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Health Education Class for Adolescents.

y I would start the course with a lecture on how decisions made in adolescence are critical andcan greatly impact the outcome of the rest of your life. I would provide specific examples of liferstories of people and the decisions made in adolescence and the outcome of the examples lives.

For example a yoiung person who dropped out of school and followed a path of drug andalcohol use, ended up living a life of crime and misery and went to prison. On the other hand, I would include a case about a young person who made good decisions and is now living anexciting life and making all of their goals and dreams come true because they were responsibleas young people. I would preferably use an example that is famous, like an athlete or musician,as young people will better relate to someone they admire. Adolescents want you to back upwhat you say, so I believe that providing proof that their decisions are important will set themup to listen more intently to the course content.

NUTRITION

Key points to discuss:

A healthy balanced diet is key to fuel the body for athletic development and enhanced performance inathletics (appeals to the young men)

Exercise is important to maintain a healthy mind and body-positive effects of exercise. Exercise is foreveryone, not just athletes, and is scalable to people of all skills and abilities.

Exercise is fun. Point out different nontraditional exercise techniques that may appeal to those who arenew to fitness or previously uninterested in exercise.

Make diet plans easy to follow. Instead of calories, discuss portion sizes (i.e., meat portions size shouldbe the size of your fist, etc.) Less complicated methods are easier to follow and kids are more likely tostick with it.

Possibly introduce kids to hands on fitness activities and teach them proper exercise techniques.

Last but not least, not as a downer, kids need proof. Showing them the negative outcome of a life of unhealthy living can make it more real and give some meaning to the lessons. An interview with apatient from a health documentary from someone who is dealing with some major disabling medicalproblems due to poor decisions in their nutrition and fitness would help them understand the realconsequences.

PREGNANCY/SEX/STDs

I would educate kids on resources such as Planned Parenthood and also educate them on the use of birth control.

I would stress that birth control is not fail proof and give some statistics on pregnancy while using birthcontrol.

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Education on each of the STD s

Signs, symptoms, short and long term effects, pictures, and statistics. Also I would include somemultimedia presentations on young people with STDs and unplanned pregnancies and the effect that ithas had on their lives.

I would not take a moral stance on Teen sexual activity, but I would stress that promiscuous sex isdangerous, at any age, and STDs and other problems are prejudiced in regards to race, age,Socioeconomic status or sexual orientation. Anyone who has casual sex puts themselves at great risk.

I would give statistics on how many teens are still virgins and attempt to dispel the myth that if you are avirgin you are any any way not cool . I would poissibly give a presentation on one of the mainstreamsecular adolescent student ran groupds that advocate sexual abstinence and help one another to resistpeer pressure and deal with criticism for their dercision to remain abstinent.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION

The main focus would be to emphasize that all that students should have respect and value the feelingsand emotions of ALL of their peers regardless of sexual orientation.

Give resources for the young people to talk to in confidence if they are having sexual identity issues.School counselors, national hotlines, etc. Make sure that the students feel that they have someone theycan approach without fear of embarrassment, ridicule, or harassment.

Teach kids that they can have differing beliefs about sexual orientation issues, but can still have platonicfriendships and work together to achieve common goals.

Watch age appropriate content (interviews, etc.) on Young people who have faced sexual discriminationand how it made them feel, and how they dealt with it.

Your sexual orientation does not limit your activities and interests. Being homosexual does not excludeyou from playing football, or being a cheerleader. Stereotypical boundaries such as this would beaddressed.

DEALING WITH COGNITIV E CHANGESIN ADOLESCENTS

Adolescents tend to live in the moment and think little about long term effects of decisions. It won thappen to me , or I m too young to worry about that are typical responses. By giving real life

examples of both good and bad decisions it helps put things in perspective in their minds and makesthem more real. Statistics are helpful. For example, have all the kids stand up. Apply the statisticalpercentages to the class. Apply the statistical percentages to the class size, 10 of out will be diabetic, 10sit down. 10 of you will have heart disease. So on, until very few are left standing. Kids can physicallysee how many people are affected by poor health choices. Fear is a powerful tool, but usedappropriately, and backed up with positive teaching and reinforcement can get through to adolescents.The kids are very much in the middle of the finding their identity and dealing with insecurities in their

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lives. I would do my best to make them feel they could freely search for that identity without fear of ridicule or persecution from others.

I would not include my own opinion on my perceived morality of things, what I believe in and what I feelis right and wrong. I would not talk about health and sexuality issues in religious contexts, except that

each person s own spiritual views are their own, and we should mutually respect each other s right tohave their own.