New Report Claims British Sex Ed Unfit for New Generation According to a new report, sex education in British schools is “unfit” for the “smartphone generation.” The report goes on to claim that 95 percent of pupils are not being taught about LGBT relationships, and one in seven pupils receives no sex ed classes at all. The… Read more »
Sex Ed Updates Come to Mount Pleasant School District For the first time since 2011, the Mt. Pleasant, Michigan sex education advisory board will be making changes to the district’s sex education curriculum. Most notably, sex education will now be offered as early as fourth grade. Kenyans Look for Ways to Bring Sex Ed to More… Read more »
Earlier this week, we mentioned that several schools in Ontario, Canada are experiencing a backlash from parents who are upset with the new sex ed curriculum. Thorncliffe Park Public School in Toronto, was forced to offer a “sanitized” version of the curriculum to first graders, as a way to stop parents from pulling their children out of class…. Read more »
San Francisco Schools Strengthen Their Already Robust Sex Ed Curricula The California Comprehensive Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention Act went into effect at the beginning of 2016, but the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) has been providing education that meets its requirements for years. The SFUSD is now assisting other school districts, and is making their sex… Read more »
Toronto Public School Forced to Offer ‘Sanitized’ Version of Sex Ed Thorncliffe Park Public School in Toronto, Canada has begun offering a “sanitized” version of Ontario’s sex ed curriculum to first graders, as a way to stop parents from pulling their children out of class. This move comes into response to controversy over the existing curriculum, over which hundreds… Read more »
East Lansing School Board Votes to Allow Guest Speakers from Local Health Centers Board members of the East Lansing, MI school board voted 7-0 to allow guest speakers from Willow Adolescent Health Center Outreach Educational Program and End Violent Encounters to speak at East Lansing High School. Outside speakers for sex education were pulled from the district… Read more »
Public opinion on the most effective means of sex education has been split for years and, in fact, sex ed as we know it today originated from an explosion in teen pregnancy rates in the 1960s and ’70s, followed swiftly by the AIDS crisis. At the time, as a response to what was seen as… Read more »
Effects of New California Laws Continue to Spread Across the State In Auburn, California, high school trustees voted to adopt the new state law into its policies. As a result, students in the area will learn about healthy relationships, pregnancy and STI prevention, gender stereotypes, and more. Parents will be sent letters regarding the lessons, inviting them to… Read more »
As U.S. Sex Ed Programs Remain Bifurcated, New Sources of Info Emerge Australian Government Pulls Funding from Youth-Led Sex Ed Program The Australian government is pulling all funding from YEAH ((Youth Empowerment Against HIV/AIDS), a program that uses youth educators to deliver sex education in schools and universities. After June 30, YEAH will be replaced with with an online resource…. Read more »
A new study from researchers at the Guttmacher Institute found that the percentage of teens who have received a formal sex education dropped significantly between 2006 and 2013. The study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, found significant declines in education on birth control, saying no to sex, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV/AIDS. In fact, a significant… Read more »
Just this past December, the D.C. Council Committee on Health and Human Services voted unanimously to approve the LGBTQ Cultural Competency Continuing Education Amendment Act of 2015 (B21-168). This new bill, if passed, would require health care professionals to receive continuing education on how best to treat LGBTQ populations. More specifically, this bill would require medical… Read more »
Students Beg for More and Better Sex Ed… and Some of Them Get It! Students Want More from Their Sex Ed Deakin University and the University of South Australia conducted a survey showing that school-based education programs are students’ primary source of information about sexuality and relationships. But at the same time, students find this… Read more »
The People Push Back Against Restrictive Sex Education Laws Alaskans Unhappy with Two New Bills That Would Restrict Sex Ed Options Last week, we mentioned that the Alaska Senate had approved a bill that would prohibit school districts from contracting with abortion care providers for their sex education course materials. In addition to this bill, there is… Read more »
In our most recent Sex Ed in the News roundup, we mentioned that, in his proposed budget for 2017, President Barack Obama suggested eliminating a $10 million-a-year grant from the Department of Health and Human Services that funds abstinence-only education programs. If this proposed budget were to pass as-is, it would mark an amazing shift… Read more »
Sex Education Opportunities for All Ages Alaska Republicans Try to Block Abortion Care Providers from Involvement with Sex Ed The Alaska Senate recently approved a bill that would prohibit school districts from contracting with abortion care providers, such as Planned Parenthood, for their sex education course materials. The bill is apparently Senator Mike Dunleavy’s second attempt to prohibit abortion… Read more »
NSEC Workshop Title: YES YOU CAN! Teaching About Sexuality with Older Adults NSEC Workshop Description: This workshop is intended for sexuality educators who want to begin to implement programming that targets older adults and aging services staff, but may not know where to start. Educators will learn tools to deliver engaging, interactive and easily replicable workshops… Read more »
Sex Eddie in the news! The Most Unique Place to Teach Sex Ed Outside of the Classroom Incorporating healthy sexuality messages in a variety of places is an important part of incorporating prevention methods into people’s daily lives. This hotel room, however, takes that theory right up to the edge by putting information about STIs… Read more »
I love it that the second lesson plan in Older, Wiser, Sexually Smarter is all about sexual humor. Humans turn to humor so often when we feel unsettled, uncomfortable, or unsure about how we should be approaching something. And so our extravagant repertoire of sexual jokes has no shortage of jokes about sexuality and aging…. Read more »
It’s time, today and tomorrow, to dive into supporting students in re-visioning abstinence. The choice to refrain from sexual activity is such an important one! It remains unclear to me why people would restrict this opportunity to people who were willing to do it all the way until they were married. Instead, I think we… Read more »
Abstinence means many things to many people. Among other things, it may or may not include masturbation. Being sexual with yourself carries none of the risks of being sexual with another person (physically or emotionally) and has loads of benefits. And so, included in Making Sense of Abstinence, is this awesome lesson on masturbation. (The title… Read more »
