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Question:
I am a student at the University of South Florida and am researching the current state of sex education in the schools. I am wondering if there is any certification required. My hope is to modernize and expand the scope of human sexuality to include issues of intimacy, relationship building, love, and commitment. Is there anything out there for the parents of teens on the topic of sex education? How do we get the community involved?
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Answer:
by Konstance McCaffree: (05/26/2004)
I was a teacher of sexuality education in the schools for over 30 years. I have since retired from working with adolescents and parents to help train teachers begin working with sexuality education with the elementary age youth as well. Depending on what state you live in there is no certification needed to teach sexuality education. Most requirements fit into the "health" area, and in some states there may be a requirement to provide one course on sexuality. Those courses are often on AIDS, STDs or some other reproductive function, and rarely include relationships, intimacy and the other areas you mentioned. There is curricula that includes these issues but it isn't wide spread and many teachers either are uncomfortable or time-restrained to really teach a comprehensive course. I was lucky and able to involve students in comprehensive sexuality and also include parent classes so there was a "village" working on the entire subject.
You may find more on sexuality education and many of your other questions may be answered if you go to www.siecus.org which is the web site for the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. They have over 1000 pages that you can click on to with help for parents, full bibliography of readings on sexuality and education, the requirements for different states as well as research, and policy issues. It is a site that you can link to many other organizations as well. Be sure to look at the Guidelines for comprehensive sexuality education as those will show you what messages should be taught at each age level starting with young children. This was developed by a large number of experts who worked together to provide this information for teachers and parents.
There are also a number of books for parents as well. Go to the bibliography for parents at the site to see the many choices you have.Reviewed by Sexual Health Editorial Team
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