A writer's Random ramblings
Are we parents, teachers, and school boards truly preparing students for the future? How many of them experience fully interdisciplinary courses before college? More ought to than seem to these days, considering that many colleges provide even first-year students with such courses to take care of required curriculum studies. One subject that lends itself well to this approach is family life, also known as sex education.
Naturally, in this case, health and science classes overlap each other. They can teach students how the mechanics of the act. Everything from arousal to pregnancy and childbirth can safely be covered, along with the physical effects of these conditions at various ages of a woman’s life. Students also need to learn about the various diseases that can occur by undertaking sexual activity. The scientific and health segments of every type of sexual act need to be explored as early as middle school. Some schools and programs for highly able learner may even begin the basics in fourth or fifth grade. However, these students may not be ready to tie the science and health lessons into other areas. Children who enjoy math would likely take well to using statistics in the area of family life. These ideals can bring all the other explorations together, either by way of introduction or capstone. Statistics from the students’ home area on teen pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease rates can bring the science and math together. This gets them talking about how to lower those rates, adding to the science class’ discussion of medications and the health unit on safer sex practices. Statistics could also lead into social studies and literary analysis lessons on health history in various parts of the world and how cultures record it. In the process of analyzing these records, students can learn about sexuality, gender stereotypes, and how to overcome the categories. They can explore different regions and populations to see how each does this. Finding out how different societies define family and what makes a family can teach basic psychological and sociological principles. AT the same time, these studies will inform how each student sees what family means to him or her. Also, students can learn how economics affect people and those with whom the choose to relate. This can lead them to discussion of what sex and its consequences can do for them at various ages. From there, students can learn about how to choose partners worthy of their time and how to figure out when they feel ready to start a family. These discussions will eventually help members of society in general understand one another and hopefully form a more functional human race. Colleges now require interdisciplinary studies of those seeking degrees. Secondary education must prepare students for this. The time has arrived for introducing this type of study as early as we can. Let’s ask our school boards to begin with helping our pupils understand sexual education and family life through the interdisciplinary lens, not only in health class.
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“Land of the Free?” “Home of the Brave?” These phrases no longer seem to describe the USA on the eve of its birthday in 2019. The more the news talks, the more it feels like “the Land of the Controversy” and “the Home of the Sick Burn.”
Not long ago, we could almost leave to creation of controversy to the lawmakers. One day, they would say out traditional allies stayed that way. Then, we’d find a new one where we had an enemy and the first ally would leave. We all see this plenty, from the schoolyard on up as people change friendships. Lawmakers always burn one another by debating and ultimately forcing rewrites of laws. Nothing new there, either, but now, we see it happen many more times in a legislative session that ever. We also witness in the news more protests than ever from both sides of any controversial proposal. If the legislators and courts show humanity how to compromise, maybe we humans can pass laws that will feel fairer to everyone. If those in command make sound decisions, then people might leave one another and companies alone. Recently, I heard in the news where a Nike sneaker was to feature the Betsy Ross flag. I had not heard about when it was originally created, but only when it was pulled from the market. What caused this pull before release? One former football player, who caused other controversy before, raised his voice about the nation for which the flag stood. Colin Kaepernick, the same player who said that African-American people need to kneel rather than stand for the National Anthem, protested the sneakers. Sure, he is entitled to his opinion, but to tell a company to pull a product because of the period in history it represents is wrong for the future of the human race. Granted, in the days of America’s founding and search for independence from the British throne, white European-Americans did enslave people of color. However, instead of pulling a product with an emblem of that era from the market, we need to find the good in it. Yes, there exists good in everything. In this case, the flag on the back of these sneakers could have inspired youngsters to want to learn about the era of Betsy Ross and her famous flag. That, in turn, could open dialogue about how people change with course of history. We could learn then to see what that leads to as people evolve and hopefully learn to accept one another. Humanity could find more opportunities to apologize for its follies and grow to see how learning our collective history can hep us progress into the future instead of repeating the messes of the past. I, for one, would greatly welcome these chances to decide for myself how the emblems and errors of the past can become teaching tools for my children and other generations. Let’s cut the use of the term “controversy” at every turn. Let people debate what needs discussion. Use history to teach those of the future. The follies and errors of the past need to be retold so humanity can learn and grow for the future. |
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