Teaching Guide: Sex & STD/STIs

Recent polls have indicated that more than half of America’s teens are sexually active by the age of 17. Meanwhile, the incidence of teen pregnancies is at an alltime high, proving that they’re not very careful about what they’re doing. This kind of behavior would be problematic enough without the ominous backdrop of a raging AIDS epidemic, but with risks of such magnitude, teen sexual activity calls for some serious guidance and consideration.

In this program, Michael Pritchard encourages teenagers to think more critically about their attitudes and approaches to sexual behavior. Students from Columbia, S.C.; Gainesville, FL; Wayne, NJ; Washington, D.C.; Dallas, Texas; and New York City, consider the thorny issues they face in making decisions about sex, and grapple with the question of how to make choices tonight that you can live with tomorrow.

EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES

1. To stimulate young people to think critically about their expectations and behaviors regarding sexual involvement.
2. To get them to look realistically at the potential consequences of choosing to be sexually active.
3. To motivate them to make those choices for themselves, and to act responsibly on the choices they make.

This material is from the teaching guide
for the video “Sex“
in the 12-part DVD series THE POWER OF CHOICE

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What is your pet peeve about members of the opposite sex when it comes to attitudes about sex?

2. What kinds of pressures are there to be sexually active?

3. What are your biggest concerns about sex?

4. Who in this video do you most agree with? Who do you disagree with? Why?

5. What makes it okay to have sex? What are some good guidelines?

6. How do you explain the double standard in which boys are respected for their sexual activities while girls are criticized for them?

7. How important is it to become friends before having a sexual relationship? To be in love before having a sexual relationship? To be married before having a sexual relationship? Are people who think and act differently than you wrong or immoral?

8. How would you respond if someone told you that you had to have sex with that person to prove your love?

9. When a person has, or wants to have, sex with someone he or she doesn’t love, is there any reason to find out how that person is feeling? What are some of the emotional risks that a person might take in having sex?

10. Is there a link between promiscuity and low self-esteem? Explain.

11. What are some common misconceptions about STIs and STDs? What are the ways in which they can be transmitted?

12. How do you know that a potential sex partner is not infected with the AIDS virus or another sexually transmitted disease (STD)?

13. What kinds of information do you think you need in order to make good decisions about sex? Where are some good places to get that information?

14. What role, if any, should your parents play in helping you make choices about sex?

15. Some of the kids in this program talked about responsibility in a sexual relationship. What exactly is responsibility in sex?

16. Many of teens in this program advocated using birth control to protect against sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies. Do you agree with them? If so, whose responsibility is birth control?

17. What are the most effective forms of birth control?

18. When is the time to talk about birth control, before or after becoming lovers? Who should bring up the subject, and how?

19. Sexual choices may have serious consequences, yet according to the kids in this program, some have sex without protection and without thinking about what might happen. Why not?

GROUP ACTIVITIES

1. List all the misconceptions about sex you can think of.

2. List all of the sexually transmitted diseases. Discuss how they can be prevented and what to do or where to get reliable information if one gets one of these conditions.

3. Imagine that someone you really like wants to have sex with you, but you don’t feel ready for it. Brainstorm some ways to say no without jeopardizing your relationship. Try role-playing this situation with both girls and boys in the role of the person saying no.

4. List all the stereotypes you can think of about sexuality: for example, that the most beautiful girls have the most boyfriends, or that if a guy doesn’t want to sleep with a girl, something’s wrong either with him or with her. Then discuss each one, considering why people believe it and whether or not it’s true.

This material is from the teaching guide
for the video “Sex“
in the 12-part DVD series THE POWER OF CHOICE

 

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

1. Make an inventory of your attitudes and beliefs about sex. Select two that you feel most strongly about and write a paragraph defending each one. Then write a one paragraph counter-argument for each one in which you take the opposite point of view.

2. Think of someone you imagine has a great sex/love life. This can be a movie star, a fictional character, a friend, anyone. Now write a list of questions about sex or love
you’d like to ask that person.

3. What are your rules for sex? Where did you get these rules? How well have they served you?

4. Movies, TV, and other media often make it look like normal people have sex at the drop of a hat. How does this casualness affect you – your expectations and attitudes about
sex?

5. If you could make the world perfect, how would people treat sex? What would the rules be? What would people’s attitudes and behaviors be?