News & Events

Sometimes the Birds and the Bees Get Short Shrift in School

Posted on May 01, 2017

Source: The New York Times

Sometimes the Birds and the Bees Get Short Shrift in School

"Wazina Zondon’s 10th-grade class was playing a game about birth control. The students picked a method while Ms. Zondon left the room. When she came back, she had to guess what it was.

'Am I a barrier method?' asked Ms. Zondon, a family life and sex education teacher at the Urban Assembly Institute of Math and Science for Young Women in Downtown Brooklyn. 'Are hormones involved?'

After a few more questions, Ms. Zondon guessed correctly: an IUD. Other options included condoms, the birth control patch and abstinence. The students had learned about all of them earlier in the class, including how to use them properly and what, if any, side effects they can cause.

Ms. Zondon’s class offers something advocates say is all too uncommon in New York City: comprehensive sex education. Since 2011, the Department of Education has required that all middle and high schools teach sex education as part of health class. But the requirement came with little enforcement or oversight and compliance has been spotty."

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