This morning I heard a young person talking about trust – and how organizations absolutely must develop trust with their clients or they won’t be able to do anything at all. Young people won’t accept help from someone they don’t trust. This is an idea that could boom around the world. What does it mean… Read more »
Today my daughter left the US for ten days in Brazil. It’s overwhelming, as a mother, to put her on a plane for such a trip. (Important to note, she’s going with my mother, so it’s hardly like she’s without resources.) Leading up to this trip, though, we needed to access medical attention to address… Read more »
Today I’m sitting in the exhibit hall of the Healthy Teen Network conference, contemplating all of these amazing people – both my co-exhibiters and the attendees. Here are some of the people I’ve met: Connected Health Solutions Healthy Futures of Texas Michigan Adolescent Health Initiative Teen Empower And this is what I love most about… Read more »
In continuation of our observance of National HealthcareQuality Week. I’m highlighting the second lesson in Teaching Safer Sex: Sexual Health in Prime Time. Today’s lesson has me wondering why it is that we talk so much about unhealthy sexuality without talking about healthy sexuality? The rationale for this lesson is intrinsic to everything I’m going… Read more »
You know what’s kind of a cool part of writing 500 Lessons in 500 Days? Learning – and deeply thinking – about all of the sexuality related days and months. This week is National Healthcare Quality Week. This summer my older daughter was hospitalized in Germany for heart issues, so high quality health care has… Read more »
Today is National Mammography Day, as part of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I’m going to be honest: I struggle with breast cancer awareness month. It is a really important topic, and one that is worthy of time and attention. My stepmother was diagnosed with breast cancer some years ago and I sat with her in… Read more »
Today marks two very special birthdays: The first birth control clinic in the United States (98 years old) and my younger daughter (10 years old). It’s pretty amazing to think that in two short years birth control clinics will only be 100 years old – and my girl will already be 12. Time is both… Read more »
Happy National Latino AIDS Awareness Day! (NLAAD) It really is a week of Days to Celebrate Things, isn’t it? Today is National Latino AIDS Awareness Day, but tomorrow – tomorrow is my daughter’s tenth birthday, and if that isn’t something amazing to celebrate I don’t know what is! But back to today. (Stay in the… Read more »
Happy Let’s Talk Month! When I first jumped into sex education my initial thought was to work primarily with parents. I wanted to support family conversations about sexuality – support parents on their paths as primary sexuality educators. I met with a few parents privately to get a needs-assessment going and then I jumped in… Read more »
Tomorrow is National Coming Out Day. The process of coming out can run the gamut from easy-peasy to riddled with pain. When I came out it was much closer to the second kind. I was already an adult, married, with children. People have jumped to assumptions about what that meant for me – that I… Read more »
Tomorrow’s post, which I’ve already got ruminating around in my head, partially written even, is going to be about National Coming Out Day, which is always on October 11th (which is Saturday). October is also LGBT History Month! As I am pondering the post for tomorrow and this LGBT history month and flipping through Positive Images… Read more »
I so thoroughly enjoyed yesterday’s discussion of story writing as a component of sexuality education that I wanted to continue the theme of creativity and imagination today. Positive Imagesseems to be the manual for me this week, because in addition to yesterday’s lesson, it also includes this! _____________________________________________________________________ MAGICAL METHODS OF BIRTH CONTROL By Melissa… Read more »
The mood was perfect: The dark sky dotted with points of light, the milky-way gathering extra stardust just above the horizon. Empty fields putting miles between the young couple and everyone else. The pick-up truck bed, covered with a blanket, plus another one on top to stave off the chilly night air… So could begin… Read more »
Happy National Midwifery Week! Before we move on to the lesson plan I’ve chosen to start this week off with, I need to let you know that I’m particularly biased towards midwives. I had both of my children with the help of midwives – one in a birthing center and one in my home. My… Read more »
When talking about abstinence with my classes, it’s important to me that they hear people choose to abstain from sexual activity for lots of reasons and for varying amounts of time – not just because they aren’t, and until they are, married. Some people choose to abstain for a week because they have flu, for… Read more »
That slippery, slippery slope that leads from the lesser to the greater evils. It’s the good intentions, I am sure, that make it so slippery in the first place. Here to dispel that myth! _____________________________________________________________________ IS THE SLOPE THAT SLIPPERY? Objectives: Participants will: 1. Identify behaviors that may be congruent (or incongruent) with their personal… Read more »
There are emerging conversations about consent – and even budding conversations about enthusiastic, or affirmative, consent! – brewing in the public discourse in the US. California now requires that colleges that receive state funds define consent in these terms – such an exciting move! Why is it that the state doesn’t just make that the… Read more »
Basically I love the name of this lesson, which is why I’m writing about it today. They say that you shouldn’t choose a book by its cover…and I suppose that the sentiment should be continued to include not choosing a lesson plan by its title, but I already threw that out the window a few… Read more »
I live in Texas – one of the United States’ deep, smelly armpits of sexuality education. While we do seem to be improving, our curriculum is nothing like that of our fellow countrymen in Oregon or New York. All of which is to say: sexuality education around here can be something of a farce. A… Read more »
As I mentioned earlier this week, there’s a lot of notable days in the sexology world right now. And what better way to celebrate THIS day of celebration than with a lesson from Positive Images: Teaching About Contraception and Sexual Health? And as I always do when I start a new manual, we’re going to… Read more »
