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Some Want Sex Education to Happen Throughout School

Paul Keller
/
Creative Commons

Should sex education be limited to health class?

East Hartford health teacher Sue Patria suggested on WNPR's Where We Live that the best sex education programs are ones where all teachers incorporate sex and gender topics into their teaching. 

"English classes are doing books on teen pregnancy, doing things on sexual abuse, so that comes into the health education class," Patria said.

Jessica Fields agrees. She's a sociology professor at San Francisco State University, and author of a book on sex ed. She said it's beneficial to teachers and students for gender and sex topics to be discussed in all classes.

"It not only supports the students across their school day," Fields said, "but helps that sexuality educator to feel as if their work is part of the overall work of the school and not cordoned off to some corner of the building or corner of the curriculum." 

The show's guests agreed that sex ed should also take place in the home and broader community, to encourage young people to be comfortable talking and learning about their sexuality.

David finds and tells stories about education and learning for WNPR radio and its website. He also teaches journalism and media literacy to high school students, and he starts the year with the lesson: “Conflicts of interest: Real or perceived? Both matter.” He thinks he has a sense of humor, and he also finds writing in the third person awkward, but he does it anyway.

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