Theatre, Teens, and Sex Ed

 Since 1998, the play “Are We There Yet?” has been used in Canada to teach impressionable teenagers about sex. The reasons behind it are many; for starters, kids are having sex earlier than ever, and secondly, sex education in schools is often minimal. Some teenagers believe that you can’t get pregnant the first time you have intercourse, which we know is not true at all. Another problem is that if girls have sex before their organs are developed, they’re not going to get much pleasure out of it, and that can lead to unhealthy sex habits.

The authors stress that when teaching sex ed to kids, you need to both demystify the idea of sex, while at the same time removing the sensationalism of mass media. The average teenager girl looks nothing like the perfectly-figured women of TV shows, and real girls have acne, crooked teeth, messy hair, etc. Using the play AWTY, you can strip away the blockages of peer pressure, media, guilt, or cultural biases. One of the things the authors discuss as well is the high rates of teenage pregnancy and STD’s, including HIV, among aboriginal families. One interview subject describes how she grew up in a family where sex was a dirty topic, something you didn’t talk about. But she appreciated the way kids could go into the school gym and see a play about sex, in a way they could relate to.

In an age when internet porn is widely available, and children are being sexualized at an early age, it has become more important than ever to teach young people about sex. This book not only has great advice on using drama to teach kid about sex, it also comes with a CD to accompany the book. I would recommend this for educators who are implementing a high school sex ed program.