I’m Camille Everett. I became a teacher because I wanted kids’ questions answered openly and honestly. But I soon found out there was another influential teacher, and kids these days keep that teacher in their pocket.
It’s a booming source of loud, stimulating and curiosity-satisfying information, and our kids are drawn to it. They have questions and entertainment media is handing out answers — LOTS of answers. Answers to questions kids didn’t even know they had yet.
The truth is it’s where our kids go when no one is answering. And families aren’t talking about it.
%
of high school students have had sex.
%
of middle school students have had sex.
%
of elementary students had sex before age 11.
Source
Youth Risk Behavior Survey 2017 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
I’ve had students give me notes about pregnancy tests and relationships with older partners. I’ve listened during after school and lunch time chats as students talked to me about parents that were too often unavailable to talk or didn’t appear to care. This was the exact opposite of what I wanted for them. Was ANYONE at home talking to them about these choices?
I believe the answer is YES because most teens want to talk about sexuality with their parents.
87% of teens agree open and honest conversation with parents would help them postpone sexual activity.
- 87%
52% of teens age 12-15 agree their parents most influence their decisions about sex.
- 52%
And 73% of teens agree commenting on sexual messages in media can start the conversation.
- 73%
Source
Power to Decide (formerly The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy).
Kids wanted me to help them understand what information to believe and why. They wanted me to bring insight to what’s good and bad, smart and foolish, healthy and unhealthy — their personal values for happiness. And kids wanted me to create opportunities for authentic conversation.
Kids felt parents weren’t listening. Did their parents know this?
I wanted parents to know how to talk to kids ages 4-14 about bodies, love and sexuality before they got this information from somewhere else.
Even though I had a degree in health education, I used to bite my lip and glance in the rearview mirror to see my kids’ reactions whenever sexual topics were mentioned on the radio. Now my kids know we’ll talk about it, and our conversations include THEM telling ME the type of person they want to be and what choices will get them there.
want kids to see messages that build character, not exploit it.
refuse to let self-destructive sexuality be masked as self-love.
aim to prepare kids to understand how puberty changes everything.
uphold the truth that sexuality does not define self-worth.
expect important questions to be answered through the lens of individual family values.
believe parents should be the go-to sexuality educators, not the internet and not friends.
understand that real relationships are built on key qualities.
93% of adults think young people should have a trusted grown-up to talk to about sexual information.
- 93%
And yet, only 27% of teen girls age 13-16 say their parents are their source for romantic information.
- 27%
Source
Power to Decide (formerly The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy).
