Preparing Yourself
Effective sex educators go through rigorous training before working with students.
You don’t need that level of commitment, but there are a few things to keep in mind and ways to prepare so you can teach sex ed effectively.
Step 1: Understand your own thoughts, biases and triggers.
All of us absorbed messages about sex and relationships as we grew up. Our FREE Let’s Talk About Sex, Part I: Preparing Yourself course for parents and caregivers helps you explore and learn how to manage your own emotions and messages about sex and relationships before you share with your kids.
Step 2: Learn some skills for (potentially) messy, emotional conversations.
Sex and relationships are complicated topics. It’s likely both you and your young person are coming in with some strong opinions or emotions. Our FREE Let’s Talk About Sex, Part II course for parents and caregivers focuses on why vulnerability is important, how to honor your child's or teen's messy, complicated or strong emotions, and how to ask careful questions in order to preserve an open space for conversation.
Step 3: Understand some sex education best practices so you don’t cause harm.
Sex ed only works if the young people participating feel like their experiences are included and they aren’t being judged or shamed. As a parent or caregiver, you may feel like you know your young person well – their gender identity, their sexual orientation, their past experiences. But remember that young people are often still exploring and may not be ready to share their identity or their past experiences with you yet. Lucky for you, Sex Ed To-Go has some bite-sized courses for teachers on these topics that are just as helpful for parents or caregivers who are homeschooling.
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Inclusive Sex Education is a quick, FREE 20-minute course that covers the importance of language when teaching sex education, how to embrace different learning styles, the difference between sex and gender and examples of trauma informed instruction (to prevent further harm to the 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys who have experienced sexual abuse before age 18).
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Trauma Informed Sex Education is FREE, 15 minutes and defines trauma and trauma-informed care, describes effects that trauma has on the brain and explains how to create a more trauma-informed environment and trauma-informed language.
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Sex Ed To-Go also has FREE courses for teachers (and you are one now!) on answering student questions, supporting healthier relationships and working with students with disabilities. Check out all the options here.
For more information or questions about Sex Ed To-Go, email us!
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Or call 1-888-743-7526