Designed for 9th grade classes, this unit will be taught prior to and after AIDS Week. Population explosion is a massive problem. One solution is to act on the personal and individual level to ensure that there are no more "accidental" children - the result of unintended teen pregnancies. A major contributing factor to the high teen pregnancy rate in the U.S. when compared to other countries is the national schizophrenic attitude toward sexuality. By schizophrenic I mean the separation between what adults say about sex and sexuality and what they do. It is my contention that if society focused on raising sexually healthy adolescents, those adolescents would make choices about their sexual activity which would lead to a decrease in both the rates of unintended teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. The unit will raise adolescent awareness of the high incidence of teen pregnancy here compared to other developed countries. Students will analyze possible causes, contrasting national policies and practices toward sex education, access to family planning services, and media coverage. The unit will increase student understanding of humans as sexual beings from birth to death. It will define the components of effective sex education and the characteristics of sexually healthy adolescents.
