1

Really?!? We Get To Learn About THAT in School?

Christopher Pepper SFUSD Health Education Teacher

MrHealthTeacher.com

Remember Sex Ed?

3

4

When we talk about sexuality education in schools, it’s often

framed as “abstinence-only sex ed” vs.

“comprehensive sex ed.”

5

“Comprehensive” is a pretty big word, and it makes me wonder:

6

If sex ed were truly “comprehensive,” what would it

need to include?

7

In San Francisco, we decided to take on that question

8

For almost two years, a dedicated group of health care providers and

educators from different organizations have worked to create a fantastic new sex ed curriculum for San Francisco

high schools

16

We asked all these groups to bring us their best materials, and from that we created a set of lessons for use in the

classroom.

17

We hope this curriculum will become the standard used throughout the city,

and possibly a model for others.

18

Some of the things we were aiming for in creating our

curriculum:

19

It should be inclusive of all genders and all types of

relationships, and include lots of diversity in all examples.

20

Students should get a chance to practice skills, not just listen to

instruction.

21

It should include a lot of information about loving yourself, having healthy relationships, and what

“enthusiastic consent” means.

22

We should use the class to create a close connection

between students and their nearest health clinic (and the

people who work there).

23

So where do we start?

24

We start with a tour of our local clinic, which happens to be right

at our school

This is your Divider Slide

This is your Divider Slide

Then we begin to talk about healthy relationships

We have a lessons on how to plan a first date

How to deal with a break-up

How to recognize warning signs of abuse in relationships

And how to build a positive relationship based on honesty, equality, mutual desire and fun.

This is your Divider Slide

We talk about gender roles and incorporate the excellent film “Straightlaced: How Gender’s

Got Us All Tied Up”

We explore LGBTQQI issues and talk about what it means to

be an ally

We thoroughly cover sexual anatomy, physiology and

development

That means talking about menstruation, masturbation, the

sexual response cycle and what’s “normal”

Of course, we also explain pregnancy and birth

We have a panel of teen moms come talk about how

challenging their lives are

And we try to give as much “hands on” exposure to different types of birth control as we can

No one leaves class without

practicing putting on a

condom

When we talk about STIs, we cover risk reduction, how to get tested, and the facts about what these infections do in a person’s

body

Using lessons from “Positive Prevention,” we cover HIV/AIDS

in depth

We like to close this section by having an HIV-positive speaker

talk to the class

As we move toward the end of the unit, we invite peer

educators to explain minor consent rights

This is your Divider Slide

We guide students through activities designed to help them explore the question “Are you

ready for sex?”

The final project in this unit involves using some of the great

sex ed websites for teens to research questions their classmates submitted

anonymously

As we roll this curriculum out, we plan to tie the lessons to a

social media/text campaign developed by YTH