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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I got to chat with Wendy Sellers, from Puberty: the Wonder Years about working in sexual health education, teaching puberty, writing books, and what I hope for all kids going through puberty.
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Browse Rachel’s five favorite books for youth about anatomy, modern human reproduction, and family - as listed at Shepherd, a new, engaging way to browse and find books you can’t wait to read.
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What an honor to do a Q & A for writer, editor and blogger Deborah Kalb. I shared lots of details about why I wrote the book, how I did research, what surprised me, and what I thought of the positive comments from Kirkus Reviews.
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"Roads to Family” is printed and ready for purchase. In this blog, author Rachel Ginocchio reflects on being a first time author, talks about where the idea for the book came from, and thanks all the contributors. Now families and teachers have an awesome resource for talking about modern human reproduction and family formation.
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Roads to Family, the book, is coming to stores and online distributors April 4, 2023! In this blog, Rachel takes a moment to recount the writing process, thank the amazing participants, and reflect that the book is, above all else, a love story.
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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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A successfully cloned Przewalski horse is great fodder (feed?) for a conversation about all the different things we can do to with cells to create offspring. Start with a conversation about what cells are and how they work, move into an explanation about how sperm and egg cells create the next generation, and then start a chat about cloning. If your kid is a Star Wars fan, you can bring Jango Fett into the discussion!
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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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Dutch TV lets kids stare down naked human bodies of all shapes and sizes. The show’s aim is to help kids develop a positive, healthy attitude towards the naked body. What do you think of this approach?
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A coming of age movie - about an eleven year-old, trying to figure out who she is and what she believes in, amidst pressures from friends, family, classmates, culture, and religion - gets in the crosshairs of conservative politicians and the DOJ. Whether you loved or hated the movie (or something in between), it serves as a great conversation starter for the whole family.
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Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s life celebrated quality; she didn’t just fight for one person over another or one cause over another. She fought for equal rights for all people. Hw do we teach about her legacy and how will her legacy be carried out going forward?
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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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