It’s the last class of the day Friday at Community High School, but instead of a lot of fidgeting and clock-watching, 24 teenagers are engaged in a spirited discussion about sex and “sexting” with a lawyer and a former journalist.
It is a five-year-old course that aims to prepare students to “talk about social issues at a cocktail party with their boss,” according to Jason O’Brien, a co-teacher of the class at Community, a charter school in Milwaukee.
Students have a lot of questions for their professional visitors: Why is sexting, or sending sexually explicit photos of oneself over a mobile phone, a crime? Why shouldn’t adults face charges as well if they take and send similar nude material of themselves to their peers?
It’s a big diversion from your typical lecture environment, but O’Brien and co-teacher Roxane Mayeur believe in the value of exposing kids to multiple viewpoints on various topics through debate, essay writing and discussions with local experts.