Teaching Kids about Sex

Bat Sheva Marcus LMSW MPH PhD

There is so much controversy about how to teach kids about sex. In general I’m a proponent of “the more you know, the more prepared you are and the better choices you can make.” Recently a new curriculum came out that was touted as “abstinence only.” That tends to be a major red flag for those of us in the field. But then a respected colleage, a v.p for education at Planned Parenthood, Catherine Dukes PhD had this to say:

Here at Planned Parenthood of Delaware we always support comprehensive age-appropriate sex-positive evidence-based approaches. In fact, the evidence based curriculum Making Proud Choices! is what we use most often with our teenage youth. The authors of that curriculum are: Loretta Sweet Jemmott, John Jemmott, and Konnie McCaffree (President-Elect of SSSS). http://www.selectmedia.org/customer-service/evidence-based-curricula/making-proud-choices/

I saw Loretta Sweet Jemmot speak at a Delaware conference last year and again, I can assure you she is an advocate of comprehensive sex ed and science-based approaches. We even offer training to teachers and youth-service providers on this curriculum: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/delaware/ed-workshops-29159.htm

There is so much controversy about how to teach kids about sex. In general I’m a proponent of “the more you know, the more prepared you are and the better choices you can make.” Recently a new curriculum came out that was touted as “abstinence only.” That tends to be a major red flag for those of us in the field.

But then a respected colleage, a v.p for education at Planned Parenthood, Catherine Dukes PhD had this to say:
Here at Planned Parenthood of Delaware we always support comprehensive age-appropriate sex-positive evidence-based approaches. In fact, the evidence based curriculum Making Proud Choices! is what we use most often with our teenage youth. The authors of that curriculum are: Loretta Sweet Jemmott, John Jemmott, and Konnie McCaffree (President-Elect of SSSS) http://www.selectmedia.org/customer-service/evidence-based-curricula/making-proud-choices/

I saw Loretta Sweet Jemmot speak at a Delaware conference last year and again, I can assure you she is an advocate of comprehensive sex ed and science-based approaches. We even offer training to teachers and youth-service providers on this curriculum:http://www.plannedparenthood.org/delaware/ed-workshops-29159.htm When I saw the ab-only study results I was surprised but then comforted that the author of the study / main researcher was Dr. John Jemmot. He is a known credible researcher and comprehensive sex ed curricula autho and a supporter of science-based approaches.

So you may want to check out more!
http://nsrc.sfsu.edu/article/abstinence_only

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