We
at Sahas have been working on the issues of gender, sexuality and reproductive
health with the adolescents for more than 3 years now; from many conversations,
engagement and sharing, it is evident that students see their teachers as
trusted adults, as someone with whom they can ask any questions, share their
personal dilemmas, problems and seek support. Also, it is equally important to
understand that the students spend most of their time either in school or in
home environment, so the teachers bound to have lot of influence over the
students – their mindset, thoughts or how they behave affect students not just
academically but also their life in broad sense.
We
have been in long term collaboration with Government school, Dwarka to
implement our adolescent program, however we never really got an opportunity to
interact with teachers of the school. With Covid-19, we designed an
introductory workshop for teachers and educators on sexuality education
inviting them to learn, unlearn, engage and understand the need of sexuality
education for students. It is our great pleasure that teachers from Government
school, educators from NGOs joined us for this session.
The
session began with our introduction, work at Sahas and intention for the next
hour briefly following which we invited participants to introduce themselves.
When
asked about what brings them to this session, one of them shared, “I was
interested to engage on a discussion as to whether or how to bring sex
education in sexuality education. To figure out plans, suggestions or theories
to engage on this topic.”
“Sexuality
education is very important and equally tabooed. You people are from a NGO, you
have more information and knowledge on this topic. We teachers work in typical
environment, have very limited knowledge and ways to talk about this issue. You
people visit different places, interact with different people and have diverse
target groups which enhances your knowledge. I was interesting in learning and
gaining more knowledge on sexuality education”
For
me, it was a huge Ahhha moment for me when one of the teachers shared about our
session with the entire school on Child sexual abuse last year that motivated
him to participate in this workshop. There was genuine curiosity to learn and
use this knowledge to support students.
In
the next part of the session, participants were invited to share any incident
or conversation or something they saw their students doing in school that made
them uncomfortable or seemed questionable to them. I wasn’t very sure as to
whether the teachers would be willing to share something around them but they surprised
me! One of the teachers shared that one of the girls came to him and said that
she is ill and want to go home. He didn’t know how to address that but was
aware what she was going through so he recommended Principal to approve her
leave. Here the Principal refused to let her go with her relative and said only
if her parents come, meet her and she could identify them then only she would
be allowed to go. With us hinting or asking, gender popped up here as even
though the teacher wished to help the girl but couldn’t because gender barrier
and lack of right language while Principal being of same gender seemed
insensitive and unhelpful to the need of the child.
Another
educator shared that in his class, one of the boys who was very shy and remain
to himself was asked by another student to suck his penis. This shocked him and
he didn’t know what to do with this, how in the world such young kids are engaging
in this kind of behavior. So, when the parents came in, he had no choice but to
talk to the parents of other child. He believes that if he had some idea he
could have dealt the situation in some other way.
One
of the other participants talked about how different is this discourse with
boys and girls. Boys are more eager, they start exploring things pretty early
and usage of abuse in their language is like a new norm while girls mostly
struggle with stigma, shame and discrimination around periods.
Building
on above, we created a discourse on need of sexuality education, changing
perspective on how to engage with students with more sensitivity and normalizing
these topics so that students can come to teachers, talk about it, ask
questions and can make more rational life choices.
Before
any of the facilitators could bring out how even Science teachers shy away from
teaching reproduction system which is there itself in the text books, one of
the participants pointed out that Sex education has been frowned upon since
ever because people including from teacher community believe that it is not
something that should be taught because it damages and corrupts our society.
Though younger generation is bringing a fresh breeze of mindset around it but
it is still in nascent stages. It is really sad that even today biology
teachers refrain from teaching reproduction because it involves talking about
private organs and sex. Whatever work is being done in recent times is not
enough, more trainings, more sensitization is needed if we have to build better
generation. He also pointed out how the study material is obsolete,
insufficient and need revision as per new discourse.
While
other educator believes that the discourse on sexuality education must begin
from early stages, it should be taught just like any other subject so that this
conversation doesn’t erupt abruptly but is normalized.
It
was then the group engaged on why these chapters are skipped or not taught in
classrooms. One of the young person who was participating in this discussion
pointed out how she was always good in biology, studied reproductive system,
understood it and got great marks too but it wasn’t until her graduation that
she realized that whatever she learnt was just superficial, there is no practicality
to it. So she was clueless about sex, love and everything around it. She also
shared that she was aware that other students used to laugh about, crack jokes,
had awkward behavior around these topics especially when it comes to
conversations around boyfriend, girlfriend or reproduction but she never really
understood the fuss around it as for her it was just another chapter.
While
we shared tools, activities around sexuality education through we engage with
adolescents, a very question came up. The question was – it’s good that
students understand these stuff but did any parent or teacher came to you and
asked you what the hell are you teaching my child? What are the challenges that
you faced.
I
am not fazed by this question, it’s as if this question is part of our identity
because we work in India on the most tabooed topic so if we don’t face
challenges or questioned about why are we doing this? Then maybe we are not
really hitting the note.
There
was an interesting suggestion – one of the teachers shared that just like we
have helpline numbers for reporting cases of CSA and violence against women,
there should be helpline or a phone line that could answer curiosities,
questions and doubts around physical changes or sex!
I
was stumped with the openness, vulnerability, curiosity and genuine intention
of teachers and it made me really happy that there are teachers who really wish
to change the narrative of sexuality education in the current education
scenario.
Taking
forward the discussion, we invited teachers to think about how they can use
their subject knowledge to engage on the topics around sexuality education. It
is unbelievable that teachers actually came out with diverse ideas in just an
hour of conversation.
“Drawing
is not just an art but a tool…a tool that could be a language, an instrument of
social change. Students love to draw, and have fun. Most of the time, I ask
them to draw something but they draw erotica. I am sure I can use drawing to
talk about any topic around sexuality. ”
No comments:
Post a Comment