Sexuality Education in the Classroom
Jan. 30th, 2007 04:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
geminigirl(This is the comment I left in ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fairion's journal, regarding this article.)
For the link phobic/in case the text disappears, look behind the cut.
I've read this article a whole bunch of times. And I've been in the situation-teaching sexuality education to seventh graders-in my case, high risk seventh graders some of whom were sexually active already. I think there are two separate issues to consider here:
1. Is it appropriate for seventh graders to deal with anatomically correct drawings of reproductive organs?
2. Assuming the answer to number 1 is "yes" is the most age appropriate way to handle to to ask the students to do the drawing?
My own experience is that the answer to the two questions is not the same. Seventh graders absolutely should have correct anatomical information, should know how to name and label the parts of the reproductive system, but, I wouldn't have asked a group of seventh graders to do the drawing themselves. Again, drawing on my experience, while some seventh graders would be comfortable drawing reproductive organs in an accurate way, more of them would be uncofrotable and disturbed or distressed by doing the activity. If I were teaching seventh graders, I'd have done the drawing myself, on the board, in front of the class, and asked the group to work with me to label the parts.
I've done activities similar to this more times than I can count, with groups that were single sex, mixed, with age ranges from about 9 or 10 years old to early 20s. And I think it takes some judgement to determine how exactly to handle this kind of activity in different environments-whether it's okay to ask the group to draw the parts themselves, or to do the drawing yourself, or to ask the boys to draw the girl parts or girls to draw boy parts, or whatever. This teacher just didn't exhibit the best judgement about how to handle the activity.
I think it's important to note, that the quote about not knowing what it looked like at that age comes not from an adult, or a parent, but from a fourth grade student. And that's a completely reasonable reaction from a fourth grader. I'd be more concerned if it were from a parent.
So, my professional experience dictates that I'd have handled the curriculum requirement regarding anatomy and human sexuality differently.
fairion's journal, regarding this article.)For the link phobic/in case the text disappears, look behind the cut.
I've read this article a whole bunch of times. And I've been in the situation-teaching sexuality education to seventh graders-in my case, high risk seventh graders some of whom were sexually active already. I think there are two separate issues to consider here:
1. Is it appropriate for seventh graders to deal with anatomically correct drawings of reproductive organs?
2. Assuming the answer to number 1 is "yes" is the most age appropriate way to handle to to ask the students to do the drawing?
My own experience is that the answer to the two questions is not the same. Seventh graders absolutely should have correct anatomical information, should know how to name and label the parts of the reproductive system, but, I wouldn't have asked a group of seventh graders to do the drawing themselves. Again, drawing on my experience, while some seventh graders would be comfortable drawing reproductive organs in an accurate way, more of them would be uncofrotable and disturbed or distressed by doing the activity. If I were teaching seventh graders, I'd have done the drawing myself, on the board, in front of the class, and asked the group to work with me to label the parts.
I've done activities similar to this more times than I can count, with groups that were single sex, mixed, with age ranges from about 9 or 10 years old to early 20s. And I think it takes some judgement to determine how exactly to handle this kind of activity in different environments-whether it's okay to ask the group to draw the parts themselves, or to do the drawing yourself, or to ask the boys to draw the girl parts or girls to draw boy parts, or whatever. This teacher just didn't exhibit the best judgement about how to handle the activity.
I think it's important to note, that the quote about not knowing what it looked like at that age comes not from an adult, or a parent, but from a fourth grade student. And that's a completely reasonable reaction from a fourth grader. I'd be more concerned if it were from a parent.
So, my professional experience dictates that I'd have handled the curriculum requirement regarding anatomy and human sexuality differently.
