Health Educator Returns to CA
Writer and health educator Shafia Zaloom returns to CA (virtually) next Wednesday, January 13, to present to our Juniors and Seniors. I wrote a bit about her in my December 4 blog post, before she spoke to Freshmen and Sophomores, and now I can elaborate further, especially after seeing her effective presentation last month.
I was very impressed with Ms. Zaloom’s focus on relationships. She noted that the quality of one’s relationships will determine the quality of one’s life. As she says on her website, “My work may sound like it’s about consent. But in truth it’s really about love and connection.” I really appreciate that positive angle on these topics. After all, we are talking about essential life skills that go well beyond the usual “birds and the bees.”
Like many educators these days, Ms. Zaloom also relies on brain research when discussing these issues with young people. She points to neuroplasticity—the notion that all brains are moldable and constantly capable of re-organization—to underscore why people can change and adapt from experience. This is especially true for adolescents whose brains are still under construction. She wants teenagers to be wise decision makers and to understand that the choices they make today, and the habits they form, will lead to the kind of adults they will become.
Her messages to the older students will be suitably more mature and take into account the fact that more students at that age are sexually active and engaged in romantic relationships. The issue of consent is even more important for them, because they are going to be faced with those decision points more frequently. She emphasizes that communication is essential. Therefore, students need to have the spaces to discuss these topics and other matters that are relevant to them. Her main objective for Juniors and Seniors is to explain clearly what consent is. She will talk about ways to have healthy conversations about sex, and how to build a healthy relationship grounded in authentic connection, healthy boundaries and vulnerability, and effective communication. She will also be back in May to talk to the Senior class again during Launch Week to prepare them for healthy relationships in college.
With both groups of students, she also ventures into one of the more controversial issues, noting the ways that too many young people are learning about sex by watching porn, which proliferates on the internet. She encourages adolescents not to regard sex as a “performative” act the way it’s portrayed in porn, but to see it as one aspect of a healthy relationship. She worries that too much access to adult entertainment is shaping students’ ideas of sexuality. That is one of the major reasons that sex education remains an important component of health and wellness programing at good schools like CA.
For more on Shafia Zaloom, please visit her website: https://www.shafiazaloom.com/
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