In early April, Danny Mejia, our program director, and three members of our Youth Advisory Council participated in the Maine Family Planning Sex Ed. Conference. We presented a 75-minute workshop entitled “How Do Gender Stereotypes Affect the Way We Teach Sex Ed?”
We presented a version of our “toy activity” to start people thinking about gender stereotypes. We then had folks talk about how the lessons learned in the toy activity affect the way they teach sex ed. Afterwards, the youth council members described what they would have changed about their sex ed experiences; they also recommended youth-centered best practices to dispel gender stereotypes.
We enjoyed the opportunity both to use parts of our curriculum in a new way and to include youth voice in a presentation. Thank you to Maine Family Planning for the invitation!
Photo by Kristina Paukshtite: https://www.pexels.com/photo/pink-cherry-blossoms-701816/