We formed this group based on a common interest in adolescents and sex. After discussing the route we wanted to take, we came up with some great ideas.
What can Utah school currently teach in sex education? What grades is the curriculum taught?
What type of sex education has worked outside of Utah (based on teen pregnancy rates and STI/STD rates)?
How much are adolescents being taught about their own anatomy? How much do the parents know about their own anatomy?
What is positive touch?
Using condoms is not just to prevent pregnancy
Focusing on educating parents
Setting limits with your partner
Rape within the heterosexual and LGBTQ populations
We have so many routes we can take with this topic that we are undecided on how to narrow it down and where to start. We plan on working together next class to see if we need to split into two separate groups if the interests differ, but we also think we will have more influence and power with more numbers.
I am so excited for this project! You have created a great list of topics to explore; however, I encourage you to narrow your focus as you start to explore these various issues. Additionally, think about your target population. Adolescents in the whole state of Utah? SLC? A particular school? For next steps, I recommend brainstorming the important stakeholders you will need to speak with, including social service agencies and adolescents themselves. This social issue could be approached from lots of different angles (e.g., policy, community change), so keep approaches on the back burner, as well. Overall, I look forward to following your blog over the course of the academic year!
ReplyDeleteSince our last post:
ReplyDeleteWe connected with the Education and Research Director of The Healing Group, Erin Gibson, LCSW, to discuss approaches to the project overall. Erin suggested that we contact Heather Stringfellow of Planned Parenthood regarding policy questions and Cindy Taylor of the Rape Recovery Center regarding any questions about the sixth grade maturation class. She has been working with that program for many years.
In a second meeting, we chatted with the Executive Director of The Healing Group, Kristin Hodson, LCSW. Kristin got “fired up” about our project and offered us several resources that might be useful as we collect information on our topic. Here they are:
http://www.siecus.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=514&parentID=477
http://www.salon.com/2014/09/15/youre_doing_sex_ed_wrong_how_teaching_kids_about_sex_is_like_teaching_toddlers_to_walk/
http://www.theculturalhallpodcast.com/2014/06/why-i-wont-be-giving-my-kids-the-talk/
http://www.sexedlibrary.org/
Kristin also suggested that if we would like to plan an education event for mothers and daughters that The Healing Group would be willing to sponsor our project by paying for a community space (such as Vitalize Studio in Sugarhouse), if the University will allow us to do so.
One of our group members also spoke with Heather Stringfellow, who is the Policy Coordinator at Planned Parenthood. Our group member will report “live” in class on Friday, 10/3/14. The plan was to discuss what Planned Parenthood has on the agenda for the 2015 Legislative Session in relation to Sex Education, etc.
Next steps:
- To hear from each other regarding new developments (in class on 10/3/14)
- To review resources
- To consider whether we want to make this about one event or several (or to hold the one event, but record it and use it for further training)
- Narrowing down our vision