Teenagers are creative, visionary, engaged. They are immersed in the passion of discovery of life. They have a driving need to understand life in a way that is real and visceral. They want to find the wrongs and right them. Teenagers are like a mirror, reflecting adults and our culture, […]
#SexEdSaturday is a series where Jessica Smarr answers anonymous questions received in Unhushed classes. As a teenager, I had at least five turtleneck sweaters, one very embarrassing CD collection, and exactly two sweaty, smelly feet. I mean, they were bad. So bad, in fact, that they once stunk up an […]
I was reviewing my lesson plan and prepping my supplies on Sunday night when I first saw people posting #metoo on Facebook and Twitter in response to Alyssa Milano’s tweet:
As humans we communicate in many different ways and as technology changes our communication pathways will expand and become easier but complicated at the same time. What do I mean by that? With the rise of texting and social media it lessens the need for a key component to communication: […]
In the spring of 2009, I was a junior in high school and cable news anchors were warning parents about the dangers of sexting. For me, this was just another tech threat that my parents didn’t need to worry about, though they probably still would. The internet and I grew […]
In a world with flexible gender and sexual identities, what’s a parent to do? I’ve been asked about sleepovers through two channels in the last few days, so it seemed the right time to finally write a post about it. This question comes up all the time – first in […]
There is a meme running around Facebook and the Internet generally this week that is titled something along the lines of “What your teenager needs to hear” or “Message to my teenager” or something similar. The author is listed as “unknown.” I hate this list. So I’m going to break […]
Yesterday in my middle school class we talked about sexual harassment. The students had a general notion of these as bad things, but little in the way of details. The problem is generally that people misconstrue sexual harassment with sexual assault. They don’t realize that harassment can be verbal, can […]
Parent/teen relationships are often strained – often because parents and teenagers are just unsure how to say what they need from each other. Sometimes they don’t even know themselves. So why not say it with cardboard? [framed_video column=”full-width”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1_mzacPIyc&feature=youtu.be[/framed_video]