Important advisory at school
The advisory lesson I wrote about sexual assault prevention and setting personal boundaries went very well. When I presented the lesson I'd written to the faculty last Friday it went very well and something like a dozen faculty members (or more!) told me that they thought it was really good, really important, and they were glad I'd put it together.
Yesterday was the day that the lesson was done with the students, and I got feedback from half a dozen teachers who said that things went well with their kids when they covered the material and that the kids were disappointed when the session ended and wanted more lessons like this that were truly relevant.
The students in my group were all kids I know well and were very receptive. They were uncomfortable at first, uncertain about the idea that assault issues touch EVERY one of their lives, whether they know it yet or not. They fell totally silent when I outed myself as someone who'd been physically assaulted in my home by a sibling and minorly molested by a preacher, that they DO already know someone, whether they know it or not. We talked about the stats from the one study that said that 51% of college guys say they'd rape if they thought they could get away with it, and my (majority male) group was visibly horrified. They were shocked when I told them that it was a common attitude that taking a girl out to dinner and a date and treating her nicely meant you'd EARNED sex, that many people do not understand that silence does not connote consent, that while no does mean no, ONLY yes means yes. They were just stunned that these weren't GIVENS to EVERYONE, and I got to tell them that this meant they in a position to speak out and be ambassadors and have these conversations with their friends and work toward further ongoing chnage (stats are already showing a decrease in assault since 1993, due, I believe, to the reduction in silence about issues of asssault. We talked about fraternities, sororities, kids shared their stories of people their families knew who had been drugged at parties...it went well and the kids THOUGHT and talked about a few of their concerns. I talked too much (as usual), but...I think it went well overall.
Then I had a couple of kids who had me for class last year ask me to interview me about my sexual orientation and how I feel it has impacted my life and my views; they have to interview several folks and get feedback. I just like that I'm able to talk openly to my students and they trust me enough to be comfortable/safe talking about sensitive subjects.
I'm really, really pleased and hope this was helpful to many.
Yesterday was the day that the lesson was done with the students, and I got feedback from half a dozen teachers who said that things went well with their kids when they covered the material and that the kids were disappointed when the session ended and wanted more lessons like this that were truly relevant.
The students in my group were all kids I know well and were very receptive. They were uncomfortable at first, uncertain about the idea that assault issues touch EVERY one of their lives, whether they know it yet or not. They fell totally silent when I outed myself as someone who'd been physically assaulted in my home by a sibling and minorly molested by a preacher, that they DO already know someone, whether they know it or not. We talked about the stats from the one study that said that 51% of college guys say they'd rape if they thought they could get away with it, and my (majority male) group was visibly horrified. They were shocked when I told them that it was a common attitude that taking a girl out to dinner and a date and treating her nicely meant you'd EARNED sex, that many people do not understand that silence does not connote consent, that while no does mean no, ONLY yes means yes. They were just stunned that these weren't GIVENS to EVERYONE, and I got to tell them that this meant they in a position to speak out and be ambassadors and have these conversations with their friends and work toward further ongoing chnage (stats are already showing a decrease in assault since 1993, due, I believe, to the reduction in silence about issues of asssault. We talked about fraternities, sororities, kids shared their stories of people their families knew who had been drugged at parties...it went well and the kids THOUGHT and talked about a few of their concerns. I talked too much (as usual), but...I think it went well overall.
Then I had a couple of kids who had me for class last year ask me to interview me about my sexual orientation and how I feel it has impacted my life and my views; they have to interview several folks and get feedback. I just like that I'm able to talk openly to my students and they trust me enough to be comfortable/safe talking about sensitive subjects.
I'm really, really pleased and hope this was helpful to many.