by Robie H. Harris
How lucky was I to be able to be at and attend workshops at and be the opening keynote speaker at the CFLE’s 2011 National Sex Ed Conference! Very lucky! Despite the horrendous rain storm on Wednesday night, people arrived and were full of great questions after my keynote, in which I spoke about the times we live in, and the fact that children and teens still need honest and scientifically accurate information about their bodies and healthy sexuality. The measure of a great conference is if you leave learning something that you did not know before or clarifying or questioning something you had been thinking about. In Vicki Hadd-Wissler’s workshop, “The Early Years: Promoting Healthy Development in Young Children,” I realized more than ever that by going to the setting parents already have a connection to, their church or synagogue, or their child’s day-care or pre-school, makes it easier for the parent to attend the workshop you are giving, and in Vicki’s case, it makes it easier to reach parents and talk with them about why it matters and how to talk with their young children about sexuality issues. This also validated the work I do and am continuing to do for young children, and gave me another path to reach parents with my two books for younger children, WHO HAS WHAT? and IT’S NOT THE STORK!In Jennifer Johnson and Leslie Kantor’s workshop on how PPFA is using technology for older kids and teens, I came away convinced that getting to older kids and teen via cell phone with information about sexual health issues, again, going to where the kids “are at,” makes such solid sense and started my thinking of how to get the information in my books for older children—IT’S PERFECTLY NORMAL and even IT’S SO AMAZING to older kids and teens. Thanks, Bill and everyone at CFLE for making us learners again.
