When it comes to teaching, we know that the language we use is incredibly important. It shapes how participants understand and internalize our material. This means that it is extra important when it comes to sexuality education. Sex education has a long history of using stigma, shame, and fear to send messages about what is … Continued
Let’s start with an uncomfortable truth: age of consent laws are flawed. Their intention of protecting young people from exploitation and abuse is great, but so often this intention is lost amongst negative side-effects of setting an age where sex between a teenager and someone much older is considered “consensual” in the eyes of the … Continued
I have been a sexual health educator for over a decade. During that decade I have also trained many teachers and other youth serving adults to teach sex ed. One of the most common fears or concerns that I have heard from the people in our trainings is “What about the parents? What if I … Continued
At the Responsible Sex Education Institute, we provide sex education at a variety of settings, both in and out of school. Some of the schools we work with have adopted SSA (standard school attire, aka uniforms), while others utilize dress code policies. While acknowledging that people have lots of different feelings about dress code policies, … Continued
With the Internet literally at people’s fingertips, pornography has become more accessible in the last few decades than ever before. Youth-serving adults are often expected to educate about Internet safety concerns with students, but sometimes it can feel difficult to start conversations about pornography. While it may be tempting to simply tell youth not to … Continued
We’re deep into summer and it’s the season for tough questions. We hosted a webinar last week on Answering Tough Questions. In this webinar, two of our amazing educators outline the Responsible Sex Education Institute best practices when it comes to answering young folks’ questions and gave participants an opportunity to practice. [If you missed … Continued
As youth serving professionals, educators, adults, and the wider community, we have a responsibility to provide comprehensive sex education that not only includes conversations and information about the diversity of sexuality and genders that exist, but it must also be informed by the lived realities that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (LGBTQ) youth … Continued
Here at the Responsible Sex Education Institute we are inspired by all that is being done to reshape the conversation around what has been known as “Teen Pregnancy Prevention”. Specifically, the work Young Women United has done is really breaking apart the myths that permeate the conversation of “Teen Pregnancy Prevention.” By doing a quick … Continued
As we close out Sexual Assault Awareness Month, we wanted to share some tips for responding to abuse disclosures from young people. Even if you aren’t a mandated reporter, reading through the tips below can help you navigate these difficult and often highly-emotional situations. Practicing how you would react can also help to make a … Continued
Time and again, we see health teachers in search of comprehensive sex ed get duped by abstinence-only curricula and organizations that contribute to the shame and stigma surrounding sexual health, keeping our young people in the dark and in danger. To help, we thought we could provide a quick rundown of ways to spot abstinence-only … Continued