Who’s laughing?

I love it that the second lesson plan in Older, Wiser, Sexually Smarter is all about sexual humor. Humans turn to humor so often when we feel unsettled, uncomfortable, or unsure about how we should be approaching something. And so our extravagant repertoire of sexual jokes has no shortage of jokes about sexuality and aging…. Read more »

Beginning the conversation again, now that you’re older

I’ve been thinking about the illustrious Peggy Brick recently, and her amazing and groundbreaking work with older adults and sexuality. So this week we are delving into Older, Wiser, Sexually Smarter. This manual, written in 2009, includes 30 sex ed lesson plans for older adults. I’ve pulled a few lesson plans from this manual into… Read more »

Abstinence…and masturbation

Abstinence means many things to many people. Among other things, it may or may not include masturbation. Being sexual with yourself carries none of the risks of being sexual with another person (physically or emotionally) and has loads of benefits. And so, included in Making Sense of Abstinence, is this awesome lesson on masturbation. (The title… Read more »

Check YES or NO

Oh abstinence-only-until-marriage…you disappoint me so much. Seeing this job, this work that I love so much forced into a mold that is so distorting of what is good and meaningful about sexuality makes me sad. Which is why, given that I am here, in Texas, where so many students receive poorly conceived, distorted understandings of… Read more »

A guide

Every now and then, the media gets it right, and that’s a pretty great time to celebrate what can happen, what kind of information, can get out to people in need of that information. Last week, that exact thing happened! Bill Taverner, our Executive Director over here at the Center for Sex Education, was interviewed… Read more »

Oh condom, my condom!

Coming off of yesterday’s post encouraging participants to talk about safer sex in general, today’s lesson plan from Teaching Safer Sex is about condoms and considering the reasons people don’t talk about them, the cultural stigma around them, and how to bring them up and talk about them anyway.   CONDOM TALK Practice Makes Perfect… Read more »

Talk talk talk talk

This week it’s all about Teaching Safer Sex! Did you know that TSS was the recipient of the AASECT Book Award? Yep. It’s pretty great! All of the Teaching Safer Sex lessons were recently uploaded to the Sex Ed Network, so if you become a Network member you’ll have immediate access to this and hundreds… Read more »

The $1,000,000 question

“Am I normal?” “Is it normal to…?” “How often do normal people…?” Regardless of the age of people in my classrooms, they all want to know what’s normal, what’s not normal, and how they and their friends fit into that spectrum. I have a hard time answering their questions, because normal has so many definitions…. Read more »

Parents

I’ve been spending a lot of time recently talking with and thinking about parents as sexuality educators. I initially got into sexuality education with the goal of working with parents – and then the parents I was working with started asking me to teach their kids instead of teaching them. It was disheartening. It’s been… Read more »

A game for the new teacher

I was flipping through Game On!, deciding which lesson to write about today, and came across Name that Contraceptive! I’m a sucker for exciting titles, and this one roped me in with that exciting exclamation mark! And so here we are, learning about this particular lesson together. Name that Contraceptive! by Martha S. Rosenthal, PhD… Read more »

When pleasure gets stuck

Continuing my ongoing conversation about Teaching Safer Sex, I want to dive into the first section of volume 2. This section, called “Getting Into a (New) Groove,” and is described this way: “These are not your everyday safer sex lessons! Lessons in this section examine STI prevention through the lens of sensuality, decision-making and inclusivity… Read more »

Look how far we’ve come!

As we continue to dive into Teaching Safer Sex, I want to draw attention to Volume 2, Section 2, which is titled “Socio-Cultural Aspects of Safer Sex.” Because really, what doesn’t have socio-cultural overlays on it? Condoms? Hormonal birth control? Consensual decision making? The implications about the group and cultural statements around these topics are huge…. Read more »