Henry Bison
When the topic of sex is brought up in the classroom, the lessons always center on the physical. We’re taught about birth control options, STDs and pregnancy –but many things aren’t taught in Health class. Instead of having a genuine conversation about sex, most lessons involve the teacher giving a monologue to a silent class.
Health class is going to be moved from 11th and 12th grade to 9th and 10th. Principal Mr. Last said “Why have it for seniors when it’s designed for younger people? It’s for getting through high school.”
Lindsay Heidelbach (11) thinks that’s a good plan: she said that students will be able to “Learn more at a younger age.” In its current form, Lindsay said that Health is “Not as useful because we take it really late.”
When Health class happens isn’t the only thing about it that needs a change. The emotional and psychological effects of sex are just as important as the physical, but if students only source of information about sex is school, they might think, as Danny Weaver (12) said, that “The only things that sex causes are disease and pregnancy.”
To be a truly informed school body, students need to talk about just as much as we talk about STDs. It isn’t as easy as learning about STDs – no power-point presentation or lecture can accurately explain the emotions surrounding sex. What’s needed is a dialogue between students, teachers and parents.
Many in the school aren’t having these conversations. The only speakers that have been brought from outside of the school have been abstinence-only proponents, which Danny didn’t find helpful. He said “what they’re asking for is unreasonable and unrealistic.”
A 10th grade boy, who will go by James in this article, said that he has “Never talked about it [sex] with [his] parents.” Most of his talks about sex have been with friends.
The best thing we can do, says Mrs. Slater, is to “provide a lot of information” to students. But she also said that there is a “disconnect between what students are doing and what we can do about it.+
