he or she approaches the subject, handles comments and emotions and presents the information.

Here’s a video – documentary style – which looks at a religious school in the UK and how abortion is being incorporated into its curriculum.

http://www.teachers.tv/videos/31173

Web resources that provide accurate information:

www.plannedparenthood.org

www.abortionhelp.org

http://www.guttmacher.org/sections/abortion.php

SexEd Library: lesson plan from F.L.A.S.H. curriculum
http://www.sexedlibrary.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.viewpage&pageid=762

SIECUS: lesson plan “teaching all sides” page 77
http://www.siecus.org/_data/global/images/filling_the_gaps.pdf

References:
Alan Guttmacher Institute. (2008). An overview of abortion in the United States. Retrieved from Alan Guttmacher Website, http://www.guttmacher.org/media/presskits/2005/06/28/abortionoverview.html

Zoos: An Opportunity for Sexuality Education

2010-04-16T12:25:00.000-07:00

I am a member of the Philadelphia Zoo and from April to October if the weather is nice and I have no other plans I will head to the zoo on a Sunday morning just to walk around for a few hours. It’s relaxing, fun and a great way to clear my head. Since I don’t attend a church it is, in a sense, my way to worship through nature. A few weeks ago on one of those unusually warm spring days I was at the zoo for one of these Sunday morning strolls. I visited the otters who are always one of my favorites because they are always so active and playful as they slip and slide down their waterfalls and swim around chasing one another. On this particular Sunday there were two otters clearly having sex. Standing there watching them were about a dozen families all with young children, as I am usually the only creepy adult at the zoo without kids. All the children were squealing, laughing, pointing at the two otters having sex and asking their parents what the otters were doing. All the parents replied that the otters were wrestling or playing or some other euphemism but none, none, answered honestly that the otters were having sex. Apparently my experience is not unique. On his blog, http://randysbusylife.blogspot.com/2010/04/sex-education-at-zoo.html, Randy Seaver talks about and posts pictures of elephants having sex at the zoo while he was visiting the zoo with his grandchildren.

The field of human sexuality advocates that parents should begin talking about sexuality with children at a young age. Human beings are sexual from birth through death and not talking about sexuality with children can lead to fear, shame and anxiety around sex and sexuality issues. Parents often wait to talk about sexuality with their children until puberty but by then it is too late as children have learned about and received sexuality messages from peers, the media and the rest of the world around them. Or worse, parents never talk to their children about sexuality because they never find an opportunity to bring it up or have a conversation about it. In his book, "The Sexual Life of Children", Martinson talks about how children learn about sexuality in their everyday life yet parents avoid anything that permits or encourages sexuality when it comes to children in an effort to protect them and keep them innocent. Not answering honestly or avoiding sexuality, Martinson goes on to say, leaves the control of sexuality firmly in the hands of adults. Martinson echoes the sentiment of the human sexuality field that it is important for both parents and teachers to be informed about and have an opportunity to discuss sexuality with their children. Parents especially need to facilitate family discussions about sexuality because that is how they can integrate their family’s value system into sexuality. Here are some links that guide parents on how to talk about sexuality with their children:
http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=108&Itemid=206
http://www.siecus.org/_data/global/images/innovative_approaches.pdf

If you visit any zoo websites from around the country you will see that they have a host of children and school education programs offered on a daily basis. None of these programs address sexuality. The San Francisco and Central Florida zoos offer animal sexuality classes but they are for adults only, and only offered on Valentine’s Day. The following link is someone’s account of the “Woo at the Zoo” program offered at the San Francisco zoo and is complete with pictures and interesting information about animal sexuality: http://www.asylum.com/2010/02/18/learning-about-how-animals-have-sex-jane-tollini-woo-at-the-san-francisco-zoo/
While some zoos are beginning to incorporate sexuality education into their programs the sexuality information is once again reserved for adults only.

Some people are beginning to use animal sexuality as a way to educate children. Animals are a traditional way to educate children and a staple in children’s literature. Famous stories such as, Aesop’s Fables and Winnie the Pooh, use animal characters or anthropomorphism to tell their tales. Well known children’s authors such as, Richard Scary, argue that animals are great for children’s stories because they are racially and ethnically neutral so they can appeal to all children and they are able to do things or take risks that human children cannot. Sexologists often study animal sexuality and argue that many animal sexual behaviors are found in the human world and vice versa. Animals are often a great way to learn about the nature and variety of sexuality. Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell’s book "And Tango Makes Three" is a children’s book on the different types of families and is based on the true story of three penguins at the Central Park Zoo. Roy and Silo were two male penguins that fell in love, built a nest and were trying to start a family of their own. The zoo keepers gave them their very own egg to care for and hatch and they ended up with a baby of their own, Tango. Richardson and Parnell took advantage of the real life teaching opportunity zoos offer in order to educate children about age appropriate sexuality issues. "And Tango Makes Three" can be purchased at http://www.amazon.com/Tango-Makes-Three-Peter-Parnell/dp/0689878451.

The otters having sex at the Philadelphia zoo a few weekends ago offered a great teachable moment for parents to begin having conversations with their children about sexuality. Instead of avoiding children’s questions about sex or answering these questions dishonestly parents should seize these opportunities to talk about age appropriate sexuality issues with their children. As sex educators we need to educate parents about sexuality and sexuality education and help them feel comfortable talking about these issues so that they can talk to their children about sexuality when opportunities present themselves, like the otters at the zoo. Zoo staff and school educators also have the opportunity to use animal sexuality as a way to educate and talk with children about sexuality. They provide a population that needs sex educators to educate and guide them in getting children’s sexuality education programs off the ground. Zoos offer both sexuality education opportunities for children and their parents, as well as professional relationships for sex educators.

-Brooke

References:
Bruess, C. and Greenberg, J. (2009). Sexuality Education: Theory and practice, 5th ed. Jones and Bartlett Publishers: Sudbury, MA.
Heasley, R. and Crane, B. (2003). Sexual lives: A reader on the theories and realities of human sexualities. McGraw-Hill: New York, NY.
Martinson, F. M. (1994). The sexual life of children. Bergin and Garvey: Westport, CT.
Strong, B., W. L. Yarber, B. W. Sayad and DeVault, C. (2008). Human sexuality: Diversity in contemporary America. McGraw-Hill: New York, NY.

State Mandated Reporting for Educators

2010-04-09T12:52:00.000-07:00

This blog comes from some recent confusion in my everyday work life as a mental health professional working within the public school system. Working with children (in this blog, any person under the age of 18) is no easy task, especially when you work in an environment (like a school) where rumors are flying around every hour of every day, where children tell you things about other children and their families, and where children willingly tell you about the happenings in their lives they don’t or feel they can’t tell their parents. As educators, by law, we are considered individuals who are mandated to report to child welfare services if we have any reason to suspect that a child is being physically or sexually abused or neglected. This is partly where my confusion started. The reporting of suspected physical abuse or neglect, to me, is a very clear, cut and dry process. However, when it comes to sexual abuse, due to the language of the laws, this is where the confusion sets in. While this might not seem like a confusing issue to some, for me, it is a topic that I often ponder. And, because I, myself, have never been formally educated on the subject, the confusion is even greater. Sure, if a 30 year old person was sexually abusing a ten year old, no problem, report as soon as you suspect. But what happens when you are aware that an 18 year old is having sex with a 15 year old? What are the laws regarding that? What about when two 14 year olds are having sex? What if two 12 year olds are sexually touching, but no intercourse has actually happened? Does it make a difference if they are same-sex couples? These are just a few of the questions that have been brought to my attention recently. Because I am currently a mental health professional, my office is run with a confidentiality agreement. The children I see know that what they say in my office stays in my office, with three exceptions: 1) they are causing harm to themselves; 2) they are causing harm to another; 3) someone else is causing harm to them. This is where state mandating steps in. However, do to consent laws, when it comes to sex, what are we required to report and what can we consider a privacy issue?

To start researching this, I looked up what sexual abuse and exploitation was defined as in the state of Pennsylvania. According to Pennsylvania state law, “The employment, use, persuasion, inducement, enticement, or coercion of a child to engage in, or assist another individual to engage in, sexually explicit conduct. The employment, use, persuasion, inducement, enticement, or coercion of a child to engage in, or assist another individual to engage in, simulation of sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction, including photographing, videotaping, computer depicting, and filming.” (Child Welfare Information Gateway). This makes the issue at hand a little clearer. If any person (including another child) persuades, entices, coerces, or induces another child into any sexual act, it must be reported. This is pretty clear, in my eyes. What is not clear is what to do when it is reported to you that children are consensually being sexually active together. To research a little further into this, I looked up the sexual consent ages in Pennsylvania. According to AVERT.org, in Pennsylvania it is illegal to have sex if you are under the age of 16. And this is the case for both same-sex and different-sex sexual acts. These ages of consent are different for all states, and AVERT.org gives a comprehensive look at the consent laws of all the states in the United States, as well as many countries within the world. So, for example, technically, in Pennsylvania, if two 15 year olds are having sex together, they cannot legally consent to have sex, even if they both want to. So what does that mean for us if we are aware that it is happening? For that, I have not been able to come up with a clear answer. To me, at that age, I would think of it as a privacy issue and not a state mandated reporting issue, however, the law might prove me wrong.

This is where I think it would be especially important, in our line of work, to go over the laws of state mandated reporting for sexual abuse during our coursework. While I am learning how to be an educator, I also need to learn my responsibilities as a state mandated reporter of child abuse because I am an educator. While I might not agree with all the laws, I need to abide by them so I can continue to educate children and help those who need it. While I know I haven’t even answered all of my own questions, I am more aware of the fact that I need to look into this further if a situation arises where I am not sure what to do. Different agencies, school systems, and organizations may have different policies regarding reporting sexual abuse, so be sure to look over the policies of the places that employ you. I think it is very important to keep this issue in mind when working with children. Not only do you need to look out for their best interest, but you need to look out for yours as well, so that you can continue to look out for theirs.
~Allison

Here are some additional resources to help with laws regarding state mandated reporting:

Child abuse reporting requirements in Pennsylvania

Online Resources for State Child Welfare Law and Policy

Teens, Sex, and the Law

Sex Sells! Cultivating the Critical Eye through Education

2010-04-02T05:33:00.000-07:00

Ever since last semester, when I was looking for helpful links for sex educators/education and found the Media Awareness Network, I’ve been thinking about how media literacy intersects with sex education. Why? Because mass media is, well, massive. It’s everywhere. It is full of messages about sexuality, in all different shapes and forms, and the people consuming these messages are just as diverse - more so, even!

Every time I open a magazine or watch television, I’m getting some kind of message about sex or gender. Take this ad, for example (found in New York Magazine):

Sure, the advertisement’s overt message is about a specific shopping center. But there’s also a subtext to this image. What might you guess is the gender of the person portrayed here? The socioeconomic status? Ethnicity? I’d guess that the person is a white upper-middle class woman. What does this say about who engages in shopping? Women. But not just any women: this ad seems to imply shopping is the realm of the privileged, thus there's no need for them to bother appealing to people who have less privilege. Further, look at this woman’s stance. Is this a powerful posture? What does that say about how a woman (a white upper-middle class woman) “should” present herself? In my undergraduate days, one of my professors was teaching us to view media critically, and she pointed out that everything in advertising is intentional. No choice is arbitrary, because companies don’t just sell products anymore - they’re selling values, stories, ideals. In short, they are selling a particular culture (or perhaps, at least, the building blocks of culture).

Why is this important? Whoever they may be in terms of age, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, ability, etc., my (future) students will likely be consumers of media. I live in America, and it is likely that I will be teaching in America. Here, media is ubiquitous, and my students will be constantly bombarded with something that, in my experience, they are rarely taught to question. And while some media can be pretty empowering, much of it seems to be doing more harm than good. For example, take body image and self esteem. Constantly seeing perfect airbrushed or Photoshopped bodies could make any regular person feel inadequate, next to this literally unachievable ideal. Unhappiness or depression seem to go hand in hand with low self esteem, so I'd call that pretty harmful.

How does this all relate to education? Well, I don’t think I have the power to completely overhaul the media industry or the entire lexicon of cultural symbolism. So, I think the next best thing is to educate people to become critical consumers of media, with the hope that this will defuse some of the nasty effects of the constant bombardment of media's narrow cultural representations. And, really, it’s not even fair for me to say “next best thing” because this kind of education is not less important than activism: I also think that helping my fellow humans to become more critical thinkers and consumers will help them to be generally more empowered to think for themselves about what’s best for them, not what will help them to fit in. Call me biased, but I think this is really important.

So if media literacy education is important (and it is! ;-) ), then how would I go about actually teaching media literacy, especially that related to sexuality? Thankfully there are at least a couple of fantastic resources on the web to help me in this endeavor! (Those resources, and more, are included at the bottom of this post.)

For this kind of education, I love the idea of taking an experiential approach. For example… I could start off by showing a video advertisement, and then ask my students questions about it, like the following: What or who did you see in this ad? Who didn’t you see? How was the person in the ad portrayed? What does this imply about people like the person in the ad (e.g., if the person in the ad is a woman, what does the ad imply about women?)? How might it affect people watching the ad? What messages about sexuality/gender does this ad send? Why is it important to think about that? And so on… Depending on the students and subject of the overall class, it might be appropriate to conclude my questions with something like: How do the messages you noticed fit in with (or contrast with) societal messages about the same thing? What can you do about it?

Of course, I’d also want to make a habit of asking students: What was the point of the ad? Ultimately, the answer should always be the same: “To sell the product/service.” I think it’s so important to remember that always, companies are advertising in order to sell something to consumers. They are not looking out for the best interests of their customers; they are looking out for their own profit-making. This is a point I’d want to drive home to students, but in this context, the main focus should be on the education related to sexuality, gender, etc.

In my travels (possibly on the Media Awareness Network, or somewhere else - I’m not sure, but if I find it, I will post it in the comments), I saw another interesting idea for media literacy in sex education, which involves bringing in a bunch of magazines, scissors, glue, and paper, so that students can create their own advertisements via collage (which could appeal to visual & spatial learners!) By creating their own ads, students would have the opportunity to see how ads don’t just sell the product; they also sell a story, a culture. It could also be empowering for students to create their own messages of what they would like to see represented in the media, instead of just consuming what is already out there.

How might you go about educating about media literacy pertaining to sexuality? What are your general thoughts on this subject?

Thanks for reading!

Olivia

More Resources:

Media Awareness Network - Resource for parents & teachers. Has K-12 lesson plans on various aspects of media literacy (e.g. bullying, body image, and gender portrayal).

Center for Media Literacy - Similar to Media Awareness Network. A site to help educate about media literacy, as well as provide resources to educators.

Sociological Images: Seeing is Believing - Blog with posts not always, but often, about some portrayal of sexuality. Lots of images and analysis of the meanings of those images. Keeping up with/reading archives of this blog may help train you to have a more critical eye toward media. (This blog is a personal favorite!)

Teen Aware: Sex, Media, and You - An interesting spin on sex & media - teaching abstinence via media literacy.

Teen Sexual Health workshop module on Media Literacy - One handy outline of a lesson an instructor could use to teach about sex & media.

Sex Ed Library: Sexuality and Media - Links to a few lesson plans on, well, sexuality and media. (Overall, Sex Ed Library is also a helpful resource for lots of sexuality education lesson plan links.)

Copyright in the Classroom

2010-03-25T10:25:00.000-07:00

For my class presentation, I discussed the potential for copyright infringement educators and students face when simply pulling images off the web for PowerPoints, activities, and assignments. It's easy to use Google Images as a resource, but it may not always be legal. Copyright means that a person (or a company or school) owns the rights to their created work (a song, image, blog post, video, curriculum, etc). All rights to use or distribute the creation are reserved by the copyright holder.

Does this mean that every time you want to use an image you should get your lawyer on the phone? Not exactly - there is some breathing room under the label of fair use. Here are the terms surrounding fair use, found in Section 107 of the US copyright law:

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include —

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a
commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;

(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the
copyrighted work as a whole; and

(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the
copyrighted work.

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors (http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107).

Everybody clear on that? No? Me neither. As with all laws, there are various interpretations of fair use. Does number 3 mean that you can only show part of a TV episode in class, or are you allowed to play the entire show? Could you let your students rewrite the lyrics to a popular song to perform in class, using the original instrumental as background music? Can you include that image you found online in your PowerPoint or should you email the photographer first?

How do you know? What are your options as an educator? What can you do? Should you call or email the owner of the copyright (or their lawyers) and ask for permission? Just use the content and hope that no one takes issue with a possible copyright violation?

What am I doing in my classes? I'm getting creative with the help of artists, educators, and others from all around the world by using their works. Content that they actually want me to use. This system of sharing is known as Creative Commons. Want to know more? Check out this video...

Let's take that video, for example. How did I know I could post it here? I found it here and thought it would be perfect for this post (honestly, I kinda built my post and class presentation around it). After clicking on the link, you will see this symbol underneath the media player.

This is the owner's Creative Commons License. This particular license tells you that you are free to copy, share, distribute, and remix (adapt) the material - as long as you aren't using it commercially and you attribute it to the creator. This video was posted to blip.tv by the Creative Commons organization. There. I just upheld my part of the bargain. I attributed the content to the owners and am not selling it. I could have put my own vocal track behind it, or edited it to only play a specific part. I can show it in class or broadcast it on another file sharing site. That is what their license allows. How do you know what their license allows? Click on the image beneath the media player on the blip.tv page and you will see all the details (it is too large of a graphic to embed here - sorry!).

This is only one type of Creative Commons license - some allow for commercial use. Others do not allow remixing or adaptation. How do you know what license is used? You can find a quick and easy guide here.

How can you begin using Creative Commons (I'm going to use the CC abbreviation from here on out) content in your classrooms today? It's easy - not quite as easy as jacking items from a Google Image search - but who wants to use the same pics as everyone else anyway? One of the first places to look is the photo and video sharing site flickr (you may need to create an account to access all content - particularly if you are looking for sexuality materials). Not everyone on flickr uses a CC license, but many folks do. The easiest way to find CC content is to use their advanced search feature. Type in the search terms - I used "transgender youth" - and scroll to the very bottom of the page. Then be sure to click the box that searches only CC licensed photos and videos. Click search and...

Awesome. That photo was taken by flickr user "[insert stereotypical label here]" and can be found here. Their CC license says that I can use it, but not remix or adapt it, and that I can't use it for commercial purposes. All I need to do is attribute the picture to the photographer, which I just did. It's that simple.

Another site with fewer choices, but really interesting images, is fotopedia. I searched for "sexuality" and came up with this CC licensed gem...

It was actually taken from a flickr account as well and posted on the fotopedia site. The photographer's user id is "derpunk", and their CC license says I can use it for non-commercial purposes, and adapt it as well. This license also has one additional restriction, known as "share-alike." If I did alter the image (can anyone think of funny thought bubbles we could photoshop on the happy couple?), I have to license the work in the same way as the original. Meaning simply, I can't make the terms of use for my derivative work more or less restrictive than the original picture's.

Wikimedia Commons is another great place to find CC licensed (and public domain) images. I searched for "sex", clicked on a couple of the tags, and came across this image (again from a flickr
user) taken by "Noodle." The license for this image is the same as the one described for the turtles that are slowly...getting...busy.

Another site worth checking out is the Brooklyn Museum, which has thousands of images of artwork online, many of which are CC licensed (just don't forget to check the CC box in the advanced search options). This image has no known copyright restrictions, and the museum provides a bio of the artist, Lilly Martin, who supported her husband and family by painting pictures of women in traditional gender roles.

These are just a few of the amazing images you can find with just a little effort. Once you start looking at the gorgeous and thought provoking photos, you may never want to go back to Google Images. And after learning about copyright and Creative Commons, you may decide to share some of your own creations - images, videos, lessons, or activities under a CC license. Utilizing and contributing to the CC community will help to raise awareness of of the movement, and that will ultimately mean more content that you can be sure is is free, simple, and easy to use.

Ryan McKee

*As with any info on copyright you will find on the web, this post is not meant to be taken as legal advice. It is intended only to get you thinking about the way you use resources in the classroom, the rights of the creators, and the vibrant CC community that is emerging around art and education.

Education for Postpartum Depression

2010-03-19T13:49:00.000-07:00

I spoke to a friend recently about pregnancy, specifically when and where information is provided. We both agreed that the time right after labor to several weeks after birth is the most formidable time for new parents. In this time parents are plagued by lack of sleep, putting more tension on an already stressful time. Some people are lucky enough to have family and friends present in this time to help the new parents adjust to the daunting task of making life changes for a new addition. What happens for those that do not have the support of friends and family? What happens when parents are not able to deal with the stressors of new parenthood?

The National Institute of Health (NIH) estimates that up to 15% of new mothers have symptoms of postpartum depression (National Institute of Health, 2005). Postpartum depression symptoms can include, but are not limited to feeling: tired, antsy, little motivation, and decreased appetite (National Institute of Health, 2005). All of which can be misconstrued as typical feelings after having a baby. So how can we as educators better identify these signs?

Although we may never aspire to become parents, it is important to support those around us in their sexuality-related endeavors. A good way to look out for a friend or family member is to keep updated about the new family’s adjustments. Let the new parents know there are a number of biological, physical, emotional, and social changes that occur after the birth of a child. If symptoms seem to continue weeks after birth, talk to the person about how you can help. Reassure the new parents that they need not take on everything themselves. Recommend to the new parents that they seek out help from medical professionals, as ignoring can lead to harm of oneself, or the baby. Many treatments are available, and can be very effective. The following resources provide additional information about postpartum depression:

Bodnar, D., Ryan, D., & Smith, J. E. (n.d.). Self-care program for women with postpartum depression and anxiety. Provincial Reproductive Medical Health. Retrieved from http://www.bcwomens.ca/NR/rdonlyres/1197CA18-D2F5-4772-B6D7-7A9FFB1C6A7B/12518/ReproductiveMentalHealthSelfCareGuide.pdf

National Institute of Health (2005). Understanding postpartum depression: Common but treatable. News in Health. Retrieved from http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2005/December2005/docs/01features_02.htm

-Alicia

Client Comfort in Addressing Human Sexuality Issues

2010-03-12T13:02:00.000-08:00

My original blog topic was an extension of Sandra's with a focus on culture and sexuality in Kenya. I typed my blog and saved it as a word document on my laptop ready to post on my designated blog date.

On Monday afternoon one of the staff assistants where I work asked if I could fill in as the guest speaker for the staff assistant retreat (target audience being female aged 35-55), since the scheduled presenter canceled. The retreat was Tuesday, less than 24 hours away. I asked if I could choose the topic. I ran a few ideas by her. She declined each of my suggestions and said that the subject matter I was focusing on would make everyone uncomfortable. Even though my certification as a nurse practitioner is in family practice, I have been exclusive to college and women's health for the past 9 years. All of my suggestions for the presentation were related to sexual health. The staff assistant was adamant that any female sexual health topic would not be well received. We agreed I would speak on Lyme's disease.

I started a literature search knowing that I had only a few hours to prepare for a fun afternoon workshop on Lyme's Disease. It is ironic that my computer has never experienced problems with the many human sexuality literature searches I have explored. Early in my Lyme's Disease literature search my computer crashed. Presently my computer is still under care of the IT Department who said it received a virus from one of the Lyme's sites I visited. This conundrum left me with no computer to prep for the Lyme's Disease workshop and no means of retrieving my previously completed blog. I learned 2 valuable lessons. First, I should always back up my material and second, I should never assume people have comfort with human sexuality issues.

Chris spoke about sexuality education training for practitioners in her blog. I challenge each of you to assist your clients/patients with being comfortable in discussing human sexuality issues.

Patient comfort in sharing sexual information is important to the client - practitioner relationship. Less than 1/3 of patients feel comfortable discussing sexual concerns with their providers, with only 10% of patients spontaneously discussing concerns if not prompted by their provider (Parish & Clay, 2007). Often when the office visit is complete and the practitioner and patient are exiting the exam room a "by the way..." conversation about a sexual concern begins. Embarrassment and lack of time is evident.

Patient comfort is important to alleviate embarrassment and establish a positive provider-client relationship. Patient comfort can be established by respecting diversity, offering an open environment for discussion and sincerity to understand other attitudes, beliefs, opinions and behaviors.

Prior to the Lyme's Disease workshop, the staff assistant told the audience our story of my ideas for a topic and her concerns about my choices. I then mentioned that if I started to feel uncomfortable talking about Lyme's Disease, I might have to change the subject to my comfort zone of human sexuality issues. The audience enjoyed our opening and suggested I pick the topic next time:)

Please feel free to explore more about patient comfort in addressing human sexuality issues with providers in the article listed below.

Parish, S. & Clayton, A. H. (2007). Sexual medicine education: review and commentary. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 4(2), 259-267.

Alice

2010-03-05T18:37:00.000-08:00

Sexuality Education As Justice Making

This is not the blog I had intended to post. I’m scrambling at the last minute, putting aside my original work. I tossed and turned all night thinking about our work as sexuality educators and the profound impact we can have on cultural attitudes towards poverty; specifically its effect on women and girls. You are probably not surprised given the comments I made in class about this issue.

My restlessness was brought on by going to the movie theatre last night to celebrate International Women’s Day organized by the authors of Half the Sky and CARE (a humanitarian organization). The set-up was a live concert streamed from the Skirball center at NYU, which included musical performances by artists like India Arie and Diane Birch. Several celebrities read excerpts of women’s stories from the book (Marisa Tomei, Maria Bello, Sarah Ferguson). It also featured a short film of one of the stories of a girl named Woinshet from Ethiopia. She was the victim of the cultural practice of bride abduction, where a girl is kidnapped and raped by a man who then forces her to marry him afterward to avoid paying a dowry as well as any punishment for the rape. It was the first of several documentaries to be made into a TV series that will tell these women’s stories to an even wider audience.

Half the Sky, through its Pulitzer-prize wining authors, exposes three major abuses of women: sex trafficking and forced prostitution; gender-based violence including honor killings and mass rape; maternal mortality, which needlessly claims one woman a minute.

During the panel discussion each panelist responded similarly to the question of what can be done: EDUCATION. The dominant theme of this presentation was the power of education. It is one of the Millennium goals of the United Nations (United Nations, 2000). There are groups of people, including Woinshet, who travel throughout Ethiopia educating women AND men.

This is some SERIOUS education. This is not like writing a lesson plan on how to effectively use a condom or the benefits of masturbation. I can’t imagine a koosh ball activity that could stop a group of men from gang raping a young girl.

I expect to be confronted with the effects of poverty on sexuality in my work here in the United States. I expect this because poverty is very real here. The 2006 American Community Survey of the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that 13.3% of Americans live in poverty. Women and children represent a significant portion of this population (Michigan Domestic Violence and Treatment Board, 2008).

How can we maximize our effectiveness in this culture of poverty? Research shows an undeniable link between poverty and sexual violence (Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, 2007). To me it is the “ism” that is at the root of many of the other “isms” we encounter.

Sarah Ferguson suggested that each of us develop a discipline of gratitude and that this discipline be the basis for our efforts. Then we act.

Today’s blog asks you to identify your gratitude, to claim it; then to ponder how you as an educator can act. Think about the career path you may choose, the curriculum and programs you will create, the organizations with which you will associate, your relationships with colleagues, the dissertation you will write. On our first day of class, Dr. Dyson asked us to consider the role of culture and other influences on our community partners/target group.

How does poverty influence your group in any way? I look forward to your responses.

And to a good night’s sleep.

Your colleague,
Sandra

Resources:
Kristof, N. and WuDunn, S. (2009). Half the sky. Knopf Publishers, New York:New York

Michigan Domestic Violence and Treatment Board (2008). The intersection of poverty and sexual violence. Retrieved from http://www.michigan.gov/documents/poverty/DHS-Poverty_DomViolence-Report_239087_7.pdf

Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape (2007). Poverty and sexual violence: building prevention and intervention responses. Retrieved from http://www.pcar.org/resources/poverty.pdf

United Nations Millennium Development Goals (2000). Retrieved March 5, 2010 from http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

Sexuality Education for ALL Medical Students

2010-02-19T08:06:00.000-08:00

A conversation I had recently with my dentist spurred me to consider this topic. She approached me and said, “Hey… you’re an expert on this, so I challenge you to get people thinking about the importance of sex education for physicians. That includes general practitioners, OB/GYN, and yes, even dentists.” I looked at her quizzically as she continued, “You have no idea how difficult it is, as a dentist, to know how to approach people who have been sexually traumatized in their lives. I know that some of the things I do have the ability to trigger them, yet I don’t fully understand what’s happening.” Enter the bright light and music as it dawns on me what she’s really talking about. She’s talking about how to work with a patient who has been traumatized and that her training involved zero sexuality education therefore she had no idea how to approach it. Consider someone who has been forced to have oral sex... the dentist working from above and within the mouth has the potential to be an absolutely terrifying experience. You know, I never even thought of it that way. I have been challenged to look at the situation and the act of going to the dentist, or to any doctor, in an entirely new way.

It is necessary to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes regarding sexuality for them to be an effective practitioner. Some schools stress the knowledge, but cover the rest sparingly, if at all (Solursh et al., 2003). I began to examine online course catalogues for various medical and dental schools to see how much human sexuality education a student could expect in their schooling. I found that many schools provided courses in functional anatomy and physiology, but the courses appear to be just that, structure and function. The dental schools I looked at did not provide sexuality education at all. I could go on for days about the variations found and which schools had what, but that’s not the goal here.
In an effort to address the lack of quality sexuality education for American medical students, the American Medical Student Association recently launched their Sexual Health Scholars Program. It is a small group of dedicated students who enter a six month online course aimed at giving participants increased knowledge and skills toward “encouraging healthy sexualities, managing sexual concerns, and will help students bring these tools to their individual schools” (AMSA, 2010).

It is definitely a step in the right direction, and I encourage all of us to consider ways to make it more mainstream in the education process of physicians of all disciplines.

Resources:
Solursh, D.L.,Ernst, J.L., Lewis, R.W., Prisant, L.M., Solursh, P.L., Jarvis, R.G., & Salazar, W.H (2003). The human sexuality education of physicians in North American medical schools. International Journal of Impotence Research, 15, S41-S45.

American Medical Student Association, www.amsa.org

Chris

Online Courses

2010-02-12T18:40:00.000-08:00

There is an explosion of online course opportunities. Some universities even offer programs that are solely online. As educators it is important to make the best learning experiences for each participant. Moore (1993) offers three tips/suggestions for successful online education.
1. Learner-content interaction
2. Learner-instructor interaction
3. Learner-learner interaction

This seems pretty simple but how would you integrate that into your own course? Learner-content is pretty straightforward you could assign readings, research, PowerPoint. Learner-instructor could be accomplished through email, Skype or videos. I had an instructor for a class for my masters that would video tape himself giving lectures and send it to the students. I would not recommend this because it does not facilitate interaction. Learner-learner interaction may be a little trickier. There is always email, blogs, message boards, phone calls but you really do (in my opinion) miss out on the face-to-face time with fellow students. Peters (1993) would agree, he believes online lacks the human dimension of group interaction, and alienates learners from teachers.

Just like any class that you would teach there is a lot of planning that is needed to make an online course successful. There are classes that do lend themselves better to online courses than others. Classes that are more research based or text heavy would do well as an online course but that doesn’t mean that you can’t make those courses more interesting and interactive. Just because a course is online doesn’t automatically make it cutting edge and interactive, be creative and try new ideas, like Skype or conference calls or I-chatting to encourage a face-to-face feel without actually being face-to-face.
I have included a few resources that may help you out when planning an online course.

Resources:
An introduction to teaching online
http://www.crlt.umich.edu/publinks/CRLT_no18.pdf
http://www.uvm.edu/~jmorris/creatingonline.html

Instructional strategies for online courses
http://www.ion.illinois.edu/resources/tutorials/pedagogy/instructionalstrategies.asp

Best practices
http://www.sanjuancollege.edu/pages/2825.asp

Instructor Workshops
http://www.iddl.vt.edu/

Moore, M. 1993. "Three Types of Interaction." Distance Education: New Perspectives, eds. K. Harry , M. Hohn and D. Keegan. London: Routledge.

Peters, O. 1993. "Understanding Distance Education." Distance Education: New Perspectives, eds. K. Harry , M. Hohn and D. Keegan. London: Routledge.

Children and Sexuality

2010-02-05T13:53:00.001-08:00

Children and sexuality

Opportunities for sexuality education span across the lifetime. An important population to consider providing education to is parents of younger children. Advantages of parents providing sex education is that they are able to make the most of teachable moments and teach the family values related to sexuality (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2010). However in order for parents to do this, they must be able to recognize young children as sexual beings. Fortunately, great resources are available on the web so parents can have access to quality knowledge even when a sex educator cannot be physically present for the conversation.

Last semester I went to a workshop on talking to children about sex hosted by Planned Parenthood of DE (PPDE). I saw great teaching methods used there and am going to share them along with information that can be useful to parents.

Understanding sexuality in children – Here is a link to sexual milestones in children a way to educate parents. If providing education in person, one could consider having milestones on individual cards and having parents match the milestone to the correct age (like a timeline).

http://www.pacwcbt.pitt.edu/Curriculum/203%20Sexuality%20of%20Children%20Healthy%20Sexual%20Behaviors%20and/Handouts/HO%203-1.pdf

Making the most of teachable moments – While parents may not schedule sex talks with young children, they should be able to answer sex questions if they come up. Here is a resource that offers suggestions for making the most of those teachable moments. If doing this is person, parents could practice by being given a scenario and role playing the response with a partner.

http://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/preschool/Pages/Talking-to-Your-Young-Child-About-Sex.aspx?nfstatus=401&nftoken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&nfstatusdescription=ERROR%3a+No+local+token

Know your family’s values – parents are in a positive to teach about sexuality from a point that fits within the family’s values, not societal values. This will require the parent(s) to really think about what is important to them and how they wish to convey that message to their offspring. To help parents think through their values two very different cultures and their view on sexuality could be given to help parents figure out how they fall on the spectrum.

Darcie

How To Write A Sex Advice Column

2010-01-27T08:21:00.000-08:00

Teaching sexuality can occur in many different ways. Sex education is not limited to a classroom or the bedroom. For those of you who plan on incorporating technology into your career, you may have come across the idea of creating an internet sex advice column.

According to Debra Levine, the popular advice columnist from goaskalice.com, there is a specific way to arrange your advice when answering and educating people through a sex column. There are three parts you should list in your advice: 1) Explain what the concept is, 2) Give specifics about the concept, and 3) Provide two references (one offline and one online). Your answer to the question should be more of a commentary, rather than actual advice.

Below, I created my own answer to a commonly asked question. Try doing one yourself, and have fun with it! Please take note that you need to know who your audience is. If your sex advice column is purely for educational purposes, you should avoid using slang terminology. Personally, I enjoy adding a little entertainment in my answers.

Where is the clitoris and why is everyone talking about it?

A rose is the key to a woman’s heart. An orgasm is the key to a woman’s happiness. Giving your woman an orgasm will make her temporarily happy. It’ll give you just enough time to run out and buy her a rose (in case you’ve forgotten it’s your anniversary)!!

The majority of women can only orgasm through clitoral stimulation. If you have been with an extraordinary amount of women who orgasm from penetration, you’ve either had the pick of the litter or maybe you should be rethinking your techniques! The chances are you will not be able to tell if she’s faking it. Even if you're with a woman who can orgasm during coitus, play it safe by learning exactly where the "clamburger" is. In order to find the exact location, check out some human sexuality books at your local bookstore. Also, the following website reveals the female genitalia in 3-D: http://3dvulva.com/

Enjoy, and remember...it's not just the clitoris! The shaft, legs, glans, and bulbs of the clitoris give orgasms as well! LEARN THEM ALL!

Welcome to Hey Sex Ed!

2010-01-24T06:26:00.000-08:00

This blog is created by the students at Widener University's Graduate Programs in Human Sexuality who are currently enrolled in HSED 626.