easily passed if you have an STI."
Making it fun
Polly Curtis accompanied Rebekka Armstrong
(our
Christmas issue cover star) on her tour round schools before Christmas.
Rebekka, if you remember, had been a successful Californian model and
Playboy star, but contracted the virus from unsafe sex as a teenager.
Says Polly: "Most of the schoolkids really related to Rebekka. They
were totally impressed and some were rather shocked by her, because she's
both a real person with a real experience, but also someone who looks
glamorous and sexy."
Peter Tatchell agrees with this 'sexier' approach (see below). The words
'Safer Sex' and 'Parenting' are probably just so unsexy in themselves
that kids switch off at their very mention. Paula Power has found that
kids are particularly reluctant to discuss these very subjects.
Yet while making it fun, it's important not to get the tone wrong. Annmarie
Byrne says: "If a child goes back home to mum and dad and says, 'I
was shown how to put a condom on and someone with Aids came and talked
to us,' this can backfire. The parent takes the child out of sex education
classes. The child remains ignorant of important information. We have
to be diplomatic." This can be a particular problem in Catholic and
Muslim schools, it requires negotiation.
It's also up to parents - who are becoming more involved with school sex
education - and the media too. But that's another subject altogether.
Research based on Sex Education Forum
surveys (tel 020 7843 6052) / Resources from Sheffield Centre for HIV/Sexual
Health, tel 0114 226 1900 and the Family Planning
page 6 of 7
contents
of issue 76
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weblinks
Association, tel 020 7837 5432. / Sex/HIV education videos available: Spirit of Youth, £6 (inc. P. & P.) from Body & Soul. Tel 020 7833 4828/4929. And HIV: Risky Business from CWAC. Tel 020 7233 5966.
