Powerful Choices : Series Two : Choose Awareness

Most teens choose to wait until marriage to have sexual activity

CHARACTER TRAIT:

Awareness is being aware of the facts that are important for one to have a healthy reality view of the world around oneself. Awareness is being mindful that the media (TV, radio, internet, movies, magazines and advertisements) may give the impression that everyone is having sex – sex sells. FACT: the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (2002) reported that the majority of teens are abstinent; 64% of youth, 7th—12th grade, reported that they have NOT experienced sexual intercourse. Your choice to be on the road of abstinence is the most popular choice. Abstinence is the expected standard for all school-aged youth for their maximum health, safety and future successes.

LESSON:

Through class activities and discussions students will receive the truth about sexual activity among their peers with medically accurate facts, statistics and research results. Students will discuss the psychological, emotional, social, financial, and educational consequences of sexual activity, and how their future children may be affected. Discussions will include the influences of the media and our culture that lead to believing the myth that sexual activity is the norm for most teens. The message “not everyone is having sex” is emphasized.

Students will:

• Define “awareness”
• Learn medically accurate definitions of sexual activity
• Realize that most U.S. teens are ABSTINENT
• Understand why teens have said they have chosen to remain abstinent until marriage;
• Understand why teens say they had sex for the first time
• Identify the physical, social, and emotional risks of being sexually active
• Demonstrate an understanding of how being sexually active affects current relationships and how it can result in pregnancy and bearing children whose future, along with that of the student’s, will most likely be jeopardized

Activities: (these include review of the previous lesson and this lesson’s poster)

• Play The Phrase That Pays, based on popular game shows
• Discover reasons why local, state and national teens chose to remain abstinent or to become involved in sexual activity.
• Assignments