Notes

Three Sex Education Lessons From The Teen Pep Stories
One of the oft-repeated comments by characters in my novel, The Sex Ed Chronicles is that, in the absence of sex education, children find out about sex from their friends. However, the novel was based in 1980, before NJ high schools began to involve students in peer counseling.

On Valentines Day 2008, I find out about a mini-controversy involving peer counseling on a fresh Jersey radio news Web site. The news coverage came out of one NJ senior high school: Clearview Regional SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL in Harrison Township in the southern area of the state. There, parents object to peer counselors, senior high school juniors and seniors, counseling freshmen on a variety of topics linked to sex education. The counseling model originates from an application called Teen Pep. Created by the Princeton Center for Leadership Training (not associated with Princeton University), Teen Pep has been implemented in over 50 Garden State high schools for days gone by eight years. T here fore, Teen Pep is not a fresh program and school districts have had time and energy to investigate its merits-only now, one school has made the news.

Teen Pep trains not only students, but additionally faculty advisors, to work one-to-one, but also as a team in various counseling situations. Schools contracting for Teen Pep use the Princeton Center for a minimum of two years and there are supervisory field visits by qualified professionals to greatly help ensure this program is running well. A school that engages in Teen Pep makes a large intellectual investment, as well as a financial investment, to create it work. check here of this investment would be to explain this program to parents.

Which takes me to lesson number one: if you're not prepared to take these investments seriously, don't make them.

As I find out about the incident at Clearview High, it became clear if you ask me that the fault isn't with the program, but with the school administration. It would have been easier to allow them to consult parents and clergy from the get-go, as they are likely to do. I recognize that teachers have objected to this-they did back in 1980 as well-but sex education is really a subject where parents and clergy believe they have important opinions and knowledge.

I came across it interesting to learn that an advisory board would be formed after parents objected to individual aspects of the program. That should have been in place from day one.

Which takes me to lesson number two: after consulting parents, decide which topics students are qualified to discuss with peers.

Parental objections at Clearview stemmed from the theory that "kids were teaching kids to possess sex. But there had to be clear differences between the topics teen peer counselors were allowed to teach, and those that had to be covered by a professional sex education teacher-but they didn't ensure it is in the press. Parents deserved to learn, should they asked before school started. I recognize that pro-abstinence organizations also use young speakers; their programs should be subject to the same parental review because the peer-counseling program.

Then website get to lesson number 3: ensure you have qualified teachers.

The federal No Child LEFT OUT Act emphasizes a need for qualified teachers, and therefore a teacher ought to be certified in the topic they teach. That applies just as much to sex education as any other subject. In the exemplory case of Clearview High, this program leader was an English teacher. When I reached family life education, I learned that sex education instructors were most likely to come from health education, home economics or social studies together with nursing. I'd also assume that guidance counselors could become qualified sex educators; they handle personal student issues within their job description.

It seems Teen Pep is employed in most schools; only 1 school is in the news complaining, but those associated with this program should consider offering an alternative solution: to use degree candidates in counseling and education to counsel students.

This might not be peer counseling, but it would appease parents who be worried about kids teaching kids about sex. It could also help provide professional development for sex educators.

Stuart Nachbar operates EducatedQuest.com, a blog on education politics, policy and technology. He's got been involved with education politics and economic development as an urban planner, government affairs manager, software executive, and today as a writer. His first novel, The Sex Ed Chronicles, about sex education and school politics in 1980 New Jersey, earned a coveted "Publishers Choice" selection from iUniverse.
Website: https://rindom-damgaard.hubstack.net/three-sex-education-lessons-from-the-teen-pep-stories-1685266170