Safe Sex High School Education

Sex education is important for all levels of learning but especially for adolescents who can be impulsive; that is boys relate to girls on sexual gratification terms. Sex education is crucial therefore in supporting the notion that the body is important in its beauty and humanness.

Good sex education should allow the adolescent to talk freely about sex and its relationship to interpersonal relations, dynamics within a relationship, love, family and his/her future. Sex education should be open enough so that the atmosphere in the classroom is comfortable and the adolescent does not feel inhibited when asking questions.

Unfortunately, most parents' actions are less a result of planning in advance, and more often reactions to children's provocations. This fact necessitates the importance even more of exposing adolescents to as much information as possible. An educator's goal is to provide them with information regarding different types of sex protection and to impart knowledge based on holistic attitudes.

Suggestions for how Sex Education could be presented in High School

On International AIDS day, High School students can visit people with AIDS in hospitals or in their homes so that these people feel they have somebody to comfort and nurture them, even if it is only for a day. The students can help AIDS patients' children (if they have children) with schoolwork and/or games just to reassure the sick ones with AIDS in a constructive way.

One powerful method of exposing students to subjects such as unwanted pregnancy and abortion is through films. Show a film about a teenage girl who is pregnant and decides to have an abortion discreetly without the knowledge of her parents. After the film, divide the class into two groups: one group being the teenage girl and the other group as the parents. Pose the question: "Would you tell your parents that you are pregnant?" and, if so, "How would you tell them?" In essence, conduct a role play where the challenge is to express themselves openly as if they were in that situation. Roles plays, if well constructed, can be very effective teaching devices.