Media Literacy

The number of school-based health centers has significantly increased. They provide an important source of counseling and medical care for low-income and uninsured young people. Although conservatives have attacked such clinics as interfering in the parents’ role, the authors of the present chapter believe that it is better to not have 11- to 14-year-old girls getting pregnant and encountering sexually transmitted diseases. We prefer that young women grow beyond 16 before having children. To make it through adolescence without birthing children requires that young women and men clarify their own views on sex and sexuality and that they be taught adult decision-making skills.

Many online resources provide rich and age-appropriate information to use for classroom discussions on gender issues. Ms. magazine is one source that is at the forefront of exposing media stereotypes and helping young people learn about issues that affect women everywhere. Girlzone at www. girlzone. com is a lively resource where teachers can access girl-centered information on topics such as college, careers, health-related issues, sports participation, and summer reading lists. In addition, girls can read about how the world views and defines women and girls. This site provides a bulletin board where questions are posted and young people are able to express their views on issues. The site also provides opportunities for teens to post messages on topics that are important to them, and the staff has committed to respond to all girls’ inquiries and questions. Teachers can construct classroom bulletin boards encouraging students to anonymously post their ideas about issues. This sharing can then be used as a springboard for weekly discussions on contemporary topics.

Adolescence is a time of high risk. Peer pressure to participate in sexual relationships at a young age has grown significantly in the last 20 years. Young women need self-confidence and support from others to protect themselves from the peer pressure and the sexual harassment they encounter in school (Rotheram-Borus, Dopkins, Sabate, & Lightfoot, 1996).

When questioned, young women report that the peer pressure to engage in sex by both boys and girls, and their own desire to love someone and to be loved, leads to sexual behavior and pregnancy (Hechinger, 1992; Pipher, 1994). Early pregnancy and childbirth lead many to leave school and face subsequent lifelong poverty. For some, early pregnancy is an introduction to a life of abuse and behavioral problems that are then passed on to their children (Children’s Defense Fund, 2001).

Not all young people become interested in sex at age 11, or 12, or 14, or even 16. Interest in sex is a result of a complex series of social, psychological, biological, and cultural events. In our society, television, magazines, and movies regularly define being female as to “grow up” fast, to have breasts, to have a boyfriend, and to become sexually active. Many young people are pressured to be sexual—and to be sexually active—while they would still prefer the safety of early adolescence (Kilbourne, 1999; Pipher, 1994). Girls and boys, particularly in middle schools, deserve the support of empathetic teachers, counselors, and parents in their times of changing identities (Children’s Defense Fund, 2001; Valenzuela, 1999).

Sexual behavior, particularly by the very young, has severe consequences (Pipher, 1994). Sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise. AIDS due to unprotected sex and drug abuse presents a serious crisis. Sexual education could be included in several areas of the curriculum, including literature, science, health education, and social studies. English literature classes, for example, could use stories or poems dealing with teenage sexuality. Role-playing peer pressure and writing journal entries can further explore these themes.