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Friday, May 16, 2008

The joy of being a health teacher

Let’s talk about STD’s. Yep, I said it…sexually transmitted diseases. Well, just a little rant really.

I have always been a little bugged by our district and some of the “stuff” they don't want us to talk to our kids about when it comes to human sexuality. I’m not saying I want to push these poor little sheltered kids off the edge and watch them plummet into all the unfiltered human sexuality info out there, but I do want them to know the truth.

If some of them might face these decisions in their lives, I want them to know what really happens for example during an abortion. I want to educate them about forms of birth control besides abstinence. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about pushing abstinence and I think that is the best, but realistically how many teen pregnancies could we avoid if we educated these kids just a little more. There’s a way to educate without promoting. I think they should know the correlation between STD’s and getting pregnant when using “condominiums” (don’t you dare say the real word) and other forms of birth control. I’m not talking about getting the banana out and all that, just giving a few more facts. When I get some of their questions in class I am scared to death about where their information is coming from. Yikes!

So my point is that if you think your kids are getting good sex education classes in their schools, I’m afraid they probably aren’t. As a teacher, I pray that parents step up and have that awkward conversation with their kids. Start early because now 1 in 4 kids will have to treat a STD in their lives and my school district has reported a STD in someone as young as 12. Want another crazy statistic? The numbers of known STD’s out there keeps rising and there are at least 37 different types we know about today.

After dissing a little on our district, I do have to say that they have taken a giant step this year in educating about STD’s. Now if a trained representative comes from the district to our class they can actually show the kids pictures. It's hard to not be sarcastic about them just barely putting the pictures back into the curriculum.

I kind of got on this rant because the crazy STD lady came today and gave her presentation (and she only rarely referenced her own cervix…what?). I was all excited the kids are finally getting this info and low and behold, one poor kid fainted! If you can get a kid to faint you know that’s some good stuff!

Wow, if you stuck with me through all that length you are officially my new best friend!

4 comments:

Steph said...

I am proud to be your new best friend!! Awesome!! :) I can totally understand your frustrations, that would be rough.. Welp, I better get back out there to finish watching this great Jazz game with you guys out there :)

Randy and Candice said...

Your hair is so cute! I haven't seen you forever.. Congrats on your girls golf tournament. Looks like life is good.

Paige said...

yay! I love new best friends! :) Okay, so i totally agree with you on the whole sex education thing. I mean if kids are going to have sex it doesn't matter if you tell them abstinence is the way...they'll do it anyway so they might as well know the real risks and how to prevent them. I know it would have probably saved two of my really good friends from ending up with kids their senior year in high school. Well, there's my little rant. Good post!

Ruth said...

A kid actually fainted? LOL!

I remember how frustrated you were last year about the sex education curriculum. Didn't you go to a training or something that basically told all the teachers they can't used certain words, etc? I totally agree with you in that these kids need the truth. Otherwise it's like teaching kids to stay away from drugs without telling them the risks/outcomes related to their behavior.