The curriculum may be slightly misleading in the depth of content with which it describes its courses. I actually don't even remember taking a sexual education unit in CALM. What I do remember from high school is physical education in grades 9 and 10 - we were already split up into males and females for that class, so taking us into a classroom for a few days to teach us some sexual anatomy and self-examination techniques was a cinch! I recall no question boxes or open discussions about all things sex; I just remember a couple of sessions on anatomy.
If I reach further back I can remember that grades 5-8 were a simple anonymous question box approach (we were also split between the sexes, of course). We would write something on paper, put it in the box, and the teacher would pull them out one at a time and discuss.
Now that I think about it, my life of sexual education was backwards. Shouldn't I have learned anatomy earlier and been given the opportunity to ask any question I wanted when I was in high school? I don't need to know how to put a condom on when I'm 10 years old, and by the time I'm in grade 10 I've got the picture of what a penis is and what it's capable of doing.
What about the idea that CALM is a course which is most often taken in the 10th or 11th grade? These students get a quick overview of human sexuality and then they are ushered out the door to figure things out for themselves? Agh!! This is the age when teenagers would likely prosper most from a little guidance in the world of sexuality, and yet we do away with the topic so briskly. Teachers are left hoping that the parents will fill in the blanks, all the while the parents hope that the teachers have covered it all and their children won't make any sexual foibles in life. (I admit it, I oversimplified! But I think you know what I mean...)
All of this has me thinking about how I will handle things when I'm a teacher, and unfortunately the answer is that I will handle it as I am told to handle it. This, like abortion, is a tricky issue where lines need to be drawn in a case of 'agreeing to disagree.' 29 students in a classroom may all have parents at home who are hoping that their children will discuss many issues of human sexuality in deep range, but it takes only one student whose parents feel that human sexuality has no place in the schools to cause problems for a lot of people. I don't want to be the guy to spark that dynamite.
I personally believe that human sexuality should be more than a 1 week unit in a health course. Sex is a huge part of our lives, both as individuals and as a whole society. Considering this, it is pretty astounding that it is such a suppressed topic in our education system. The solution as I see it is to have a course not so unlike this one, this family studies course, which presents issues in a safe environment and puts them on the table for discussion. It does not emphasize the memorization of facts or claim any issue to be right or wrong, it just opens them up to interpretation. Just giving kids an opportunity to talk about sex would do two things (as I see it):
1. Provide awareness and education about human sexuality
2. Lift the taboo mindset from discussions involving anything 'sex'
I listened to Sue Johanson religiously when I was in middle school and high school, and I think that it had very Kinsey-esque implications for me in that it carried out the above two points. I don't think Z99 or any radio station in town runs Sue Johanson on Sunday nights anymore (in fact I don't even know if she does a radio show anymore), so I can only wonder where kids learn anything about their sexuality anymore.
I feel as though I've just typed my way through two blogs which seem to explore the ins and outs of teaching sexuality in schools, but I must not forget the role of the parents in all of this. Considering my stance that human sexuality should not be a unit, but a constant and ongoing discussion - human sexuality education can be expected of schools, but cannot be depended on! As early as a child learns to talk should they be properly educated about parts of their bodies (pee pees and wee wees just won't cut it anymore). A child may be only 4 or 5 years old, perhaps less or more, when they discover that their genitals serve them as pleasure devices aside from just performers of other bodily functions. Is it in fact reasonable for parents to brush this aside and wait for 10 years in hope that the school system will fill in the blanks for them? Of course not!! Parents are absolutely responsible for explaining and exploring these concepts with their children in their contribution to the sexual education of the world's next generation.
In the end I do believe that sex should not be a taboo subject, but unfortunately it will be a tedious process to make it otherwise. I would love to see human sexuality as a course in schools, in which open discussion and theoretical exploration is encouraged, but this will be a process, not an instant change, if it is to be at all. Until we reach a point such as this, we as parents are ultimately responsible for our children's scope of knowledge regarding sexuality. Of course, even if sexual education were a thoroughly covered topic in schools, the kids don't get to school until they're 6 years old. That seems like a pretty long time to go without knowing anything about sex.
It looks like this one ultimately falls into the hands of the parents; their childrens' sexual education will have to start with them. Everything starts with parents...
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