Teen Talk
Classroom Talk: School Based Programming for Middle & High School Students
Classroom Talk:
School Based Programming for Middle & High School Students
Talk’s school based model was developed and refined at Carnegie Mellon University’s Institute for Social Innovation in 2010. During the program’s development, we examined every approach to sex education curriculum that had a positive impact on teenagers. Then we interviewed parents and high school students from across the country to figure out what was missing.
Talk’s school based program leverages best practices while addressing the pitfalls and limitations of existing approaches.
The Classroom Model
Empower students with the information, skills, and support they need to make healthy decisions.
Our Middle & High School Programming is designed to:
Our Middle & High School Programming is designed
to:
Develop students’ critical thinking and decision-making capacities.
Provide a knowledge base, grounded in the latest science.
Develop the skills necessary to identify and access resources and support.
Encourage students to examine, question, and challenge peer and cultural norms.
Explore how gender norms affect perceptions, attitudes, and behavior.
Help students clarify their own beliefs and values separate from culture, media, and their peers.
The Goals of the Programming are to:
Foster an ongoing dialogue and develop an understanding of what it means to be a healthy person, both emotionally and physically.
Help students develop the skills they need to identify, cultivate, and maintain healthy relationships.
Provide frameworks for enhanced decision-making and strategies for effective communication.
Impactful Outcomes
Teens who complete the program say the content is relevant to their experience and better prepares them to face the realities of teenage life:
They feel comfortable talking with their parents about issues related to sex and sexuality.
They feel comfortable talking with prospective partners about their previous sexual history.
They wouldn’t have sex unless their partner had been tested for STIs.
They wouldn’t consider having intercourse unless they were prepared with two reliable forms of birth control.
They think that all women are worthy of respect.
Participants consistently rate their satisfaction with Talk’s programming an order of magnitude higher than the sex ed they received previously.
Participants consistently rate their satisfaction with Talk’s programming an order of magnitude higher than the sex ed they received previously.