A cool story

Ok so I have a rule that I don't write about work on here in case I accidentally break some rule and end up in trouble but I really think you need to know this, and anyway the analytics of this blog show that it's just you, me, a couple of people in California and one person in Russia who I can only assume was bitterly disappointed with what they found here.

I have a cool story to tell you but you need a bit of background first:

I'm a form tutor as well as being a teacher and being a form tutor is a role that has its ups and downs. More specifically I am a sixth form tutor which means that I get to avoid some of the more irritating facets of the pre/early teen psyche but this comes at a price: I have to deal with often trickier facets of the late teen psyche. This is exacerbated by the fact that I'm not altogether sure how far ahead of 'late teen' I am (if at all) myself.

Some of my students have become involved in a scheme that aims to raise awareness of STIs in young people by allowing them to register and administrate Chlamydia self-screening tests. They basically distribute kits to allow young people to provide a urine sample which gets sent for analysis. The participants get to choose a free gift such as pants that have "Good, clean tackle" embroidered on them (seriously) and the testers get £5 per sample sent, the results are sent via SMS to the participant.

I think generally that this is a scheme that does real good (although I'm still not sold on the pants) but I'm always a bit torn when I think about it. On the one hand, anything that gets young people, the group statistically most at risk from contracting STIs, more involved in their own sexual health can't be too bad. On the other, there is a tendency for the young people, forgive me but mainly boys, to approach the whole thing with a bravado that is a bit unsettling; as though testing positive is a bit of a badge of honour.

The other thing, and this is what makes the story I'm going to tell you about last week so cool, is that it also acts to reinforce the message that sexual activity is what you should be aiming for by the time you are 16/17 years old. The act of asking for a kit tacitly implies that you are sexually active. This might not be a problem at all but I worry that we are reinforcing the idea that at a certain age you are supposed to be having sex. I'm a realist; I know that some people will have done and some people won't and I'm not judging either way. I'm just saying that we shouldn't let ourselves fall into the trap of imposing a 'norm' where relationships are concerned.

So ok, this week. There was general talk about the testing kits and a bit of an impromptu debate sprang up about sexual health in general and about the lads who had chosen to get tested. One of the testers made the point that without the test, people wouldn't know whether they were free from STIs or not. This was countered by a male student stating, pretty confidently, that some students know they are fine. The tester asked how and the boy says "because we're virgins" at which point he high-fived another student in the class.

There are lots of things about my job that I am irritated by but every now and then, you see a little human moment that makes you feel really good. Here we have two teenagers totally going against the flow of accepted, stereotypical assumptions about their age group and, it must be said, gender. They were not only happy to be frank about this most personal of subjects but felt it worthy of a high-five.

I don't want it to sound as though I'm advocating abstinence here because I'm not. I'm not saying that the decision to have sex or not have sex is easy. It's not, or at least it shouldn't be. If you are 16 and are in love and feel safe then I'm made up for you. What I'm saying that what we really need to be celebrating in young people is when they make reasoned decisions about their own lives and then are proud to be open about those decisions.

I hope you're having lovely weeks.

T

xxx