Boston Area Middle Schools ‘Get Real’ About Sex
Family rom-coms, Judy Blume, and the horrors of high school health class have taught most of us that conversations about the birds and the bees can be— and usually are– awkward. But apparently some parents find them so cringe-worthy that they choose to skip the sex talk all together.
According to Planned Parenthood, 90 percent of parents say sexual health is the biggest social concern they have for their teens, but 37 percent of teenagers say they have never talked about sex with their parents. Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts’ Get Real: Sex Education That Works program hopes to change that.
Recent findings by the Wellesley Centers for Women suggest that Get Real has been successful in reducing the amount of sexually active 6th, 7th, and 8th graders by promoting conversation between students and parents through take-home activities.
Specifically, Boston schools that teach the Get Real curriculum have seen a 16 percent decrease in sexually active boys and a 15 percent decrease in sexually active girls over the past three years. The findings were based on a comparison of confidential survey data collected from 24 Boston-area middle-schools, half of which use the program.
“We could not be prouder of what these findings have shown us,’’ Vice President of Education and Training for Planned Parenthood Massachusetts Jen Slonaker told Boston.com. “[Get Real] gives parents a nice concrete tool to make sex-ed conversations a little bit easier.’’
Parents are encouraged to have educational conversations about sex with their own beliefs in mind, whether they’d like to teach their kids abstinence or contraception. Activities range from interview activities to word searches and aim to provide a structured approach to talking about sex.
Sloniker says parent enthusiasm toward participating varies. The parents who do participate may find that they learn something new, too. One student, Sloniker says, was delighted to tell his teacher: “I taught my dad what a vas deferens is!’’
Anatomy is only the beginning of the program’s offerings. Get Real also trains teachers to educate students about a range of topics, including relationships and boundaries, communication and refusal skills, abstinence, sexually transmitted diseases, sexual identity, sexuality in the media, and more. Sloniker says it offers “accurate and age appropriate information’’ about sex, which, data suggests, makes them less likely to have sex at a young age. Planned Parenthood claims the program is especially effective for boys.
Get Real is currently being taught at 150 schools nationwide, most of which are in Massachusetts. The only other states currently home to schools using the program include Rhode Island, New York, and Texas.
Lisa Goldblatt Grace, a Boston-area parent, called the program powerful for teens and parents alike in the report’s press release.
“On different nights, my kids would come home with ‘homework,’’’ she said. “To ask me about my own experiences, to ask me what I believe, to discuss with me case scenarios that were germane to their realities.’’
Slonaker says she fully expects the use of the program to expand following the Wellesley Centers’ findings. The full report was published in The Journal of School Health, and Get Real’s website offers teacher resources and encourages parents to advocate for the program to come to their child’s school.
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