VANCOUVER -- Abbotsford, BC's abstinence-based sex-ed program is under
attack from the BC Humanist Association's Ian Bushfield, who said that
abstinence education is making this generation of children afraid of
contraceptives.
Bushfield wrote a letter to BC Education Minister Don
McRae, asking him to investigate the district's curriculum and "ensure
that students are free from religious dogma and proselytizing."
Bushfield thinks students need to be taught more about how to have safe sex.
The
human sexuality curriculum in the Abbotsford district states, "The
focus will be on sexual abstinence, as the Board believes that (is) the
only truly safe way to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted
diseases."
It also outlines, "While students will be instructed
about contraceptives, the 'how to' will not be taught in the classroom
setting."
For Bushfield, that isn't enough.
"You know
keeping children ignorant, keeping teenagers ignorant is not a good
recipe for them to make good choices in the future. You know we need to
inform our students," he said.
A spokesman for the minister said
school districts have autonomy over this topic, but if anyone feels a
district's policy contradicts the School Act, they are free to challenge
that in the courts.
District superintendent Kevin Godden has
stated that the school district is constantly reviewing all of its
policies, and that the district's sex education policy is also slated
for re-evaluation and will be shaped by the latest teaching methods and
the education ministry.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Poor sex education leaves some children clueless about the birds and bees
- Young people learn about sex ed through porn and the internet
- There are no minimum standards for sex ed in schools
- In three years, STIs have increased 20 per cent among young people
Teen pregnancy could be on the
rise with the lack of sex education in some schools. Picture: Fox
Searchlight, from the film 'Juno'.Young people are at risk of unwanted pregnancies because of inadequate sexual education, an expert says.
CHILDREN can miss out entirely on sexual education because there's no minimum standard, experts warn.
Dr Joanne Ramadge, Sexual Health and Family Planning Australia's
chief executive officer, said with no national standard for sex
education too many children are not getting comprehensive sex education
and some may miss out altogether.She warned inadequate education led to risky behaviour and could lead to unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.
"Most schools have some element of what we used to call sex ed but it's often not well done, it's often not structured, it doesn't very often meet the needs of the young people,” she said.
"I'm sure it's possible (for children to leave school without sex ed). There's nothing that says schools have to provide it, or provide it a certain way.
"Especially with a mobile population. If they confine sex ed to one class at a certain age, children might … go to another school, it's quite possible that they'll miss out.”
Dr Ramadge said that sometimes teachers might not be properly trained, or might be uncomfortable teaching children about sex.
"Until it's part of a national curriculum it's hit and miss,” she said.
Do you think sex education is adequately taught in schools? Comment below
A study released earlier this year by the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition and the Youth Empowerment Against HIV/AIDS found there had been a 20 per cent increase in sexually transmitted infections among people aged 15-29 over the past three years.
They also found almost as many young people learn about sex through pornography as through their parents, and that the internet was the most common source of information.
AYAC deputy director (young people) Maia Giordana, at the time of the report's release, said in some schools sexual education was "not really happening at all”.
The report recommended a minimum national standard, and for sex education to be taught from Year 5 to Year 12.
Dr Ramadge said gaining knowledge about sex and risky behaviour - such as drugs and drinking which can lead to unsafe sex, sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies - was crucial early in life.
A Health and Physical Education "shape paper" which will guide the Federal Government's draft national curriculum, due to be finalised next year, has sexual education components.
The changes associated with puberty will be taught from Year 5, while other subjects will be included later on. Sexuality and reproductive health will be a "focus area" of the national curriculum.
A spokesman for the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority said the Health and Physical Education shape paper was the "product of extensive consultation with educators, experts, and the community".
"The feedback we've received is also being used to guide the writing of the draft curriculum," he said.
"Once the draft curriculum is released ACARA will again give the public a chance to respond to what ACARA proposes that young people will learn in health and physical education."
The Lasting Impacts of Single-Sex Education
As a visiting student at Barnard College years ago, I attended the
transfer students’ orientation where each student was asked to explain
why she had chosen Barnard. I’ll never forget one woman’s response: Well,
I went to an all-girls elementary school and an all-girls middle school
and an all-girls high school, and when I got to my co-ed college, I
didn’t know how to function around the boys, so I decided to transfer to
Barnard. Well, that’s one solution. I think I laughed at the time.But it turns out, she’s not the only one with this problem, and, in fact, given the rapid increase in single-sex programs in public schools, it looks like the trouble may only be spreading. Take a look at the recently-released November 2010 Arkansas Department of Education’s Application for School Improvement Grants. It explains that Jacksonville High School (JHS) initiated The Freshman Academy “to help incoming freshmen who needed extra help with academics and social/emotional needs,” a laudable goal. But, from 2007-2010, JHS was unable to “initiate this program as designed” and now plans to revamp the program. Instead of using the program to meet its designated goals, JHS leadership used “the Academy as a dual gender reassimilation because the students were coming from gender-based feeder schools. The Academy became a chance for the students to get back together after being separated in the Jacksonville Boys Middle School and the Jacksonville Girls Middle School.” Got that? Instead of focusing on techniques that have been proven to improve academic outcomes, the school has to spend its limited resources teaching boys and girls to play well with each other.
Perhaps this outcome isn’t surprising. Social scientists have found that labeling and separating students based on almost any characteristic (e.g., sex, eye color, randomly assigned t-shirts) makes those differences even more salient to the students and produces intergroup bias. No wonder students who have been divided by sex for years need help learning how to work and learn together.
Here’s the bottom line: many of our schools are in trouble and coming out of the largest recession since the 1930s, with mounting national debt, we have limited resources. Many schools are choosing to spend those limited resources on single-sex programs despite the fact that “there is no well-designed research showing that single-sex education improves students’ academic performance, but there is evidence that sex segregation increases gender stereotyping and legitimizes institutional sexism.” As a result of prioritizing single-sex classes, these schools don’t have the funds to spend on techniques that have actually been proven to improve academic outcomes, like smaller class sizes and personalized learning environments with mentors, counseling, and other supports. AND, then other schools down the line, like The Freshman Academy, are forced to spend their limited resources undoing the damage done by single-sex classes rather than, again, implementing proven techniques to expand academic achievement. At the end of the day, we are not preparing our students for the real world. After all, there are very few things one can do as a grown-up, short of joining a cloistered religious order, to be exclusively in a single-sex environment.
All of our kids deserve to reach their full potential, regardless of their sex. And, that starts with a high quality, fair education that focuses on techniques that work and teaches all students as individuals, not as stereotypes.
State Lawmakers Stall Sex Ed Bill To Focus On Anti-Choice Legislation
Ohio’s War On Women: State Lawmakers Stall Sex Ed Bill To Focus On Anti-Choice Legislation
And Ohio lawmakers are so focused on their radical anti-choice agenda that they don’t have time for practical legislation that would actually help lower the abortion rate. The Dayton Daily News reports that the House’s health committee gave a “complimentary” hearing to HB 338, which seeks to establish science-based standards for comprehensive sexuality education in the state’s public schools, but has no intentions of advancing the legislation:
In the final weeks of two-year legislative session, Ohio lawmakers are sparring over several bills related to abortion and women’s health, leading to charges from Democrats that their Republican colleagues are engaging in a “war on women.” [...]In fact, if Ohio lawmakers are so concerned about preventing abortions that they feel the need to target Planned Parenthood clinics, they might want to start with ensuring that students receive medically comprehensive information about human sexuality, the female reproductive system, and preventative measures like birth control and condoms. Equipping young adults with comprehensive sex education is directly related to helping prevent unintended pregnancies. The states that push abstinence-only education programs in their public schools — which often mislead students about birth control’s rate of effectiveness, and aren’t honest about the best ways to prevent sexually transmitted diseases — have the highest rates of teen pregnancies, while adolescents who actually receive instruction about prevention methods are 60 percent less likely to get someone else pregnant or get pregnant themselves.
Meanwhile, a Democratic bill that is being touted as a comprehensive sexual health and education measure, had its first and probably last hearing this week.
[Rep. Lynn Wachtmann (R)] chairman of the House Health and Aging Committee, said he gave the bill a “complimentary hearing” on Wednesday, but it won’t go any further, at least not this year.
A recent survey of the health classes in New York state’s public schools found that they have “shocking gaps” in their sex education programs, highlighting the need for standardized guidelines requiring up-to-date, scientifically accurate information across schools. Ohio’s school system could have the same kind of gaps — but, thanks to Ohio lawmaker’s insistence on prioritizing attacks on abortion access and Planned Parenthood funding, they won’t get addressed this year.
What links sex education and Guides? Feminism
A family planning chief at the helm of Girlguiding UK caused outrage, but
Julie Bentley shows the organisations aren’t so different after all.
Julie Bentley is the new chief executive of the Girl Guide Association
Julie Bentley is the new chief executive of the Girl Guide Association
So this week’s announcement that Julie Bentley, the former head of the Family
Planning Association, has been appointed chief executive of Girlguiding UK
was met with horror from some quarters.
Religious groups lined up to declare that this sex-peddling liberal would
destroy innocent girlhood and turn a treasured institution into a hotbed of
promiscuity.
“The Girl Guides is an organisation which should protect girls from these
sorts of pressures,” boomed Mike Judge of a Christian think tank. Jill
Kirby, a social policy author, declared: “One of the reasons why girls want
to join the Guides…is that they can escape from sex and television culture.
“I would have hoped that anyone leading the Guides would understand that. I
don’t believe Ms Bentley does.”
The message on the institution’s mugs — “Keep Calm and Carry on Guiding” — suddenly seems rather apt. But will Miss Bentley, 43, really be so bad for the Guides?
I first met her when she arrived as the head of the FPA in 2007. I had been a patron since 2000 and the arrival of the vibrant and then 38-year-old (who uses the phrase “Cor Blimey!” without irony) to a 75-year-old charity was a breath of fresh air.
Like me, she could occasionally be frustrated by the term “Family Planning” (she recognised that it meant little to 15-year-olds in Brixton), but she sufficiently respected the heritage of the well-known institution to reject a full-scale overhaul of its name.
I quickly learnt that Miss Bentley was not driven by a belief that people should be having rampant, inconsequential sex.
Instead, she was focused on empowering people, especially young girls, through self-esteem and age-appropriate knowledge, regardless of whether they choose condoms or abstinence. She is also a fighter for the underdog.
At heart, she is driven by the passionately held view that young people are often misunderstood and misrepresented.
Miss Bentley was a volunteer long before David Cameron defined the Big Society. Leaving school at 18, she inquired about being a youth worker in Essex, where she grew up.
“I was told I couldn’t be one, because I was still a youth myself,” she laughs. “So I volunteered two evenings a week at youth clubs and did my training while also working as a post lady.
“I loved that, walking in the outdoors and meeting lots of people.”
Though she was never a Guide, she describes her childhood, in a working-class home, as “fabulous”.
She adds: “So much so that I was aware of how lacking some children’s lives could be.”
Surprisingly, her biggest challenge in taking the helm of the Girl Guides is not to recruit more females to the biggest youth organisation in the UK (it boasts 540,000 members) but to mobilise more helpers.
“We have 100,000 volunteers who deliver literally millions of hours per year.
“But women’s lives are different now — 50 years ago we could give 30 hours a week.
“But we need to be more flexible these days, and if people can only give the odd hour, that’s great.”
She was pushy but polite in recruiting famous faces to the FPA, somehow persuading Jo Brand and Clare Balding to host its annual dinner.
So I’m sure, I tell her, that she will have no trouble in finding the Girl Guides a celebrity figurehead akin to Bear Grylls, who represents the Scouts with muddy-faced machismo.
“No,” she chides. “Women and girls can’t be summed up like that. Some love sport. Others hate all that sweating. No one woman represents all of us.”
I remember much heartache and head-scratching at the FPA as we tried to sum up the charity’s many aims in one sentence.
Miss Bentley, however, swiftly changed the strapline from the rather dreary “putting sexual health on the agenda” to “talking sense about sex”.
This forward-thinking clarity sums her up: a no-nonsense, ambitious goal-setter who celebrated her 40th birthday three years ago by cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats.
She went on the mission with her partner of 11 years, Sean, in aid of the Feham Village Appeal which builds schools in India. So, as she prepares to bring the same energy to the Girl Guides, how would she sum up their aim in an MTV age?
She pauses for a second. “To have fun, be happy and realise your potential.
“I want to help young people understand that… confidence, self-esteem and inner belief is going to determine what they do with their lives,” she says.
That people have criticised her appointment because of her background in family planning has not fazed her.
“That was lazy headline-writing,” she tells me. “The two are not connected.”
What has surprised her, though, is the shock caused by her description of the Guides as “the ultimate feminist organisation”.
“In 1909 the Girl Guides started because a group of girls marched on a Scout meeting and said, 'What about us?’ For over 100 years, we’ve been echoing that same sentiment.
“I find it extraordinary that people are offended by the word 'feminist’ in 2012, but it has been very corrupted.”
But in these inclusive times, she is inevitably having to answer questions about the Guides’ female-only policy. (The Scouts, on the other hand, have included older girls since 1976, with younger girls admitted from 2007.)
“It is right and proper that girls and boys mix across society.
“But girls need freedom to be themselves and have fun with other girls without stereotypes.”
As a mother, I can think of nothing better than several hours a week in which my daughters might spend time with other girls (especially at a cost of roughly £20 for a three-month term), but surely the Guides is just not cool?
“Anyone who thinks Guides isn’t cool needs to look again,” Miss Bentley says with passion.
“Every year we have the Big Gig, a pop concert in which we fill Wembley with the latest acts and Girl Guides. It’s amazing.
“And of course we still do all the outdoor stuff as well — zip-wires, rock-climbing and grass-sledging.”
Although my two girls are only three and 18 months, Miss Bentley teases me that the popularity of the Guides is such that “you need to get their names down now”.
She adds: “We have a 50,000-strong waiting list.”
She reads my mind: “Don’t worry, there’s no uniform to iron! It’s all hoodies and tracksuits now.”
The message on the institution’s mugs — “Keep Calm and Carry on Guiding” — suddenly seems rather apt. But will Miss Bentley, 43, really be so bad for the Guides?
I first met her when she arrived as the head of the FPA in 2007. I had been a patron since 2000 and the arrival of the vibrant and then 38-year-old (who uses the phrase “Cor Blimey!” without irony) to a 75-year-old charity was a breath of fresh air.
Like me, she could occasionally be frustrated by the term “Family Planning” (she recognised that it meant little to 15-year-olds in Brixton), but she sufficiently respected the heritage of the well-known institution to reject a full-scale overhaul of its name.
I quickly learnt that Miss Bentley was not driven by a belief that people should be having rampant, inconsequential sex.
Instead, she was focused on empowering people, especially young girls, through self-esteem and age-appropriate knowledge, regardless of whether they choose condoms or abstinence. She is also a fighter for the underdog.
At heart, she is driven by the passionately held view that young people are often misunderstood and misrepresented.
Miss Bentley was a volunteer long before David Cameron defined the Big Society. Leaving school at 18, she inquired about being a youth worker in Essex, where she grew up.
“I was told I couldn’t be one, because I was still a youth myself,” she laughs. “So I volunteered two evenings a week at youth clubs and did my training while also working as a post lady.
“I loved that, walking in the outdoors and meeting lots of people.”
Though she was never a Guide, she describes her childhood, in a working-class home, as “fabulous”.
She adds: “So much so that I was aware of how lacking some children’s lives could be.”
Surprisingly, her biggest challenge in taking the helm of the Girl Guides is not to recruit more females to the biggest youth organisation in the UK (it boasts 540,000 members) but to mobilise more helpers.
“We have 100,000 volunteers who deliver literally millions of hours per year.
“But women’s lives are different now — 50 years ago we could give 30 hours a week.
“But we need to be more flexible these days, and if people can only give the odd hour, that’s great.”
She was pushy but polite in recruiting famous faces to the FPA, somehow persuading Jo Brand and Clare Balding to host its annual dinner.
So I’m sure, I tell her, that she will have no trouble in finding the Girl Guides a celebrity figurehead akin to Bear Grylls, who represents the Scouts with muddy-faced machismo.
“No,” she chides. “Women and girls can’t be summed up like that. Some love sport. Others hate all that sweating. No one woman represents all of us.”
I remember much heartache and head-scratching at the FPA as we tried to sum up the charity’s many aims in one sentence.
Miss Bentley, however, swiftly changed the strapline from the rather dreary “putting sexual health on the agenda” to “talking sense about sex”.
This forward-thinking clarity sums her up: a no-nonsense, ambitious goal-setter who celebrated her 40th birthday three years ago by cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats.
She went on the mission with her partner of 11 years, Sean, in aid of the Feham Village Appeal which builds schools in India. So, as she prepares to bring the same energy to the Girl Guides, how would she sum up their aim in an MTV age?
She pauses for a second. “To have fun, be happy and realise your potential.
“I want to help young people understand that… confidence, self-esteem and inner belief is going to determine what they do with their lives,” she says.
That people have criticised her appointment because of her background in family planning has not fazed her.
“That was lazy headline-writing,” she tells me. “The two are not connected.”
What has surprised her, though, is the shock caused by her description of the Guides as “the ultimate feminist organisation”.
“In 1909 the Girl Guides started because a group of girls marched on a Scout meeting and said, 'What about us?’ For over 100 years, we’ve been echoing that same sentiment.
“I find it extraordinary that people are offended by the word 'feminist’ in 2012, but it has been very corrupted.”
But in these inclusive times, she is inevitably having to answer questions about the Guides’ female-only policy. (The Scouts, on the other hand, have included older girls since 1976, with younger girls admitted from 2007.)
“It is right and proper that girls and boys mix across society.
“But girls need freedom to be themselves and have fun with other girls without stereotypes.”
As a mother, I can think of nothing better than several hours a week in which my daughters might spend time with other girls (especially at a cost of roughly £20 for a three-month term), but surely the Guides is just not cool?
“Anyone who thinks Guides isn’t cool needs to look again,” Miss Bentley says with passion.
“Every year we have the Big Gig, a pop concert in which we fill Wembley with the latest acts and Girl Guides. It’s amazing.
“And of course we still do all the outdoor stuff as well — zip-wires, rock-climbing and grass-sledging.”
Although my two girls are only three and 18 months, Miss Bentley teases me that the popularity of the Guides is such that “you need to get their names down now”.
She adds: “We have a 50,000-strong waiting list.”
She reads my mind: “Don’t worry, there’s no uniform to iron! It’s all hoodies and tracksuits now.”
School board questions sex education change
BROOKVILLE - Following a presentation by a concerned parent, members of
the Brookville School Board asked when and why a portion of the
elementary school curriculum had been changed.
Carol Shindler of Church Street, Brookville, told the board that she has three children in school, in grades 11, 9 and 5. "I was recently informed," she said, "that the school is no longer offering any type of sex ed classes to the fifth and sixth graders. I'm kind of at a loss as to why the school has made a decision to disregard the importance of this."
Shindler, who is a registered nurse anesthetist, said that she agrees that the primary responsibility for sex education "does fall with the parents, but I think the school needs to be involved in providing factual, age-appropriate information. Puberty is a time of physical and emotional changes which can be very frightening to an unprepared child. I believe the school should be teaching physical development, reproductive anatomy and physiology, bodily changes and emotional changes in an age-appropriate curriculum. Parents who would want to opt out of this could certainly be given that option. There are a lot of children that have a very poor home life and a lot of them are not going to get proper and accurate explanations at home."
She added that "I know many parents are very satisfied with the Safe Touch program that is offered in the earlier grades. In a time when there is more child abuse, teen pregnancies, STDs, AIDS and so forth, I'm not sure how it's possible for the school to ignore the elementary children. They need to be instilled with the knowledge to help them care for their bodies and to help them maintain personal boundaries, to understand when lines of impropriety have been crossed and who they should report it to."
Shindler told the board that she "would like to know what, if any, plan the school has to address this now or in the future to make sure our children have accurate information and support for their well-being as they begin the maturation process."
She said that her two older children both had received sex education in elementary school but her 10-year-old daughter, who is in fifth grade, "has not had anything." When she talked to Hickory Grove principal Ed Dombroski, she was told "there was no more program," and there is no type of sex ed program until ninth grade.
As several members of the board asked when and why the sex ed program had been dropped without the board being involved, board president Tom Maloney told Shindler that it would not be discussed at the meeting. "But your question is certainly a very valid one and the administration can follow up."
During his report on last month's IU6 meeting, Michael Smith told the board that the IU6 executive director, John Kornish, will be retiring in August. He said the board will start its search for someone to fill the position.
Board member Fred Park reported on a busy board meeting at Jeff Tech, at which several staff vacancies were filled. He said Jeff Tech's reorganizational meeting will be held Thursday, December 6, with a workshop and dinner to precede the meeting. He encouraged all board members to attend.
The next meeting of the Brookville School Board will be held Monday, December 3. The board will hold its reorganizational meeting at 7 p.m., followed by the monthly board meeting.
Carol Shindler of Church Street, Brookville, told the board that she has three children in school, in grades 11, 9 and 5. "I was recently informed," she said, "that the school is no longer offering any type of sex ed classes to the fifth and sixth graders. I'm kind of at a loss as to why the school has made a decision to disregard the importance of this."
Shindler, who is a registered nurse anesthetist, said that she agrees that the primary responsibility for sex education "does fall with the parents, but I think the school needs to be involved in providing factual, age-appropriate information. Puberty is a time of physical and emotional changes which can be very frightening to an unprepared child. I believe the school should be teaching physical development, reproductive anatomy and physiology, bodily changes and emotional changes in an age-appropriate curriculum. Parents who would want to opt out of this could certainly be given that option. There are a lot of children that have a very poor home life and a lot of them are not going to get proper and accurate explanations at home."
She added that "I know many parents are very satisfied with the Safe Touch program that is offered in the earlier grades. In a time when there is more child abuse, teen pregnancies, STDs, AIDS and so forth, I'm not sure how it's possible for the school to ignore the elementary children. They need to be instilled with the knowledge to help them care for their bodies and to help them maintain personal boundaries, to understand when lines of impropriety have been crossed and who they should report it to."
Shindler told the board that she "would like to know what, if any, plan the school has to address this now or in the future to make sure our children have accurate information and support for their well-being as they begin the maturation process."
She said that her two older children both had received sex education in elementary school but her 10-year-old daughter, who is in fifth grade, "has not had anything." When she talked to Hickory Grove principal Ed Dombroski, she was told "there was no more program," and there is no type of sex ed program until ninth grade.
As several members of the board asked when and why the sex ed program had been dropped without the board being involved, board president Tom Maloney told Shindler that it would not be discussed at the meeting. "But your question is certainly a very valid one and the administration can follow up."
During his report on last month's IU6 meeting, Michael Smith told the board that the IU6 executive director, John Kornish, will be retiring in August. He said the board will start its search for someone to fill the position.
Board member Fred Park reported on a busy board meeting at Jeff Tech, at which several staff vacancies were filled. He said Jeff Tech's reorganizational meeting will be held Thursday, December 6, with a workshop and dinner to precede the meeting. He encouraged all board members to attend.
The next meeting of the Brookville School Board will be held Monday, December 3. The board will hold its reorganizational meeting at 7 p.m., followed by the monthly board meeting.
No Substitute for Sex Ed
Although pornography isn’t made for adolescents, it would be naïve to
believe they don’t watch it. Earlier generations snuck peeks at their
parents’ magazine or VHS collections. Today most U.S. teenagers have
Internet access and thus a virtual buffet of porn. But how does such
exposure affect them?
Scientifically, it is difficult to tease out the effects that porn use has on adolescents; some of the correlations may not be causations. Research has found that adolescents who seek out porn are more likely to engage in certain sexual behaviors (like anal sex and group sex) and to begin having sex at younger ages. But are they engaging in more varied sex acts and at younger ages because they watched porn? Or are they highly sexually interested young women and men who sought out sexual stimulation in the form of both pornography and partners?
Of course, porn isn’t going anywhere – nor is it becoming more vanilla or true to life. A recent study found that popular mainstream porn featured anal sex in about 55 percent of scenes. However, my research team’s data suggest that only about 4 percent of Americans engaged in anal sex during their most recent sexual experience -- a sizable difference that emphasizes that porn is fiction. Other issues that concern people include how porn generally depicts women, shows sex as casual rather than intimate, and frequently has partners couple and part ways without exchanging names or wearing condoms.
Yes, pornography is fiction. That’s part of why many people enjoy it. However, there’s a risk if young women and men misunderstand sex as a result of a porn-only sex education.
Many of my college students who have watched porn but had little sex education (whether in schools or from their families) often have a skewed view of sex. They may believe that anal sex and group sex are common, that genitals should be hairless, and that facials (not the spa kind) are par for the course. Once they engage in a real relationship with someone they care for, many of their beliefs are challenged and they find themselves readjusting to sex in the real world -- very different from the sex they’ve seen online. Then again, young women whose ideas about sex and love are shaped by “Fifty Shades of Grey” or Hollywood romantic comedies will also have to make room for reality.
It’s the larger context of sex education that is critical to examine. Pornography and “Fifty Shades” aren’t the problem.
Many college students say I am the first adult to teach them about sex. This is striking. If parents and schools don’t teach teenagers about sex, intimacy and healthy relationships, then pornography will remain their primary source of sex information. It doesn’t have to be that way. We need age- and developmentally appropriate sex education in schools that spans years, not just a single video about puberty in fifth grade.
Young women and men need to learn about their bodies, how to be emotionally vulnerable with one another, and what’s common (and not) about sexuality so that when they’re faced with creating their own sexual lives, they can create the sexual life that feels good to them rather than recreating the fictionalized, and often risky, sex they’ve seen online. They’ll know that pornography and romantic novels are fictions of sex and love -- and that it’s for them to create reality.
Scientifically, it is difficult to tease out the effects that porn use has on adolescents; some of the correlations may not be causations. Research has found that adolescents who seek out porn are more likely to engage in certain sexual behaviors (like anal sex and group sex) and to begin having sex at younger ages. But are they engaging in more varied sex acts and at younger ages because they watched porn? Or are they highly sexually interested young women and men who sought out sexual stimulation in the form of both pornography and partners?
Of course, porn isn’t going anywhere – nor is it becoming more vanilla or true to life. A recent study found that popular mainstream porn featured anal sex in about 55 percent of scenes. However, my research team’s data suggest that only about 4 percent of Americans engaged in anal sex during their most recent sexual experience -- a sizable difference that emphasizes that porn is fiction. Other issues that concern people include how porn generally depicts women, shows sex as casual rather than intimate, and frequently has partners couple and part ways without exchanging names or wearing condoms.
Yes, pornography is fiction. That’s part of why many people enjoy it. However, there’s a risk if young women and men misunderstand sex as a result of a porn-only sex education.
Many of my college students who have watched porn but had little sex education (whether in schools or from their families) often have a skewed view of sex. They may believe that anal sex and group sex are common, that genitals should be hairless, and that facials (not the spa kind) are par for the course. Once they engage in a real relationship with someone they care for, many of their beliefs are challenged and they find themselves readjusting to sex in the real world -- very different from the sex they’ve seen online. Then again, young women whose ideas about sex and love are shaped by “Fifty Shades of Grey” or Hollywood romantic comedies will also have to make room for reality.
It’s the larger context of sex education that is critical to examine. Pornography and “Fifty Shades” aren’t the problem.
Many college students say I am the first adult to teach them about sex. This is striking. If parents and schools don’t teach teenagers about sex, intimacy and healthy relationships, then pornography will remain their primary source of sex information. It doesn’t have to be that way. We need age- and developmentally appropriate sex education in schools that spans years, not just a single video about puberty in fifth grade.
Young women and men need to learn about their bodies, how to be emotionally vulnerable with one another, and what’s common (and not) about sexuality so that when they’re faced with creating their own sexual lives, they can create the sexual life that feels good to them rather than recreating the fictionalized, and often risky, sex they’ve seen online. They’ll know that pornography and romantic novels are fictions of sex and love -- and that it’s for them to create reality.
Sex education proposal in teacher training institutes
KUALA
LUMPUR: The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry has
proposed that the teaching of sex education be included in the
curriculum at Teacher Training Institutes.
Its deputy minister, Senator Datuk Heng Seai Kie, said the ministry was still in its initial stages of discussion with the education ministry on the proposal.
“If this can be implemented, all our teachers will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to teach sex education.
“They will know how to handle issues or problems among students related to sex,” she told a press conference after launching the National Women’s Safety Campaign Anti- Crime Against Women workshop on Monday.
She also said the ministry, in collaboration with the education ministry, would continue and expand its pilot projects — “I’m In Control” and “Pekerti Programme” — for Standard Six and Form Three students in the next five years. About 30,00 students will undergo the programmes every year.
“We have chosen to target these two groups of students because usually after their national examinations, they have some free time before the holidays,” she said, adding that this was to ensure that their normal schooling hours were not interrupted by the eight-day programmes. In light of the recent uproar over the cases of two convicted rapists escaping jail terms, the programmes will also include knowledge on Section 376 of the Penal Code which governs the penalty for rape.
Heng said the students would not only be taught about the biological changes of their bodies but also the risks of pre- marital sex and consequences of underage sex. Besides sending the ministry’s officers and non-govern mental organisations to conduct these programmes, she said selected teachers would also be trained over the next five years to conduct the programme in their schools.
Earlier in her speech at the workshop, she said based on police statistics there were 465 sexual harassment cases reported from 2009 to 2011.
There was however a decline in rape cases from 3,626 in 2009 to 3,301 in 2011; molest cases from 96 (2009) to 71 (2011) and in incest cases from 31 (2009) to 17 (2011). The workshop is the ninth of the 20 planned to be held nationwide this month. It aims to educate more than 20,000 females on how to defend and protect themselves in cases of crime or violence against them.
Its deputy minister, Senator Datuk Heng Seai Kie, said the ministry was still in its initial stages of discussion with the education ministry on the proposal.
“If this can be implemented, all our teachers will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to teach sex education.
“They will know how to handle issues or problems among students related to sex,” she told a press conference after launching the National Women’s Safety Campaign Anti- Crime Against Women workshop on Monday.
She also said the ministry, in collaboration with the education ministry, would continue and expand its pilot projects — “I’m In Control” and “Pekerti Programme” — for Standard Six and Form Three students in the next five years. About 30,00 students will undergo the programmes every year.
“We have chosen to target these two groups of students because usually after their national examinations, they have some free time before the holidays,” she said, adding that this was to ensure that their normal schooling hours were not interrupted by the eight-day programmes. In light of the recent uproar over the cases of two convicted rapists escaping jail terms, the programmes will also include knowledge on Section 376 of the Penal Code which governs the penalty for rape.
Heng said the students would not only be taught about the biological changes of their bodies but also the risks of pre- marital sex and consequences of underage sex. Besides sending the ministry’s officers and non-govern mental organisations to conduct these programmes, she said selected teachers would also be trained over the next five years to conduct the programme in their schools.
Earlier in her speech at the workshop, she said based on police statistics there were 465 sexual harassment cases reported from 2009 to 2011.
There was however a decline in rape cases from 3,626 in 2009 to 3,301 in 2011; molest cases from 96 (2009) to 71 (2011) and in incest cases from 31 (2009) to 17 (2011). The workshop is the ninth of the 20 planned to be held nationwide this month. It aims to educate more than 20,000 females on how to defend and protect themselves in cases of crime or violence against them.
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