We are ending 2019 with a revamping of Teaching Safer Sex! This NEW version contains 10 lessons that have been updated and re-released into a NEW manual.
Order your copy today! Manuals will be shipping January 2020.
In the mean time…here is a preview of Teaching Safer Sex: Abridged Version.
Introduction to Teaching Safer Sex: Abridged Version by Bill Taverner, Executive Director of the CSE
More than 30 years ago, Peggy Brick wrote the first edition of Teaching Safer Sex with Catherine Charlton, Hilary Kunins, and Steve Brown. In a world that was still beginning to understand HIV and AIDS, with much of the education focused on epidemiology of the disease and the function of T-cells, Brick et al recognized the need for lesson plans that addressed the attitudes, skills and behaviors needed to protect one’s sexual health. The authors recognized that epidemiological knowledge was incidental, and even unnecessary, for individuals wanting to prevent sexually transmitted infections. The lesson plans used interactive strategies to improve comfort with sexual language, to counter negative attitudes about condoms and condom users, and to create a new frame with which safer sex was portrayed in a positive, responsible way.
Peggy hired me in 1998 while she was finishing the expanded second edition, The NEW Teaching Safer Sex. That was the first writing project Peggy and I worked on together. Though I added very little content to the final draft of that edition, I learned a lot that summer about how to make learning fun, interactive, and meaningful. When I served as lead editor for the third edition in 2012, Peggy wrote an enthusiastic and congratulatory introduction, which served as a guided tour to the 50 lesson plans in two volumes. Privately, Peggy admonished me that there were too many lessons! So I think she would be very happy with this abridged edition!
Peggy died on December 24, 2018. She is remembered as an internationally respected sexuality educator who was admired by her colleagues. Teaching Safer Sex – On the Go! retains Peggy’s vision, as well as philosophical and pedagogical characteristics of prior editions. The lesson plans are highly interactive, involve frequent discussion and focus on the knowledge, attitudes, and behavior needed to be successful in taking responsibility for one’s sexual health. As I selected and edited the lesson plans for this edition, Peggy’s voice was frequently in my head. “Keep the four corners activity!” “You can cut that statement.” “That’s way too much information!” “Why not combine the lessons?” I don’t know that I always made the decision that Peggy might have made, but it did make me miss the rigorous debates we’d have that would help me think better.
The contributing authors to Teaching Safer Sex – On the Go! are terrifically talented and it was an honor to incorporate their creative ideas into this edition, which includes 10 carefully selected and updated lesson plans using a variety of pedagogical techniques true/false handouts, paired, small, and large group discussion, kinesthetic activities, role play, games, independent research, and more, as participants explore a spectrum of considerations related to sexual health, and develop the knowledge, attitudes, and skills to make safer decisions.
Many thanks to LifeStyles condoms for supporting this project and getting these lesson plans into the hands of sexuality educators.
