Teaching Safer Sex $99

Overview of Teaching Safer Sex

The third edition of Teaching Safer Sex is the most comprehensive educational resource published by the CSE. Winner of the AASECT Book Award given by the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists, Teaching Safer Sex includes 50 lessons in two volumes.

Goal
To help participants explore the many facets of safer sex and sexually transmitted infections, in order to support the health and well-being of themselves, their family, friends and acquaintances, and society at large.

Objectives
After participating in these lessons, participants will be able to:

Explain that the option not to engage in sexual behavior is a basic human right which an individual should be able to assert at any time in a relationship.

Describe the possible consequences of sexual intimacy, particularly when it involves vaginal, oral or anal intercourse, and describe the actions one can take to reduce the risk of unwanted consequences.

Express comfort, knowledge, attitudes and skills needed to practice safer sex if they decide to have intercourse.

Assess the risks involved in their own sexual behavior and set goals to make safer sex an integral part of their sexual lives.

Develop the capacity to work cooperatively with a partner to assume mutual responsibility for safer sex.

Speak up for actions that help protect the sexual health and well-being of others.

Volume 1

Section 1: Sexual Health: An Overview

DEFINING SEXUAL HEALTH
By Kirsten deFur, MPH
This lesson will allow participants to define sexual health, recognize its characteristics, and understand ways to improve and protect their sexual health.

SEXUAL HEALTH IN PRIME TIME
This lesson introduces characteristics that describe sexual health and has participants critically observe and evaluate these traits in their favorite television programs.

I FEEL GOOD!
Sexual Pleasure: Definitions and Values
By Kirsten deFur, MPH
This lesson will help participants explore the meaning and influence of pleasure by developing a Pleasure Mind Map and examining personal values in an Agree/Disagree game.

STI BINGO
STI Bingo is a game that allows youth to apply important information about sexually transmitted infections including modes of transmission, types of STIs, and relevant prevention techniques.

DON’T PASS IT ALONG!
This lesson dramatizes the rapid geometric progression possible in the spread of a sexually transmitted infection and encourages participants to think about the reasons why many people do not protect themselves. It uses incidence and prevalence charts to demonstrate the large number of people who are infectious and emphasizes the importance of honest assessment of one’s own risk.

THE ABCs OF HPV 
This lesson is designed to increase participants’ basic knowledge of HPV, so that they understand how it is transmitted, the effects it can have, and how to prevent it.

SAFER SEX
The Basics
Negative attitudes about sexuality, inaccurate information about sexual safety, and denial of one’s own risk can all contribute to individuals’ failure to protect themselves from contracting an STI. This lesson allows participants the opportunity to develop awareness of all three of these aspects of sexual safety and consider the impact of their behaviors on their future sexual health.

Section 2: Sexual Behaviors, Sexual Decisions

YOU’RE OUT, BASEBALL!
A Healthier, More Equitable, Satisfying and Safer Model for Sexual Activity
By Al Vernacchio, MSEd
This lesson raises awareness of the prevalence and power of the “baseball” model of sexual activity and offers an alternative model: the “pizza” model. Participants will think deliberately about which model would benefit them.

MASTURBATION
A Safe, but Touchy Subject
This lesson will help participants examine common attitudes and beliefs about masturbation in a non-threatening, nonjudgmental manner. It also allows them the opportunity to consider, perhaps for the first time, just how valuable masturbation can be as a safe form of sexual expression and pleasure.

MAKING SENSE OF ABSTINENCE
This lesson enables participants to come to terms with how they each define abstinence, their reasons for choosing or not choosing abstinence, how and when they will communicate with partners about their decisions and how they will commit to and carry out their sexual decisions.

ORAL SEX AND ABSTINENCE
Examining the Role of Intimacy in Sexual Decisions
By Nora Gelperin, MEd
This lesson will give participants an opportunity to explore and clarify their beliefs about oral sex and intimacy and how oral sex relates to decisions about abstinence and safer sex.

FIGURING OUT OUTERCOURSE 
In this lesson, participants evaluate outercourse as an important sexual option that may fit with a person’s definition of abstinence.

SECURING THE BACK DOOR 
A Guide to Safer Anal Sex
By Megan Andelloux
In this lesson, participants dispel common myths about the anus and anal sex, and learn the facts about anal anatomy, as well as sexual health and sexual safety.

SEX, DRUGS AND HEALTHY DECISIONS 
By Jennifer Reynolds Valerio and Doris Moran
This lesson will help teens understand basic facts about the relationship between drugs and sexuality, the impact of drugs on sexual decisions, and how to find help.

Section 3: Condoms: The Basics

THE CONDOM LINEUP 
By Carolyn Cooperman
The active involvement of participants in this lesson is designed to relieve their anxiety about using condoms by increasing their confidence in condoms as a reliable form of contraception and protection against sexually transmitted infections.

SIZING UP: CONDOM FIT 
By Melissa Keyes DiGioia
In this lesson, participants will discover the real-world variation in penile dimension and condom size and learn how to use an instrument to determine and order custom sized-to-fit condoms.

CHOOSING CONDOMS, CHOOSING LUBES 
In this lesson participants confront the issue of talking with a partner about condom use, and in addition, reflect on the impact negative attitudes may have on a couple’s ability to protect themselves. Participants examine and evaluate a variety of brands of condoms and personal lubricants and overcome common aversion to touching condoms.

THE PEOPLE PROBLEM 
When Condoms Don’t Work
Since most condom failures are, in fact, people failures, it is important to identify and address the reasons people at risk do not use condoms consistently and correctly. This lesson addresses some of the problems people have using condoms.

PERSONALS 
Portrait of a Successful Condom User
This lesson advocates an expansion of the definition of sexual attractiveness to include a person’s willingness to communicate about and practice safer sex.

YOUTH: CHOOSE PREVENTION! 
By Melissa Keyes DiGioia
This lesson will allow participants to identify ways youth can reduce their risk for STIs. They will consider and discuss reasons for choosing particular prevention techniques in specific situations, and develop suggestions for reducing the spread of STIs.

Section 4: Talking About Communication

SAY WHAT?!? 
Communicating About Safer Sex
By Allyson Sandak
This lesson will provide participants with an opportunity to develop comfort and skills around communicating assertively about safer sex.

TALK IS A FOUR-LETTER WORD: USE IT! 
This lesson seeks to alert participants to the issues surrounding communication about sex, and, through role-play, to normalize talking with a partner about sexual safety.

CONDOM TALK 
Practice Makes Perfect
By Louise Yohalem
This activity gives participants a chance to confront possible barriers to condom use and to respond to these barriers. After participants have had a chance to develop condom dialogue competence, they get to practice their skills and increase their condom efficacy.

IT TAKES TWO 
To Practice Safer Sex
This lesson helps participants assess the differences between their attitudes about how couples should behave and what actually happens in many relationships. It is designed to reveal inconsistencies between belief and behavior and to help participants find ways to overcome this critical problem when it occurs.

PRACTICING SAFE TEXT 
By Tammy Miller, MSEd
In this lesson, participants are invited to explore the potential benefits and consequences of using different form of technology including texting, social networking and gaming systems.

Volume 2

Section 1: Getting Into a (New) Groove

SENSUALLY SEXY SAFER SEX
By Melissa Keyes DiGioia
In this lesson, participants will examine the pleasurable aspects of condoms by exploring how new condom designs can stimulate the senses, and contribute to sexual pleasure and condom usage.

INCLUSIVE SAFER SEX
By Eli R. Green, MA, MEd
Framed within a risk-reduction model, this lesson plan focuses on the types of safer sex protection needed for various sex acts, rather than the identities of the people performing them, and provides examples specific to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) people to affirm related experiences.

SAFE AND SAVVY CONDOM USER
Teaching Condom Use to an Audience With Special Needs
By Lizbeth Cruz and Melissa Keyes DiGioia
This lesson is geared for moderate- to high-functioning individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Participants will practice visual and tactile skills designed to personalize behaviors that contribute to success when using condoms.

ABC EASY AS 123?
This lesson gives participants the opportunity to assess what the phrases abstain, be faithful, and use condoms mean in their own lives, and the attributes necessary to successfully follow each.

SOME DAY
Transitioning From Sexual Abstinence to Safer Sex
This lesson addresses the reality that most young people who practice sexual abstinence will stop doing so at some time in their lives, and helps prepare them for a healthy transition to intercourse whenever that might occur.

Section 2: Socio-Cultural Aspects of Safer Sex

STEREOTYPES AND SAFER SEX
Cultural Considerations for Addressing Risk for STIs
By Vivian Cortés, MPH
This lesson helps participants identify and become aware of possible stereotypes and/or beliefs that may be associated with one’s risk for sexually transmitted infections.

TO TELL THE TRUTH:
It’s Not Who You Are But What You Do
By Tina Robie and Anne Matsui
This lesson uses the old TV game “To Tell the Truth” to help participants see how assumptions we hold about people may hide the truth about a potential sexual partner.

THEY AIN’T WHAT THEY USED TO BE!
Historical and International Perspectives on Condoms and STI Prevention
This lesson emphasizes that today people can significantly reduce their risks for contracting a sexually transmitted infection and an unplanned pregnancy by using condoms consistently and correctly. After reviewing condom marketing in other countries, participants identify a strategy they believe would be successful for promoting condoms in the United States.

THE CONDOM GOES TO SCHOOL
Examining the Issues
This lesson is designed to help participants examine the controversial role of schools in promoting condoms through education and distribution, by reviewing the research and interviewing a sample of adults. It provides a model for studying any controversial issue by examining the facts, identifying the beliefs and values on different sides, and working out a personal position.

BE AFRAID! BE VERY AFRAID!
Examining Fear-Based Methods in STI Prevention
By Kirsten deFur, MPH
This lesson aims to help participants reflect on their own past fear-based learning experiences. They also critically examine a current example of a fear-based activity, so they can readily identify scare tactics and help others to do so as well.

IT TAKES A VILLAGE
Prevention Is Everybody’s Business
This lesson explores the idea that young people who do not practice safer sex are not the only ones responsible for transmission of infection. Parents, teachers and public officials who fail to educate young people about prevention hold responsibility as well.

Section 3: Taking Action

THE BIG IF
The risk continuum strategy used in this lesson helps participants overcome discomfort with sexual words, evaluate the relative risks of various behaviors, and compare modes of transmission.

MAYBE YOU SHOULD GO?
Encouraging People to Seek STI Testing
By Alison Whitehead
This lesson helps participants understand the importance of getting tested for STIs. Participants examine key facts about STI testing, and assess barriers to going to the doctor, while building personal comfort with skills for seeking health care, including seeking testing for STIs, when needed.

GET YOURSELF TESTED 
This lesson begins with a powerful exercise to help participants relate to the possibility of being exposed to HIV, before proceeding with key facts about HIV and AIDS. The lesson concludes with a review of the important steps needed for getting tested and seeking treatment, if needed.

DEALING WITH STIs
By Amelia Matlack Hamarman, MSEd, MS
This lesson uses an interactive, competitive game to teach participants facts about STIs that are relevant both for participants who have never had an STI as well as those who have previously had, or currently have, an STI. For participants who are dealing with an STI, increasing their knowledge can help them to better manage their own physical and emotional health.

Section 4: Safety in Relationships

REAL-LIFE DATING
Facing Up to STIs
By Amelia Matlack Hamarman, MSEd, MS
This lesson gives participants an opportunity to develop strategies that can help them to address, and reduce the spread of STIs in their own lives.

SAFER CYBER SEX
Exploring Online Relationships
By Jessica Shields, CHES®
The purpose of this lesson is to help adults feel more comfortable using the Internet responsibly to form relationships and access sexuality information.

WARNING SIGNALS
Recognizing Unhealthy, Unsafe Relationships
In this lesson participants examine some common warning signs and decide when and how they might end a relationship that signals trouble.

SEX: A DECISION FOR TWO
This lesson demonstrates how assumptions about the use of force to achieve intercourse, as well as miscommunication can lead to date rape. It provides strategies for addressing dating safety.

WHAT’S A FRIEND TO DO?
The Role of Friends in Promoting Safer Sex
This lesson encourages young people to consider whether a true friend needs to take a role in discouraging risky sexual behavior that could lead to a sexually transmitted infection or an unplanned pregnancy.

Section 5: Safer Sex and Beyond!

ALL TOGETHER NOW
Preventing Unplanned Pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Infections
This lesson helps teens assess their own risk for pregnancy and STIs, by stressing the importance of preventing both unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.

HOW COULD THAT BE?
A Lesson About Identity, Behavior, Perception and Risk
By Lis Maurer, MS and Maureen Kelly
This lesson provides an opportunity for participants to learn that lesbian, gay and bisexual youth may be at even greater risk for unplanned pregnancy than their heterosexual peers. This lesson also provides participants with an opportunity to assess their own risk and provides information to encourage behavior change to increase intentional and protective safer sex choices.

RETHINKING WITHDRAWAL
By Nicole Cushman, MPH and Anna K. Smith, MPH
This lesson aims to present accurate information about withdrawal and encourages participants to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of this method and its potential usage in their own lives.

MICROBICIDES
Peering Into the Future of Prevention
By Anne Brosowsky-Roth and Meghan Benson, MPH, CHES®
This lesson allows participants to learn more about microbicides, and how microbicides could compare to other methods of STI prevention.

SEX, SEX, EVERYWHERE!
Sexually Explicit Media and Teens
By Catherine H. M. Dukes, PhD and Rebecca Roberts, MEd
This lesson gives participants the opportunity to define sexually explicit media (SEM), identify myths and facts, and explore potential consequences of accessing SEM as a minor. This lesson also aims to help youth start conversations with parents about Internet safety, family values and beliefs about sexually explicit material, as well as open the lines of communication about other difficult topics.

Teaching Safer Sex Preview

Foreword for Teaching Safer Sex

By Peggy Brick

Historical Perspectives on Our Innovative Manuals
With the third edition of Teaching Safer Sex, the Center for [Sex] Education [(CSE)] continues its remarkable tradition of creating state-of-the art manuals that envision sexuality education that is responsive to realities of people, young and old, in contemporary society. It is impossible to measure the significance of this small cadre of educators in expanding the concept of sexuality education, of identifying the unique sexuality education needs of various populations, and encouraging educators around the nation to teach in ways that respect and empower their students.

The [CSE]’s leadership in providing resources that are exciting as well as sound in theory and practice began in 1982 with New Methods of Puberty Education by Carolyn Cooperman and Chuck Rhodes. It established our model of responding to the real issues that confront people in lessons that actively involve them in thinking, in finding solutions and in making responsible decisions. Still an inspiration for many educators, New Methods is ready for a revival; watch for it!

Then in 1986, Positive Images: A New Approach to Contraceptive Education created a whole new way of teaching about contraception. It challenged teaching that merely described each method and that evaluated students based on memorizing forgettable facts such as “Is the pill 99, 95 or 90 percent effective?” The new approach? We researched the reasons why people who have intercourse and do not want a pregnancy so often fail to use a contraceptive. Information-giving and fact-testing, common in most classes, did not address the primary problems. We designed our lessons to address negative attitudes about contraception and the people who use it, the need for partner communication, and the ability to buy or access contraceptive methods. Positive Images established the [CSE]’s philosophy: empower students by actively involving them in examining their feelings, attitudes, values and beliefs, and help them develop skills for taking responsibility for their sexual lives. With Positive Images we established another [CSE] tradition: facilitating professional workshops across the nation. Such workshops introduce thousands of educators to our theory and practice of sexuality education. Our approach embraces a philosophy that, as sex educator Deborah Roffman said, “focuses not only on the mechanics of prevention behaviors but on the crucial developmental, social, emotional, interpersonal, historical, and cultural forces that shape it.”

As we worked with a variety of communities, [CSE] educators continually discovered new possibilities for supporting educators. Workshops with child care centers lead to one of our proudest achievements Bodies, Birth and Babies: Sexuality Education in Early Childhood Programs, developed with the help of five early childhood educators, providing basic information and innovative workshop outlines. And as we presented workshops, we saw how uncomfortable teachers were with the topic. This led us to develop the Healthy Foundations series: two important books helping teachers respond to young children’s sexual questions and behaviors, and develop positive school and agency policies for children to learn about sexuality.

Next our educators who were working in agencies serving high-risk youth identified other populations needing programs that were sensitive to their difficult backgrounds and life experiences. In Streetwise to Sex-Wise: Sexuality Education for High-Risk Youth, Steve Brown created lessons that recognize the special sexual health issues for four populations: lesbian, gay and bisexual teens; survivors of child sexual abuse; youth who are themselves sexually abusive; and pregnant and parenting teens. Streetwise has become a vital resource for educators working in nontraditional settings with teens who often have limited academic skills and are resistant to classroom learning.

In the late 1990s, new research indicated that a large number of “adolescent pregnancies were fathered by men over 20.” “Imprison them!” was a popular response. But the [CSE] conducted research to better understand these relationships and explored ways to empower young women to avoid relationships that were damaging for them. The result was Unequal Partners: Teaching about Power and Consent in Adult Teen and Other Relationships, which addresses the need to promote equality in all relationships. Here’s a manual that is useful for educating people of all ages!

The board of directors of Planned Parenthood of Greater Northern New Jersey (PPGNNJ), and CEO, Jeff Brand, were courageous in supporting the development of a controversial and symbolically very important manual. In the Introduction to Educating about Abortion Brand articulates the [CSE]’s approach: Educating about Abortion, like so many of the other manuals created by our talented educators, is intended to fill a void in the curricular arsenal of family life educators [It] provides thought-provoking activities and gives accurate information in an attempt to empower students to examine their own beliefs and prepare themselves for making real-life decisions. The manual is built upon an examination of the most contemporary research, includes input from educators, and has field-tested lessons geared to involving students in thinking about both issues and their own behaviors. There it is: the basic approach of the [CSE]!

Keen insight into the politically charged world of adolescent sexuality led [CSE]’s inspired executive director, Bill Taverner, and veteran educator, Sue Montfort, to write Making Sense of Abstinence: Lessons for Comprehensive Sex Education. Full disclosure: I protested vigorously when I feared these two respected educators were succumbing to the demand to teach teens to “Just Say No!” But they didn’t! As sex educator Maggi Boyer said in her review, the authors did, in fact, make sense of abstinence by providing opportunities for adolescents to learn and practice the interpersonal and communication skills they need to make decisions about abstinence that are based on their values, and understanding of consequences, and the realities of cultural, media and peer pressure.

While Planned Parenthood Federation of America has endorsed people’s right to sexuality education throughout life, PPGNNJ is the affiliate that has implemented that vision by publishing Older, Wiser, Sexually Smarter: 30 Sex Ed Lessons for Adults Only. This manual, field tested in a variety of venues, acknowledges the profound need for people in mid- and later life to develop new expectations for their sexual lives. It provides the information and strategies that enable experienced and sensitive educators to facilitate life-changing sessions with older adults. Thus, the [CSE] has continued to provide leadership that expands the meaning of sexuality education to include people throughout the lifespan.

Welcoming a 50-Lesson Teaching Safer Sex!
Teaching Safer Sex may be the most important contribution the [CSE] has made to the pedagogy of sexuality education. It was 1988 when most HIV/AIDS education was about epidemiology and the function of T-cells that the [CSE] created its groundbreaking first edition of Teaching Safer Sex. Ten years later, many of the innovative strategies from that manual were classics in the field and had been incorporated into hundreds of curricula that aimed to develop the motivation, knowledge, comfort and skills essential for safer sex behaviors. It was time for a second edition, and The NEWTeaching Safer Sex aimed to expand the scope of safer sex education to include the social context of people’s sexual behavior. Paulo Freire’s ideas put forward in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed were important in the development of the new manual, which recognized that in a society so dangerously ambivalent about teaching its young people about their sexual safety, they needed to learn about the powerful societal, as well as personal, barriers to healthy sexual behavior. Twenty lessons were designed to promote critical consciousness about social messages as well to create a climate where communication about sexuality is normal and the use of safer sex is the expected behavior.

Now, almost 15 years later, it takes 50 lessons in two volumes to address the complex and changing world of sexual safety. The third edition of Teaching Safer Sex is awesome and it is a challenge! It requires educators to think seriously about the real needs of the people they teach and to decide which of this plethora of lessons will best help their students live a safe sexual life. In addition to now-classic lessons from the earlier editions, the third edition is greatly enhanced by lessons created by more than twenty educators with experiences from across the nation. Imaginative new lessons by the [CSE]’s unique team of educators expand the definition of sexual safety and address new technologies, relationships and other issues that have profoundly altered the sexual milieu. They have produced a truly comprehensive approach to safer sex education.

The comprehensive introductory section undergirds the entire manual by establishing “Principles for Sex Education,” Goals and Objectives for Safer Sex Education, and the process for “Creating a Supportive Environment.” Dedicated attention to these basics is essential for the success of every lesson. And, by wisely putting “How to Use Role-Play” up front, the editors have recognized the vital importance of role-play. Rehearsal of difficult, real-life situations that are identified by the students themselves may be the most powerful way to develop the insights and skills needed for safer sex. Every sexuality educator will be rewarded by developing the ability to facilitate role-play effectively.

Two new lessons, “Defining Sexual Health” and “Sexual Health in Prime Time” provide a solid foundation for other lessons. Other new lessons reveal the radical changes in the sexual environment of youth today by examining the technological world relevant to their lives. I wonder how educators can choose! Will their students learn about “Practicing Safe Text,” “Sex, Sex, Everywhere!: Sexually Explicit Media and Teens,” or “Safer Cyber Sex: Exploring Online Relationships”? Lucky are the students who experience all three!

New lessons such as “How Could That Be?: A Lesson About Identity, Behavior, Perception and Risk” reflect our growing awareness of the particular risks faced by lesbian, gay and bisexual youth. “Inclusive Safer Sex” goes further by focusing on various sex acts rather than the identities of people performing them and provides lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and intersex people with specific affirming examples. How fortunate the editors were able to engage the expertise of educators with such profound understanding of the unique educational needs of these populations.

New, too, is the inclusion of a lesson on “Teaching Condom Use to an Audience with Special Needs,” which targets moderate- to high-functioning individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. By validating their right to safer sex information, Teaching Safer Sex affirms people whose sexuality is often discounted or ignored.

The felicitous expansion of Teaching Safer Sex has required it to address a number of controversial topics. Educators must choose lessons wisely in order to provide as much education as possible, while remembering that not every lesson is appropriate for every audience. Remember, most important is to develop students’ critical consciousness and help them feel in control of their sexual lives, even if you are unable to use some of the most innovative lessons in Teaching Safer Sex.

So, what’s controversial? To start with, “Masturbation: A Safe, but Touchy Subject” a most important lesson validating a common behavior that leaves many people feeling guilty but advocating it got a U.S. Surgeon General fired. “Sensually Sexy Safer Sex” promoting the pleasurable aspects of condoms is another. Advocating pleasure? Many people prefer a fear-based approach to sexuality education as brilliantly examined in “Be Afraid! Be Very Afraid!: Examining Fear-Based Methods in STI Prevention.” “Rethinking Withdrawal” will also raise controversy by challenging the absolute denunciation of “pulling out.” Like many Teaching Safer Sex lessons, it provides accurate information and respects young people’s ability to understand that sexual decisions are complex and require thoughtful decision-making.

“Oral Sex and Abstinence” is one of my favorite lessons because it provides participants an opportunity to clarify their beliefs not only about oral sex but about the meaning of intimacy. It will provoke important discussions. Finally, “Securing the Back Door: A Guide to Safer Anal Sex” reveals the determination of these editors to include a lesson needed by some educators if they are to truly meet the safety needs of their students. I commend them.

But surely the most famous of these fifty lessons is the joyous “You’re Out, Baseball! A Healthier, More Equitable and Safer Model for Sexuality Activity” by Al Vernacchio, who was featured in the New York Times Magazine cover story, “Teaching Good Sex” on November 20, 2011. Vernacchio builds on concepts introduced by Deborah Roffman to challenge the popular “baseball” model of sexual behavior and thus exemplifies how the lessons of Teaching Safer Sex aim to help young people be critical of pervasive social attitudes that undermine their potential for sexual health.

Twenty-three years ago the original Teaching Safer Sex revolutionized the way educators teach about safer sex in the time of HIV/AIDS. Bill Taverner, Susan Milstein and Sue Montfort continue the tradition by creating a manual that responds to the present needs of varied educators, serving varied populations, with varied risks. Congratulations to the editors, to Triste Brooks, president and CEO of this Planned Parenthood affiliate, for her crucial support, and to the remarkable board of directors.

Their EASE (Ensuring Access to Sex Education) endowment fund has demonstrated the organization’s solid support for the CSE’s vital national leadership in sexuality education.

Endorsements for Teaching Safer Sex

“Teaching Safer Sex is a welcome collection of lessons that skillfully combine the fundamentals of safer sex education with the bold inclusion of relevant, timely, nuanced topics not found in existing teaching and learning materials. Thanks for filling the gaps in the conventional wisdom of contemporary, comprehensive safer sex education.”
Maria Bakaroudis, MA, CSE, PhD
International Sexuality Educator & United Nations Consultant

“A must have anthology of engaging lessons for sexual health educators! This latest edition of Teaching Safer Sex covers a broad spectrum of sexual health topics designed to have participants examine their own realities and beliefs about sex in a safe, nonjudgmental environment. Whether you are a new or seasoned educator, Teaching Safer Sex Volumes 1 & 2 include both classic and new lessons that are essential tools for your repertoire!”
Sonia Blackiston
Director of Education & Training with Planned Parenthood of Hawaii

“The third edition of Teaching Safer Sex hits it out of the park! Or, perhaps better said, it nourishes everyone! Educators hungry for fresh facts and facilitation techniques will find it all here. And learners hungry for creative, energetic activities won’t be disappointed. Teaching Safer Sex reminds us that our most important sexual organ is the brain!”
Kurt Conklin, MPH, MCHES®

“Teaching Safer Sex offers a wealth of creative lessons that can be implemented at little or no cost, with minimum prep time. It’s a gold mine for busy educators who are committed to high-quality instruction.”
Melanie Davis, PhD
HonestExchange.com

“Teaching Safer Sex is a must-have resource for sexual health educators. This is the first comprehensive manual to approach the topic of safer sex from a positive, healthy perspective that is inclusive of different ages, cultures, sexual orientations and identities. Its easy-to-follow format, and creative, theory- and research-based interactive lessons encourage critical thinking and skill development that help individuals make and enact the best decisions for their sexual health.”
Eva S. Goldfarb, PhD, LHD(hon)
Chairperson, Department of Health and Nutrition Sciences with Montclair State University

“Teaching Safer Sex is a valuable new resource for sexuality educators that are seeking dynamic, interactive lessons on cutting edge topics. The third edition includes tools for addressing online behavior, texting, and use of other digital media which are critical for today’s youth and missing from many curricula.”
Leslie M. Kantor, MPH

“Teaching Safer Sex puts a vast compilation of teaching strategies, tools, and lesson plans in one place and literally at the fingertips of educators of all kinds. Two innovative volumes tackle themes from the very basic to the complex classic favorites, new standards, and sophisticated explorations of rarely covered concepts. Versatile and comprehensive, Teaching Safer Sex does it all in an inclusive, clear, easy to use format.”
Lis Maurer, MS, CFLE, CSE
Director, The Center for LGBT Education & Outreach Services at Ithaca College

“I love these lessons! They are appropriate for the times, addressing a range of sexual awareness and skills that contribute to the education of both adolescents and adults.”
Konstance McCaffree, PhD, CSE, CFLE

“Teaching Safer Sex is full of great activities that are at once creative, thoughtful and fun! They tackle issues that many sex ed lessons do not, such as sexual identity, date rape, power dynamics, and the realities of anal sex and withdrawal as sexual practices. A must read!”
Pat Paluzzi, DrPH
President/CEO of Healthy Teen Network

“Teaching Safer Sex is the most comprehensive, in-depth and user-friendly sex education curriculum I’ve ever read and it is obviously written by fair-minded experts who inspire a great deal of trust.”
Loretta J. Ross, PhD(hon)
National Coordinator of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective

“The third edition of Teaching Safer Sex is a wonderful resource for sex educators: novice and experienced alike. Whether you work with young people or adults, these lessons will be a great addition to your sex ed toolkit.”
Elizabeth Boskey, PhD
STD.About.com