Middle Schoolers and Sexuality

Sexuality. This is such a cruical and prevelant part of the lives of middle school aged children, but many teachers and parents are much more comfortable ignoring the issue all together. As students' bodies begin to change and their hormones start taking over, sexuality is a huge part of the identity of middle school students. For this blog I'm going to choose to write about sex education. It seems as though it is obviously awkward and uncomfortable for students, but I think you would find many teachers who would find it uncomfortable to teach as well. That is why many sex ed classes are jokes. Students are not learning the information they need to hear to make smart, safe, informed decisions regarding thier health and sexuality.
The middle school students that I am student teaching have their first sex ed class this monday. I think it should be very interesting because I think that many students will find this very uncomfortable. Like most sixth graders they are not the most mature individuals and I anticipate alot of giggling going on. The boys and the girls are going to be split up. This is a common way of teaching students sex ed for the first time, but typically a male takes the boys and a female teacher takes the girls. There will be two female teachers and I think that they boys may find this extremely awkward. I think that you should try and make the kids as comfortable as possible so that they can ask important questions they want to know more about and I just dont see that happening if they have a female teacher.
I think it is important not to be one sided when teaching this issue. I dont think it should be a moral issue but an issue regarding health and safety. I went to a Catholic school, and while it wasnt an abstinence only class it surely didnt address important issues regarding safe sex. This is such a tricky topic because it is a moral issue and many families approach it this way and may not want their children to learn it in the school. There should be a way students can ask questions that they may be too embarassed to ask so that they have the information they need to make safe decisions. I dont know if this is possible in the classroom though.