RH Reality Check is sponsoring Fresh Focus: a sex ed digital education contest. Entrants can make videos either 1) describing their sex education experiences or 2) describing how they would redesign sex ed curricula for the future. Prizes for winners include a $3,500 scholarship, $1,000 cash and a Nintendo Wii or other gadgets. The contest deadline is Dec. 31, 2007.
Next week, I’ll post an entry about how people interested in sex education communicate with others with similar interests, as well as how they get information about breaking news in sex education. I think this contest is an interesting way to try to engage people who are interested in this topic. The call-for-entries poses this question: “Why is Sex So Interesting and Sex Ed So Boring?” I think this also raises the issue of why sex education might not always get the visibility it deserves and how to better engage people in this topic. I think RH Reality Check is hoping this is one way to raise awareness and visibility for this topic. What do you think? What other tactics would you try to get people involved in this issue?
North Carolina, which currently has a mostly abstinence-focused sex education curriculum, is considering mandating comprehensive sex education from kindergarten to ninth grade, according to WRAL-TV.
The bill would allow abstinence-only programs to be taught up to the seventh grade and require that school systems allow parents to review all sexual-education materials before they are taught.
From seventh grade and on, students would be taught the following:
that abstinence is “the only certain way to prevent unintended pregnancy” and “reduce the sexual transmission of diseases, including HIV/AIDS”
about how sexually transmitted diseases are spread, the effectiveness of federal Food and Drug Administration-approved methods to reduce the risk of transmission and local resources for testing and treating STDs
about the effectiveness and safety of FDA-approved contraceptive methods, including emergency contraception
life skills for healthy behaviors and to avoid risky behaviors, such as alcohol and drug abuse, especially intravenous drug use
The article also mentions “Baby, Think It Over,” a lifelike doll that resembles a 3-month-old baby that some middle school students must take care of.
Have you ever had to care for one of these dolls in a health or sex education class? Do you think dealing with a constantly crying and needy doll helps deter kids from having sex and from teen pregnancy? Here’s a video of one girl’s experience with these realistic babies:
The local school superintendent recommended Get Real about AIDS, which includes discussion of sexually transmitted diseases, as well as both abstinence and contraception, to the school board in August.
School officials released a modified version of Get Real About AIDS last week in which they removed descriptions of sexual activities, hands-on demonstrations of condoms and an exercise where students would have been asked to purchase condoms. Despite those modifications, controversy over the curriculum has not diminished.
According to the Palm Beach Post article, the program was recommended in light of concerns that the health curriculum wasn’t doing enough to combat sexually transmitted diseases. St. Lucie County has Florida’s highest rate of HIV and AIDS cases among black residents, according to statistics the health department released last year.
To see how your state compares to others in AIDS/HIV rates, as well as other health care issues, you might want to check out the Kaiser Foundation’s state health facts Web site.