Sex Education in Middle School

            Sex education in middle schools is about to change.  In January of 2012 the Journal of School Health published a special report of sexual education standards in the United States.  These standards are to help schools figure out what is important for sexual education in school.  The standards in this piece are age appropriate, so that sex education can be guided into a full education for students upon their graduation from High school.

            The standards in Michigan for health education seem to be lacking of the new changes that the Journal of School Health is speaking of.  According to the Michigan Department of Education students in the eighth grade in Michigan are learning very little about sexual education, the side effects and things to keep them safe.  In fact from what the information given in the grade level content expectations they learn very little about safe sex, the side effects of unsafe sex such as pregnancy, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs).  One standard that Michigan does include in their health education expectations is that the student should be able to analyze situations which could put a person at an increased risk of HIV and STIs.  They barely cover these if they cover them at all because these are not exactly what Michigan teacher’s will put into their lesson plans.  The hope is that with the new standards introduced by the journal could really improve the health education standards in Michigan.

            Some of the new standards that seem especially important for young adults in eighth grade to learn are quite simple and may seem that they should already know them.  These standards include knowing the anatomy and physiology of both the female and male bodies.  This means knowing body parts and their functions.  Another standard that should be included is the fact that students should know difference between gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation (Journal of School Health, 17).  It seems that the new standard also gives students more options to look at.  They are also showing young adults that contraception is effective in preventing pregnancy, but that they have other options such as abstinence.

            In researching this topic I have learned many new things about Michigan standards for their health education expectations and some new standards that could be coming to a school near you.  Michigan’s standards, although lacking, are not the worst by far.  Their standards will not take much to improve to become the new standards of teaching for sexual education.  Overall the standards for sexual education are being revamped and it will not be long before they are changing in schools across the country.

Works Cited

"National Sexuality Education Standards: Core Content and Skills, K-12. A Special Publication of the Journal of School Health. Special Report." American School Health Association (2012). Print.

"SOM - Curriculum & Planning." SOM. Web. 24 Apr. 2012.            <http://www.michigan.gov/som/0,4669,7-192-29939_32383_32503---,00.html>.

-Augusta Schmidt