Published by The Boston Globe
Needham parents praised a proposed new sex-education curriculum for the public schools that would include discussions on new social networking media and technology, but some worried that until the program takes effect certain students would be missing important lessons.
“I think it’s wonderful you’re doing this,’’ Pamela Rosin, who has two children in sixth and ninth grades, told district officials during a presentation on the proposal Monday at the high school. “I thought we were doing it already. It’s an eye-opener.’’
Kathy Pinkham, director of the school system’s wellness department, said she would try to find a way to fill the transitional gap between the old and new programs, but parents may need to teach the material to their children themselves. She is working on a website that will display the curriculum and give suggestions for ways that parents can talk to their children about sex, she said, with the goal of having the site up before Christmas break.
“We really looked at this as a relationship with parents,’’ Pinkham said.
She said that under the new program, which the School Committee will consider next month, older students would be given materials from the sex-ed classes to take home for their parents, helping them become more involved in the discussions. Pinkham has been offering outlines of the curriculum to parents all week. She will offer another presentation today at 9 a.m. in Needham High’s media center, with other sessions planned for after the winter break.
On Monday, Pinkham said the new curriculum would endeavor to help students develop mature attitudes toward sex in the Internet age, when sexual encounters often start with texting. Answering a parent’s question, she said the classes will promote abstinence but also confront the reality that some students will have sex before marriage.
“The culture has changed. It used to be people got married at 18, 19, 20 or 21. Now it’s later and later,’’ she said. “We will put it into context of what they want in life and their goals.’’
Needham does not offer much sex education in the schools, after cuts and changes in health programs multiple times over the years, said Pinkham. The district decided to reexamine the program in part because of new issues in teen sexuality brought about by changes in media and technology, she said.
The current curriculum provides lessons about puberty for fifth-graders, and limited courses in sixth, ninth and 11th grades. The proposed curriculum would expand the existing courses and add some sex-ed topics for students in seventh, eighth, 10th and 12th grades, said Pinkham.
The new program will focus on providing the skills to help students make good decisions, said Pinkham. For example, students more often are making plans via text message or online, taking away the thought that goes into asking someone on a date, she said.
“The risk is easy. . . Sometimes people end up with someone else because of happenstance,’’ she said. “We will emphasize the importance of face-to-face communication, and that spending time together is important.’’
Traditional sex-ed programs usually only teach about anatomy, sexually transmitted diseases, and abstinence, said Pinkham. Those elements will still be taught, but the new program will also look at delaying sex and giving students the tools for healthy sex and relationships when they are adults, she said.
Kari Hayden, who has children in fifth, eighth and 12th grades, said during the forum, “The safest sex is abstinence, and students need to hear it in the classroom.’’
Pinkham told her that the program would promote abstinence, but not as the only point of discussion. She said students who decide to have sex and those who become sexually active as adults both will need to know how to negotiate safe sex.
A subcommittee of the School Health Advisory Council that developed the program over the last two years will present it to the School Committee at the end of next month, said Pinkham. A pilot program might begin next semester, but probably only for freshman and sophomores. If approved, the entire program would be implemented next fall, she said.
Some parents voiced concerns that sixth-graders would miss out on crucial lessons in the new curriculum for their grade level if the program is implemented next school year rather than next semester. The sixth-grade program would include teaching the difference between sex and sexuality, cover behaviors such as oral sex, and discuss sexual identity, said Pinkham.
Pinkham said she hopes parents can use the website being developed to discuss some of these topics with their children. She said the homework assignments for parents will involve a series of questions to be discussed after their child covered the material in class. Similar assignments are encouraged and successful in the fifth-grade program, but the school wants to extend them, she said.
“I appreciate the homework assignments, the face-to-face time, and the way the questions were structured to develop a conversation over things that were a little unsettling,’’ said Jan Keeler, parent of an eighth-grader and an 11th-grader, as well as two high school graduates.
Keeler also suggested a partnership between parents and the schools to create guidelines for parents of even younger students. She said she was concerned with the messages her children are exposed to every day on television, even at a very young age.
No comments:
Post a Comment