Using drama to teach sex education
Malcolm, D.
Network 14(2): 20
1993
ISSN/ISBN: 0270-3637 PMID: 12287147 Document Number: 336543
A description is provided of how drama is used as a tool in sex education in Calabar High School, Kingston, Jamaica. The message is that love between two people is a major ingredient in engaging in sexual activity and that consequences must be shared by couples. The drama club at the high school was stimulated by the teacher to discuss sexual issues. These discussions formed the basis for the sex education skit. The skit involves two education tutors, with different learning styles, and a class of curious boys. The first character is Mrs. Prim, who feels uncomfortable with the boy's terms for sex and the male sex organ. She leaves the class in disapproval. The replacement teacher has more tolerant sexual attitudes and understands the boys' concerns about sex and the male sex organ. She encourages the boys to use biological terms rather than colloquial ones. The boys are surprised at the boldness of the subject matter. The boys learn that having sexual feelings is normal and that self-control is important when sexual urges are felt. Parents usually take responsibility for urging abstention from sexual activity, but parents forget to explain why. The skit reveals that when information is absent, boys will seek out the answers among their peers and in sexually-oriented movies, magazines, and songs. Pressures build to experience sexual relations. When sexual abstinence is the only strategy for dealing with sexual urges, the issues become complicated. Premarital sexual behavior may be impossible to prevent. Teaching should include the practice of safe sex. The extent of premarital activity in Jamaica is estimated at 58% in males aged under 14 years.