“We hope that every school for young adolescents provides a health education curriculum that addresses these issues and encourages all teachers to be willing to address sensitive physical growth issues when they arise. We believe every middle school teacher is a health teacher because young adolescents have a constant stream of questions about their health, questions that may never be asked of parents.” (Brown D., & Knowles, T., 2007, pg. 19)
As a sexuality educator this passage stands out to me for juxtaposing reasons. In my work, and studies, I appreciate and believe in positive reinforcement about health and sexuality coming from all aspects of a child or adolescents life. I also believe that access to information about one’s own body should be readily available and come from shame-free ,confident sources.
So this notion of all middle school educators being prepped, available and ready to answer puberty related questions seems idyllic, and hopefully one day doable. I think that you should understand the developmental aspects of a population you’re working with, and as a middle school teacher puberty comes with the territory. However, as a person who has spent some time in public schools, I know that to ask teachers to be responsible for one more thing, on top of their already full load, is unfair. Until, as a society we are more sex positive and comfortable speaking about health bodily functions, sexuality and health educators should be their own positions within all schools, primary and secondary. I know that even as someone whose job it is to talk and educate about sex, bodies and sexuality, it is hard for me to be consistently sex positive, shame-free, inclusive and non-judgmental, without active contemplation and work. It is no longer enough to talk about sexuality from a purely biological or public health standpoint, because sexuality is more complex and intersectional, and should be treated pedagogically like any other core subject area we expect young adolescents to know by the time they reach high school, because the information educators give about puberty, relationships, consent and sex has the potential to be life saving for some.
Thank you for this! As I personally read this article I thought about what your reaction would be at this view point. While yes, I get what the author is saying topically also, that as teachers we should know what is going on, but I think that you’re very right to stand by the fact that teaching health and sex education is it’s own category. The same way we expect all teachers to know basic math but not necessarily to be able to teach calculus, I think the same occurs with this specific area. While all teachers can provide support, help, a safe space, and a myriad of other great resources for their students, the real in-depth, properly supported unbiased and inclusive education should come from someone who is trained and prepared to do just that.
Thanks for your response! It’s tricky huh? I don’t think middle school teachers aren’t capable of providing quality information, but I know even adults struggle with their own personal relationship to sexual anatomy, puberty and sexuality in general.
I also appreciate your viewpoint on the subject. And I agree, the best case scenario is to have sexual education, as a subject, handled by experts in that field. At the same time, I wonder how much you believe that the average teacher should know on that subject. How deep should the typical teacher’s knowledge of this subject be to create a safe school environment? Should teachers at schools that aren’t fortunate enough to have a certified sexual educator be expected to know more?