Teaching Sexual Health Education

A Primer for New Teachers, A Refresher for Experienced Teachers

Download the Full Primer kit (PDF)

A Primer for New Teachers, A Refresher for Experienced Teachers is a comprehensive guide for teachers who are delivering sexual education information to students in high schools. You can download the entire kit in PDF format, or continue browsing the online version through our website using the navigation links on the right .

The primer will provide you on background information and relevant research on sexual health education that teachers should be aware of. Prepared for www.sexualityandu.ca by Douglas S. McCall, the Executive Director of the Canadian Association for School Health, this primer offers evidence-based better practices in sexual health education in a summarized format, and offers some practical advice for implementing each of those better practices.

You will also find several teacher tools such as Student Personal Health Journals, Student Question Box, student project evaluation rubrics and a sample letter to parents. Lastly, we present you the many web resources (quizzes, simulations, fact sheets), lesson plans and student webquests that are available on www.sexualityandu.ca.

Sexual health is one of the most important parts of the curriculum in junior high school, so these resources are all relevant for those grades. As young people mature and face decisions that may affect their health and wellbeing forever, they need to know, they need to understand and they need objective, reliable information from their teachers and others.

We have not covered some topics (such as HIV/AIDS, abortion/adoption, sexual orientation, gender equity) because those topics are well covered in other web sites. Our focus has been on sexual health topics that affect all kids such as puberty, relationships, contraception (including abstinence), sexually transmitted infections, social influences and other basic issues.

If you have any suggestions/comments on this resource, or would like to suggest or contribute a lesson plan or other resource, please contact us at info@sexualityandu.ca

Last Modified: July 31, 2007