In this guest blog for the Health Teen Network, educators can learn the basics of reproduction and why it’s important to get up to speed.
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Third party reproduction is an important part of how families form. How does donation work and how do people conceived with donated gametes and embryos feel about it?
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Abortion is one of those topics that can be really, really hard to tackle with our kids - especially as we adults are usually super opinionated about it. Here’s some open ended questions to help kids think critically and empathetically about abortion.
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The Alabama supreme court recently ruled that the frozen embryos are children, and thus protected by the law. How are embryos created , how do people decide what to do with any remaining embryos, and who should make the decision?
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From laugh out loud moments, to wide smiles to the class, to smiles to myself - sex ed class can provide it all. Sometimes these moments happen outside of the classroom during class prepping; other times they happen during class. These moments are precious and it reminds us that even within the context of serious, intense topics, it’s worth pausing every now and then to recognize how humours humanity can be.
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Here are ten reasons why talking to high school students about insemination, IVF, donors, surrogates, and egg and sperm freezing is relevant. When we talk about fertility, it isn’t always about students’ future fertility, it’s about them better understanding the here and now - how they came to be in the world, or their classmates, or their neighbor, or even the personalities they learn about in the media.
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Can you imagine being a teenager, acting responsibly after a possible pregnancy scare, trying to pick up Plan Band, and your choices are either 1. Having to ask the pharmacist for the medication you need because it’s behind the checkout counter and you can’t just grab it and go, Or 2. Having to bringing a huge plastic box up to the counter so a clerk can “unlock” it before you can purchase it. Can we please free PlanB?
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Sex ed is violence prevention. It goes beyond helping victims know what to do when it happens; it tries to prevent that violence from happening to begin with.
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The responsibility of answering the age-old question “Where do babies come from?” should not be on fellow five year-old classmates. It should be the privilege of [hopefully] better equipped parents, caregivers and teachers. But when the explanation is still missing key components - donors, surrogates, insemination and IVF - the burden is falling on the kids who are donor conceived. As any five year-old can attest, that’s not fair!
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Sex Ed should be about youth getting the information and skills they need before they engage in sexual activity. Knowing who you are, your values and beliefs, understanding what you like and don’t like and being able to communicate that, and showing respect and compassion for others is what should be at the heart of sex education. There is not magic ticket to getting here - it takes practice over time.
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Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have something in common with Donald Trump. They all have blended families! Some of the adults had kids from a previous relationship, and these kids now have step-parents and some have step-siblings! When we honor all different kinds of families, we honor all children, which gives them a solid foundation from which to grow.
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Sex education used to be all about our body parts and how they work to create a baby and spread sexually transmitted infections. Over the past few years, we’ve moved to comprehensive sexuality education, which includes a broader range of topics. But, when we do talk about human reproduction? We are still stuck in the dark ages. With the help of donors, surrogates, frozen gametes, insemination and IVF, there are lots of ways to make babies and create family.
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Sex Ed isn’t really about sex. It’s about our relationships with ourselves and others. Sure, relationships might have a little bit to do with sex (when you are old enough to make those decisions), but for most youth learning about sex education, sex is only one part of a much larger conversation. So why do we doom the chances of even having the discussion by keeping the word sex in the title?
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