Youth Radio - Topic: sex education

Real Education for Healthy Youth Act Proposed In California

rgee — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:30:03 -0600

Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced a new bill at the beginning of this month, called the Real Education for Healthy Youth Act -- the first piece of federal legislation that would recognize a young person’s right to sexual health information.

Other parts of the bill include grants for comprehensive sex education programs for teens and young adults in colleges, as well as requiring funded programs to be inclusive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and heterosexual youth, and address students who are and are not sexually active.

In California, the law already requires that if sex education is taught, it must be comprehensive -- meaning it must include information about abstinence and contraception. Although, teaching sex ed is not mandatory.

The topic of how to teach sex ed is in the air right now. The New York Times magazine recently published an article called, “Teaching Good Sex,” which tells the story of one English teacher who teaches positive sexuality, going beyond the do's and don'ts into the realm of pleasure. He calls sex a "force for good" even amongst teenagers.

New Stuff In Sex Ed

rgee — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 11:53:26 -0500

Another September has rolled around, and school is back in session. A new year however, does not necessarily mean new history textbooks- most of us can relate to using outdated materials and making due.

This is NOT the case for sex education curriculum. For instance, students in Greensboro, North Carolina will learn about contraceptive strategies other than abstinence for the first time this year, according to an article in the News and Record.

There are two schools of thought in the United States about sex education: comprehensive and abstinence-only. President Obama is giving states a large incentive to adopt a comprehensive sex education curriculum, that includes information about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and varied methods of contraception. He included a program in his Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (passed in March 2010) called the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP). This program allows states to apply for a minimum of $250,000 to implement a comprehensive sex education program that addresses more than just abstinence as a form of contraception. Applications for this funding were due two weeks ago.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, at least three of the following topics must be included in the state's curriculum:

a. Healthy relationships, such as positive self-esteem and relationship dynamics,
friendships, dating, romantic involvement, marriage, and family interactions.
b. Adolescent development, such as the development of healthy attitudes and values about
adolescent growth and development, body image, racial and ethnic diversity, and other
related subjects.
c. Financial literacy.
d. Parent-child communication.
e. Educational and career success, such as developing skills for employment preparation,
job seeking, independent living, financial self-sufficiency, and work-place productivity.
f. Healthy life skills, such as goal-setting, decision making, negotiation, communication and
interpersonal skills, and stress management.

According to a 2010 Guttmacher Institute report titled, "U.S. Teenage Pregnancies, Births and Abortions: National and State Trends and Trends by Race and Ethnicity,“ the rates of pregnancy and birth among teenaters and increased from 2005 to 2006. The report explains that one potential cause for this increase are the number of abstinence-only sex education programs around the country.

Minnesota is one example. Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota passed up the chance to apply for the PREP money, and applied instead for the Title V State Abstinence Education Grant Program. Linnea House, executive director of NARAL Pro Choice Minnesota told the Minnesota Independent, “We are outraged Gov. Tim Pawlenty is willing to continue to play games with the lives of Minnesota youth.”

House told the Independent that HIV and Chlamydia rates are rising in young Minnesotans, and this policy decision will have a huge impact on young Minnesotans.

Understanding Sex

nmexico — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:22:01 -0600

(Updated on April 28, 2010)

(download mp3)

The following was broadcast on KUNM FM, Albuquerque as part of a series Youth Speak Out, a collaboration between Youth Radio, Youth Media Project in Santa Fe, KUNM’s Youth Radio in Albuquerque, and New Mexico's Youth Alliance, made possible by a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. For more information about Youth Speak Out go to www.youthradio.org/new-mexico.

by Bethany Trujillo

The first time I had sex, I got pregnant. I was fifteen years old and I didn’t have any feelings for the guy. We weren’t in a relationship and there were no emotional connections. I had sex with him because two weeks prior my best friend lost her virginity and I wanted to have the experience, too. It took me two weeks to finally get a hold of the guy, and when he found out he didn’t take it very well. He said that he didn’t want to be stuck with me for the rest of his life.

You can't imagine how hard it was to tell my mom that I was pregnant at the young age of fifteen. It shocked my mom because we had never discussed sex before. But, it went better than I expected. She was mad, but understood. She told me that she would support me regardless of my decision. She was afraid that I wouldn’t graduate high school or be as successful as I could be if I was raising a child.

Due to the lack of support from the guy and the obstacles I would face, I decided to have an abortion. After the abortion, I thought two things – One: Since I already lost my virginity, it didn’t matter anymore if I had sex. And two: Maybe if I gave guys sex they would stick around and try to get to know me. I was really promiscuous for about eight months. Then I realized this is not the way to find a guy who cared about me. So I stopped having sex. But not soon enough. Even though I always used condoms, I contracted an STD – Human Papaloma Virus.

My experience made me realize how much I was uninformed about sex, and I wasn’t the only one that was going through these things. So my senior year, I decided to go on a mission to change sex education.

I created a whole new curriculum for my high school. It included the obvious stuff like safer sex practices. But it also included things that might have helped me -- like a focus on self esteem and its relationship to teen sex. It even included training for parents about how to effectively talk to their kids about sex. I took my curriculum to my high school’s freshman class. It didn’t go as I had planned, due to the lack of parent involvement, which I felt was necessary for my curriculum to be fully interpreted.

The emotional side of dealing with sex and its consequences is too often left out of the classroom when it comes to sex ed. But understanding sex isn’t just about pregnancy and STD’s. No one prepared me for the emotional toll.

If I can save one student from getting hurt through this youth-driven sex ed curriculum, then I did it right.

Defining Womanhood

skhan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:30:02 -0600

Jennifer Obakhume is a reporter for Youth Radio. She questions the limited models of womanhood available to young women today.

By the time I was in my late teenage years, the Barbies and baby dolls that were supposed to help young girls become women were long a thing of the past. But, the number of girls in high school who were following the model set by those dolls was growing day by day. I knew so many girls who, I think, got pregnant before their time. Having never had a boyfriend, I naturally couldn’t connect to their situations. Frankly, I would rather have something that is more likely to stick around for the long haul: my education.

Now that I’m getting ready to graduate from college and build towards my career, I don’t really have a realistic model of womanhood in front of me. It would be nice if I did. Instead, I’m working on my career with the idea that I’ll be on an equal playing field with my male colleagues and that I’ll have a medium to large-sized student loan debt that will have to be paid regardless of gender.

Despite the constant suggestions of my relatives to stay away from serious relationships that could result in a pregnancy, I notice that, lately, they've been bugging me more about kids. My family insists that every woman is born with a maternal instinct and that it’s my job to get with the program by my early 30s at the latest. That myth is far off base. I've talked to some older women about motherhood. While many of them are happy with the way their kids turned out, some of them said that they would have waited until later or not had children at all.

At least not everyone treats motherhood as a requirement for being a woman.

Mayra Jimenez is a reporter for Youth Radio. She embraces motherhood, but craves more mentorship about it.
I would like to be a mother someday, just not at the moment. But it seems that not everyone is as ready or as stable enough to know what they want as far as babies go. Most girls I know who get pregnant decide to keep their babies, usually because by the time they find out, it's too late to do anything but deliver the child. Most of the young mothers I know weren't even planning on staying with their partners at the point that they found out they were pregnant. I find this situation very sad. I know of one girl in particular who went through with an abortion. She described it as painful and as feeling a void . This scared me because these girls were acting out of ignorance.

I tried to learn about motherhood on my own. But it's hard to ask people without them judging you. Then I came across Anita Diamant's The Red Tent, which imaginatively explores issues of womanhood in Biblical times. The book is named for the sequestered space where women retreated to during their menstrual cycles (hence the color of the tent). Within the tent, younger women learned about everything from sex to childbirth. It was a community space where older women could pass on their knowledge to the younger generation.

I would call this a positive group of women. It's a lot different than these days, when single moms, especially teens, are left to their own wits. I think it would be great if we had more of this kind of bonding before we had to bring up a child. What's better than knowing that you are bringing your child into a nurturing world?

I think being able to learn about motherhood from older women without fear of judgment is the key to empowering younger women to be in control of their bodies and their lives.

Previously:

A New Bill to Fund Abstinence Programs

denise — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:14:09 -0500

Talking about sex to teens is always hard because there are times when teens know more than what they should. But, is promoting abstinence to them realistic?

Apparently, to a Republican senator it is. Senator Orrin Hatch from Utah proposed a bill that would provide $50 million per year through 2014 for abstinence education programs. These funds are to be used specifically for abstinence programs and not on any other sex-ed subjects (like contraception).

Teens and abstinence, I’m not sure. I’m not saying teens can’t stop having sex, but growing up in time where sex is everywhere—TV, cartoons, school—it’s hard.

To help unpack this issue, Youth Radio spoke to Tatiana Colon, Director of Education & Youth Services of Family Violence Law Center (FVLC) in Oakland.

“Promoting or teaching abstinence to teens—like the ones we work with (urban kids)—are not effective.” She went on to say, “It’s not meeting teens where they are at.”

As a young person who has been out of high school for almost three years, I agree with Colon. Teens feel pressure to have sex and are planning on losing their V card (virginity) at prom or any big school function/ event. The whole concept of leaving school with a bang includes sex.

But young people are not low key about their sexual activities. For example, kids at a middle school in Colorado were wearing different color bracelets where each color represented a different sexual activity. If a guy pops a girl’s bracelet, the girl has to follow through sexually.

I understand the necessity of this bill, but it’s simply not realistic. Telling a young person “no more sex” is simply going to make them more curious, so that the next time it won’t be just bracelets. Colon says that she is not familiar with the new bill, but says, to get through to a teen, try promoting healthy relationships. “Ultimately, it would be ideal to teach teens not to give in to pressure.” She says she will stand behind abstinence when teens agree with it and are ready, but as of right now she says we have to stand with their needs—and that means sexual safety.

Colon says teens should know these questions: “When are you ready? Is my partner going to be respectful about that? And when I’m ready, am I going to be safe? One thing can’t happen without the other. At some point teens will be ready for sexual relationships, and they need to know how to do it safely.”

Previously:

Sex Ed Through the Ages

skhan — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:43:39 -0500

In my family, most information about sex was withheld until my late teenage years, when they suddenly deemed me old enough to hear about it. Now that the teenage years are permanently behind me, my family talks about sex around me left and right. One thing that hasn't changed is the wide-eyed look of confusion that pops up on my face whenever I hear their candid discussion of (what I think is too much) sexual information. While talking about sex to older family members may seem uncomfortable, I think it's very important to see just how things have changed and how they've stayed the same.

In the past, I've felt comfortable talking to one of my older female cousins because we see eye-to-eye on a lot of things. For instance, she and I both agree that the way that sexuality is portrayed in the media is getting out of hand. But, we also think that such exposure has led the way to better communication between teens and parents regarding the subject. Disappointingly, despite the availability of information, the CDC reports, not an improvement, but a plateau and possibly even a dip in the sexual health of teens from 2002-07. And given the issues regarding the effectiveness of abstince-only sex education, which became popular during the Bush administration, it's all the more important to address how we talk about the deed. It is very saddening to see that there are still parents out there who are so obsessed with believing that their children are pure-minded and chaste (whether they are or not), that they withhold vital information that can save their kids from broken hearts or physical danger.

Recently, I took the opportunity to ask that older female cousin of mine questions about how people used to talk about sex when she was growing up, which was about 25 years ago. I was hoping to find out just how much discussion and public exposure to sexuality has shifted since then.

Q: What did you learn about sexuality from your teachers? Friends? Church/synagogue? Parents? Books?

COUSIN: My mom said, “Don’t do it.” There wasn’t a lot of talk about it; you just didn’t do it. The teachers said, “Don’t do it, but if you do, do it safely with precautions.” With my friends, it was peer pressure. My friends told me how good it was, that I should do it, and how they enjoyed doing it…there was pressure to do it from my friends. I didn’t have anyone in church talk to me about sex, but I’m sure the pastor would have said to abstain until marriage.

Q: Were there different standards for men and women? For instance, were most people virgins when they got married?

COUSIN: No. In my time? No. Most of the pressure has always been placed on women, considering that women carry babies. Men are supposed to contribute [to their children’s lives], but they don’t always do that. Therefore, women have always been left with most of the burden. Society has always made different between men and women. I do think that women should always treat their body like a temple and not let every man gain easy entrance. Sadly, in our society, when a man has sex with a lot of women, he’s called a “player”; when women have sex with a lot of men, though, she’s called a “ho.” Men only have to use a condom. Women have to make sure they have double protection: they have to use another form of birth control with the condom, because what will happen if the condom breaks? What if the guy you are having sex with has a disease?

Q: When did you first learn about homosexuality? What were attitudes about it like?

COUSIN: I really don’t remember when I learned about it, but it wasn’t talked about often. I mean, you’d hear people talking about it, but nobody in our family did. If anyone in our family was gay, they kept it under wraps. When I got older and met more people, I learned about it. Even when I was a teenager, a few girls were having sex with each other, but they never talked about it with me. I would just hear stuff about a few girls liking each other and having sex with each other, but I never asked them or tried to find out. If they had wanted me to know, they would have told me. They didn’t because they knew who they wanted to discuss it with. If I was in their clique, they might have told me, but they knew I wasn’t like that, and they never approached me with that.

Q: Why do you think it can be so difficult for parents to talk to their kids about sex? What might make it easier?

COUSIN: It’s all in the way that parents themselves grew up. That’s the best way to understand why many parents find it hard to talk to their kids about having sex. My mother was too blunt in the way she told me, and I don’t think you should talk to a child about sex like that. I’m more patient with my son because I didn’t get that from my mother. I wanted to be the opposite of my mother with my child. Understand that if you have a communication problem in the family, it will keep repeating itself. A lot of parents can be embarrassed to talk about it; they don’t know how to talk to their kids about it. Communication is the key. A lot of kids are learning incorrect lessons about sex in the street. If you talk to your child, then you know they will be receiving information that will be more factual than what others have told them. I have to say this to those [nervous] parents: “Get over yourselves! Don’t allow others from the outside to tell your kids what you should be telling them.” I don’t want my son learning about that stuff in the streets. If he were to decide to go out, have sex, and cause a girl to get pregnant because I hadn’t taught him, then I would be at fault. However, I have given him the information. So, if he gets a girl pregnant when he gets older, even though I told him about it, then it will be on him. I’ve always given him the best advice I could give him.

Q: What’s the best advice or most useful information you ever received about sex? The worst? Who was it from?

COUSIN: The best advice that I got was to wait [for sex] until I was ready and to not let the guy pressure me into doing it. Girls can be naïve, and will often do what the boy wants to do. If your body tells you “no”, then follow that advice. The worst advice I ever got was about how it was going to feel. I was 15 when I got that information, and I’m 42 years old now…you do the math. (laughter) After the first time, I didn’t do it again until 16, and at 16, I did it twice. I didn’t have sex on a regular basis…I was too scared that my mother would find out.

Here’s some useful advice: Don’t let the man tell you that you shouldn’t use protection. Today, people practice safe sex more often, but there are still some men that say, “I don’t like condoms.” Don’t let them tell you something different, because trust me, they will. People are still being stupid and thinking only about the feeling of sex, but not the outcome of it, even though AIDS is rampant now. In my day, all you had to worry about was just an STI or, at worse, herpes. By the way, using the pull-out method doesn’t work; when men get hard, they start leaking. Not a lot, but they will be leaking. Furthermore, when you have sex with somebody, you need to know that person very well. Always look his [or her] body over. Don’t let them tell you, “Nothing is wrong with this bump, it’s always been there,” or something. If the bump feels funny to you and you become uncomfortable, don’t do it!

Previously:

Peer-to-Peer Sex Ed

cfoster — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:52:54 -0500

Ever seen a condom key chain?

Last summer, I went to an overnight program at UC Berkeley for high school seniors from all over the state. We stayed in the dorms and at night we went to each other’s room to talk and hang out. On the last night, eight girls came to my room and noticed my condom key chain.

“Wow, is that a condom?” one girl asked.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Does your school pass out these things?” another asked.

I told her that it was part of our schools’ health campaign and then I asked if anyone knew how to open a condom.

Some girls started to giggle, while others stared down at the floor.

I pulled out the condom and showed them how to open it properly.

“Wow!” they said.

I fielded questions about birth control, condoms and STIs (sexually transmitted infections) until 3 am.

I was lucky that my school had taught me about these issues and I was happy to share my knowledge with these girls. But at the same time, I was upset because their schools weren’t providing the basic information I think they really need.

The Birds and the Bees Remixed

skhan — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:38:10 -0500

A question that's always hard to answer whether it's posed by a parent, teacher, or even fellow students is: Are teens having sex?

TV shows like Degrassi: The Next Generation, 90210, and Gossip Girl make it seem like teens are constantly hooking up and getting pregnant or getting STDs. But fact is--and this surprised even me--it's not happening as often as the shows say it is.

According to the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, from 1991 to 2007, the teen sex rate dropped from 54.1 to 47.8 percent. And among teens who are sexually active, there is a reported increase in protected sex, from 46 percent in 1995 to 63 percent in 2005.

So that's all good news, relatively speaking, but here's the bad news: compared to other industrialized nations, the U.S. has double the number of teen pregnancies. And, in 2006, for the first time in more than a decade, the rate of births to teens aged 15-19 increased.

At first it may seem confusing: fewer teens are having sex, despite an upsurge in the amount of teen sex depicted on TV shows, but there are more teen pregnancies than they have been in a long while. Some say that the rise in teen pregnancy has to do more with changes in contraceptive use than it does with the number of teens having sex. That may be true, especially since the ultimate peak--way higher than today--in teen pregnancy rates was in the 1950s and 1960s when TV was pretty tame by today's standards. Just recall episodes of 'I Love Lucy,' which implied that even married couples slept in separate beds. That makes me wonder. People usually think media influences teens to act or think in a certain way. Usually adults assume that teens want to mimic the behaviors they see on TV. But what if the inverse were true--that media actually turns you off to stuff.

Since media and society no longer see teen sex as taboo, maybe sex rates actually have dropped thanks to the ever-expanding knowledge about the myths and truths of sex. The more teens seem to know about sex the less mysterious it is, and the less want or need there is to actually take part in the act. Maybe knowledge is the best medicine!

That's why I think that the best way to lower the recent high levels teen pregnancy is by educating teens about what's involved in preventing it. The current administration certainly seems to agree. In contrast to President G.W. Bush, who advocated abstinence-only sex ed, President Barack Obama has already taken initiative by giving more money to sex education and remaining open to issues such as abortion, by stating that he wants to do what is best for the American people.

Teens have to know that there are options if they choose to have sex and that they should engage in safe behavior. It's better than giving them no knowledge and telling them to not have it at all. Teens should not be afraid about the concept of sex. It happens. And when it does, it is best to be ready. Because knowing is half the battle.