<HTML>The various posts on sex and substance abuse education expose a number of
important issues that need further consideration. While a good number of
people have suggested books to read or offered advice on how to conduct an
informal discussion, what emerges is that there is no curriculum or course
of study on the table for others to examine.
If one asked about teaching Humash, we would know that in some grades it
is the story that is important, in others it is the reading of the text,
then later Rashi is introduced, then other mifarshim, etc. Different
schools would have different ideas about the relative importance of each
component, have workbooks to offer, etc. Someone might comment about how
inspiration to halakhic living should be an integral part of the Humash
lesson, but we would all understand that inspiration should be a component
part of all classroom experiences and that this does not obviate the need
for a thought-out course of study. Anything we want to teach well has to
be thought out beforehand, but in this thread no one said, I'd be glad to
mail you copies of what we use in each level of the school.
In what grades should sex/substance abuse education begin? How should we
deal with the fact that many students either daven in shuls where those
who cannot get through the whole morning Shabbat service without a drink
form "kiddish clubs" instead of 12-step self-help groups, or learn in
Yeshivot where rabeeim who give mussar shmuzin on "negiah" light up a
cigarette during breaks and then either say "I know it's wrong but it's my
yetzer hara" or quote a self-serving teshuva that said it's really OK to
smoke? Is it fear of confronting these issues that keeps us away from the
subject, or is it really only ignorance about what to say?
Substance abuse and sexual experimentation usually begins in high school,
but education about these issues must begin in junior high school or
earlier. Does no school show anti-smoking films in junior high school?
Which ones are used in each grade? Is it part of the science curriculum
or the English lesson (where students write essays on the subject)?
Where can one get such films? Is the showing of such films scheduled each
year, or does someone "have to remember" to show it? Are there posters up
throughout the school, or are we afraid that a visitor might see the
posters and conclude that the school "has a problem"? (A good idea would
be posters in Hebrew from the Israeli cancer societies.) What about
alcohol and drugs? Is there nothing to be said about sexual values?
I think creative educators should be planning out such curricula and
sharing them with their colleagues.
Joel Wolowelsky</HTML>
