This past Tuesday saw the beginning of SVINTL's first health education program. Middle schoolers and high schoolers took part in introductory health ed workshops designed to provide essential knowledge appropriate for and relevant to each age group. These workshops, potentially the first of many, are an essential step toward creating a comprehensive health program that provides students with the knowledge necessary to navigate the ever more complex social dynamics that arise during one's teenage years.
Beginning with middle school health education—primarily focusing on puberty, social dynamics surrounding it, as well as general interpersonal relationship values—the health education program offers necessary knowledge that facilitate mutually beneficial interpersonal relationships as well as a healthy relationship to one's own body. Without a school program to provide adequate education on these subjects, and given the culture of shame and secrecy that surrounds puberty and sex education in general, some kids might not learn about the changes in their bodies for far too long. This can lead to uncertainty and fear over a multitude of harmless changes: Pediatrician Dr. Kathryn Melland Lowe provides one example: "Nearly all pediatricians have seen a child come into their clinic afraid they have breast cancer because they have a breast bud. It's normal development." Furthermore, teaching middle-school age children how to navigate social dynamics surrounding puberty in a healthy manner is extremely important. Absent any type of in-school education, many end up looking to pop culture to provide an image of what a relationship should look like. Researchers from the Department of Clinical Psychology at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology found that the widely common media representations of domestic violence as trivial and comical are contributing to violence against women. A comprehensive health education program is the antidote. While in many environments, puberty and sex education are viewed as one-and-done conversations, this is far from an appropriate way to facilitate healthy interpersonal relationships in the teen years. Lowe claims that by attempting to make health education into a single lecture, "we're really upping the shame and secrecy around it." A single conversation about puberty and sex cannot fill the hole that a comprehensive health program can; instead, it only provides a foundaton of knowledge that must continue to be built on. These workshops will establish a baseline, yet there is more to learn.
For high schoolers, workshops will focus on sex information, substance use and abuse, and navigating complex teen relationships. These areas of knowledge are critical. The first workshop focused on consent, teaching students how to provide space for a partner to give legitimate, enthusiastic consent, as well as how to avoid or break up non-consexual sexual encounters. This is only a starting point. Education about safe sex can help teens avoid the massive upheaval that can come with teenage pregnancies and the potentially life-changing effects of STIs. Absent adequate sex education, pop culture and the internet become makeshift teachers, yet this may be even more harmful for education specific to sex rather than puberty. Now, it isn't simply internet misinformation that can influence students but pornography as well. The UK Government Equalities Office found that "there is substantial evidence of an association between the use of pornography and harmful sexual attitudes and behaviors towards women". Evidently, providing a class that teaches medically accurate information and facilitates open dialogue to ensure that all questions are answered is superior to a makeshift education that promotes sexual violence. Furthermore, learning about substance use and abuse can help teens navigate potentially dangerous situations involving unsafe use and peer pressure. During a meeting between health educator Shafia Zaloom, who ran the workshops this past Tuesday, and upper-school student representatives, many expressed their desire for a focus on a drug education program because they felt wholly unprepared to navigate social situations involving substance use. That students who are only months away from attending colleges, many of which have strong party cultures and extremely high rates of underage drinking, reveals how the previous lack of any type of health program has failed students. Overall, starting with the workshop students underwent this past Tuesday, the comprehensive health education program has the potential to educate students in critical, as of yet uncovered areas that could provide a multitude of benefits to students.
While the workshops of this past Tuesday were a starting point, there is much that has yet to be covered. The development of a truly comprehensive health education program is critical to covering this ground and should be pursued.
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