An authoritative reference that discusses the history of sex education and its ramifications in the United States. Community and school officials, parents, and educators often stay to the wee hours of the night at PTA meetings arguing about sex education and sexual behavior among young people. While some groups preach abstinence and attempt to sign as many youngsters as possible to their rosters, it remains a fact that 50 percent of U.S. teenagers, beginning at age 15, are sexually active. Sex, Youth, and Sex Education is a wonderfully crafted resource that gives not only a statistical overview of sexual activity in schools, but also examines sex education, the scourge of sexual violence in schools, and sexuality among selected groups of youngsters. What emerges is a groundbreaking work for educators and students of sociology, psychology, and education. This work brings to light the fascinating—not to mention ubiquitous—world of sexuality among today's youth and its impact on parents, school personnel, policymakers, and society.

A dictionary of sex terms, from abdomen and abortion to zits and zygote. Includes crossword puzzles, word searches, and quizzes.

This is a contemporary book that addresses global issues in adolescent sexuality education. With chapters from international experts in sexuality, this book provides comprehensive coverage of issues including effective sexuality education, abstinence programs, and risk prevention efforts, drawing on research currently being conducted in schools and agencies across the globe. Emphasising "developmentally appropriate sex education", readers will learn about adolescents' preferences for sources of sex education, as well as the timing and topics that are critical to include. Given an increasing use of social media and technology by teens, the book addresses the intersection of sexuality and technology. This includes topics such as sexting and on line victimisation, and youth exposure to sexually explicit on line material. Strategies for both school and parents to implement to safe guard their youth are provided. With the wealth of knowledge from the international contributors to this book, culture and diversity are addressed throughout but especially in chapters on gender expansiveness, sexual minority youth, and youth with disabilities. Recommendations are made for how schools can implement sex education with adolescents in a way that will be meaningful and effective. Adapting evidenced based curriculum to local settings, as well as conducting evaluations is addressed so that program planners can ensure adolescents are receiving accurate and comprehensive knowledge and skills to make informed decisions. The latter part of this book addresses the issue of the training that is required of teachers who implement sexuality curriculums. In order for programs to be successful, those who deliver them need proper training and support. Readers of this book are sure to gain essential knowledge necessary to design, implement and evaluate inclusive and effective sexuality education with a large range of youths.

Children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) require specialized teaching strategies when learning about puberty, sexuality and relationships. This professional resource offers practical teaching advice geared towards the needs of young people on the autism spectrum. Beginning with information on good practice, policy, teaching methods and recent research, the book then divides into key sex education topics that assist professionals in developing their own individualized and developmentally appropriate curricula. Covering issues of gender, public and private, puberty, hygiene, emotions, sex and more, each topic provides an overview of the difficulties that children with autism might experience, discussion and activity ideas and photocopiable resources including instructional stories, checklists and illustrations. The final section demonstrates how to respond to ongoing patterns of inappropriate behaviour and put together a behaviour plan. Aiming to explain and support the child's developing sexuality while also addressing crucial issues of safety, this book is a much-needed teaching manual for all professionals working with children and young adults with autism including educators in mainstream and special education, psychologists, therapists and social workers.

Exposes the lies and misconceptions about sex education taught to American children in school, including information on sexually transmitted diseases, contraception, and homosexuality.

As a project for an unusually open class in sex education, Livvie and her boyfriend David learn to care for a pregnant young neighbor, and as they become deeply involved with her and with each other, they learn about love and caring and eventually about pain and courage.

Great Relationships and Sex Education is an innovative and accessible guide for educators who work with young people to create and deliver Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) programmes. Developed by two leading experts in the field, it contains hundreds of creative activities and session ideas that can be used both by experienced RSE educators and those new to RSE. Drawing on best practice and up-to-date research from around the world, Great RSE provides fun, challenging and critical ways to address key contemporary issues and debates in RSE. Activity ideas are organised around key areas of learning in RSE: Relationships, Gender and Sexual Equality, Bodies, Sex and Sexual Health. There are activities on consent, pleasure, friendships, assertiveness, contraception, fertility and so much more. All activities are LGBT+ inclusive and designed to encourage critical thinking and consideration of how digital technologies play out in young people’s relationships and sexual lives. This book offers: Session ideas that can be adapted to support you to be creative and innovative in your approach and that allow you to respond to the needs of the young people that you work with. Learning aims, time needed for delivery, suggested age groups to work with and instructions on how to deliver each activity, as well as helpful tips and key points for educators to consider in each chapter. Activities to help create safe and inclusive spaces for delivering RSE and involve young people in curriculum design. A chapter on ‘concluding the learning’ with ideas on how to involve young people in evaluating and reflecting on the curriculum and assessing their learning. A list of recommended resources, websites, online training courses and links providing further information about RSE. With over 200 activities to choose from, this book is an essential resource for teachers, school nurses, youth workers, sexual health practitioners and anyone delivering RSE to young people aged 11–25.

"Longtime therapist and sex educator Langford has written an indispensable guide to a universe of things sexual and social for LGBTQ+ youth and their parents or caregivers." Booklist, Starred Review Sex education materials meant to explain important basics to kids are too-often not written with an empathic understanding of what those basics are. This is particularly obvious regarding books that include LGBTQ identities. Even when they do hit the mark, many have a limited scope and don’t take into account the practical realities of developing sexuality. The Pride Guide is written explicitly for the almost ten percent of teenagers who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, or any of the unique identities that are not heterosexual/ cisgendered. It explores sex, dating, relationships, puberty, and both physical and online safety in one resource. The issue, today, is not whether or not queer youth will get sex education. The issue is how and where they will gather information and whether or not the information they gather with be applicable, unreliable, or exploitative. Equipping teens and their families with knowledge and self-confidence, this work provides the best protection against the unfortunate consequences that sometimes accompany growing up with an alternative gender or identity. With real-world information presented in a factual and humorous way, responsible adults can teach queer youth to (and how to) protect themselves, to find resources, to explore who they are, and to interact with the world around them while being true to themselves and respectful of others. Written with these issues in mind, The Pride Guide covers universal topics that apply to everyone, such as values clarification, digital citizenship, responsibility, information regarding abstinence as well as indulgence, and an understanding of the consequences and results of both action and inaction. For LGBTQ youth, this is a resource containing information on the unique issues queer youth face regarding what puberty looks like (particularly for trans youth), dating skills and violence, activism, personal safety, and above all, pride. Parents and other supportive adults who are motivated to educate themselves and who are interested in gaining some tools and skills around making these necessary conversations less uncomfortable and more effective will benefit from this book. The go-to resource for making informed decisions, The Pride Guide is indispensable for teens, parents, educators, and others hoping to support the safe journey of LGBTQ teens on their journey of discovery.

Examines the issue of sex education in schools.

Curricula in U.S. public schools are often the focus of heated debate, and few subjects spark more controversy than sex education. While conservatives argue that sexual abstinence should be the only message, liberals counter that an approach that provides comprehensive instruction and helps young people avoid sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy is necessary. Caught in the middle are the students and teachers whose everyday experiences of sex education are seldom as clear-cut as either side of the debate suggests. Risky Lessons brings readers inside three North Carolina middle schools to show how students and teachers support and subvert the official curriculum through their questions, choices, viewpoints, and reactions. Most important, the book highlights how sex education's formal and informal lessons reflect and reinforce gender, race, and class inequalities. Ultimately critical of both conservative and liberal approaches, Fields argues for curricula that promote social and sexual justice. Sex education's aim need not be limited to reducing the risk of adolescent pregnancies, disease, and sexual activity. Rather, its lessons should help young people to recognize and contend with sexual desires, power, and inequalities.