'SUP AT SCHOOL

Teens say: Get it through your head...we need more sex-ed!

"You gon’ think I invented sex.”

That is one of the lines in hot R&B singer Trey Songz’s recent single, “Invented Sex.” The song is very bold and out there, helping make having sex even more the It thing to do for youth.

“There are many messages about sex that youth are seeing daily and talking about now at younger ages,” says nurse practitioner Jane Tuitt of the Codman Square Health Center.

According to the 2009 Boston High School Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 54% of Boston Public Schools students have had sexual intercourse, but only 39% used a condom during their most recent time. This means that many youth are not protecting themselves enough.

Among the reasons: “My boyfriend doesn’t like them.” “I don’t like the way they feel.” “They make me itch.” “I’m allergic.”

Another reason, some teens say, is that they are not getting enough sex-ed, or that they simply do not know who to go to for information and advice. Most Boston teens interviewed said they have only had sex education between grades 6 and 10, and that it just wasn’t enough. One student said that from middle school until the ninth grade, she did not receive any sex-ed at all.

To help tackle this problem, this year BPS kicked off a comprehensive sex-education curriculum known as Get Real. The program, which teaches everything from self-awareness to responsible decision-making skills, is in 19 middle schools, and aims to introduce sex-ed to kids at a younger age. “Some children are going to through puberty early, which means they need education earlier,” says Barbara Huscher Cohen, a health-education specialist at BPS.

One thing for sure is the importance of getting your annual checkups. For the STI chlamydia, 75 percent of infected women show no symptoms, according to the federal government. So if you’re not getting checked out, you could be giving your partner an STI and not even know it.

Some teens think the best way to avoid problems is to just not have sex at all until marriage.

“One of the reasons it’s good to be a virgin is because...you don’t have to worry about pregnancy or getting an STI or STD,” says Gaelle Pierre, 18, of the Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers.

Waiting until your wedding night to have sex may be the safest method, but there are many others, including male and female condoms. So, before you lay in that bed, use your head and remember to protect yourself.

photo by Rich Philippe // Artists for Humanity

AP in the H-u-b

What if you could choose classes in school that you wanted to take, and get college credit if you passed them? Sounds interesting, right, but are you aware these classes even exist? If not, you’ve probably never heard of Advanced Placement courses, AP for short.

Until recently, many Boston Public Schools students could not take AP courses. But that is changing: According to BPS, the number of juniors and seniors enrolled in AP jumped from 1,582 five years ago to 2,304 today.

Now, thanks to a $2.4 million federal grant, BPS hopes to expand the reach of AP even further, city officials recently announced at the John D. O’Bryant School of Math & Science.

Nigel Robinson, 17, a student at the O’Bryant, said at the school’s October assembly that he believes AP helped him a lot. “[I’ve] learned what it takes to challenge yourself,” he said.

Students who pass an AP exam in high school are three times more likely to complete college, officials said. To encourage that, some students can earn privately-funded cash bonuses for passing AP tests

But don’t get confused. AP classes are tough. “AP classes push students to work harder than they ever have before,” Michelle Boyle, an AP English teacher at English High School in Jamaica Plain, said at the O’Bryant event.

The O’Bryant is one school that offers AP on campus. But, for example, this can’t be said for Fenway High School, according to Melissa Duggan, spokeswoman for BPS. However, through Emmanuel College, Fenway students can take advanced courses there.

The federal money is expected to support work in 32 high schools and 14 middle/K-8 schools -- a good sign for BPS kids who want to go to the best colleges in the U.S.

As Mayor Tom Menino said at the O’Bryant: “These are very valuable days to you. Don’t waste them.”

The ABCs of AP

• BPS today offers 136 AP classes, a 37% increase from 2004-2005, when there were only 99.

• BPS high schools have AP courses in 28 subjects.

• Over the past several years, BPS has trained 281 teachers, headmasters, and guidance counselors in AP instruction and placement through the College Board Institute.

-- Roxanne Taylor

Source: BPS

BSAC BUZZ

This year in BSAC (Boston Student Advisory Council), we are working on three main projects. They are: teacher-to-student constructive feedback, student involvement in teacher hiring, and the BPS homework policy. I’ve talked about all of these projects and more in previous articles, but in this issue I would like to focus on homework.

What is homework? The dictionary definition for homework is “preparatory school work done outside school (especially at home).” That being said, homework is to prepare you for school work that is being done in your classes. This is a time when you are able to take the work home from class, and review the lessons you learned in school in a quiet environment. Homework is not supposed to be a test. It is when you are allowed to make mistakes, and learn from them to do better on the tests and quizzes.

We feel that homework should not be graded on whether the answers are right or wrong, but on the amount of effort you put in. For example, have you ever spent hours on a couple of problems in your math homework, and gotten a zero for a grade because you weren’t sure how to use the formula? This is not fair to the student. Homework is an assessment to see where you are in your learning.

Another problem BSAC is working on with school officials is to make sure the homework being given is not just busy work, but allows the student to actually be thinking. In every homework assignment, we believe critical thinking should be involved. This allows students to learn and use their brains on a different level. For example, has your teacher ever given you homework that has nothing to do with the lessons that were done in class that day? How are you supposed to know what to do and how to go about the problem if you have never seen anything like it before?

Also, each subject (not including Advanced Placement or Honors) should only take you about 30 minutes to an hour. I don’t understand why one teacher will tell you to read five chapters and have an outline summary on each due in class the next day, knowing she is not your only teacher, and that it will take you hours to complete the assignment.

Lastly, BSAC believes that homework shouldn’t count for more than 20 percent of your grade -- except for longer research projects. As high school students, we all know that there aren’t enough hours in the day to do all your homework, go to extracurricular activities and sport practices, and still find time to eat, sleep, and breathe!

If you are interested in joining BSAC or getting more information about our work, please contact Maria I. Ortiz at mortiz@boston.k12.ma.us or at 617-635-8079 ext 104.