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Samantha Etzler

Why Pre-service Teachers Need to Address Discourse of Health and Healthy choices

Dear Administration of Clearwater Schools,

Thank you, for taking the time out of your busy schedule to read this letter as to why

pre-service teachers need to address the discourse of health and healthy choices within the

classroom. This discourse is part of the conversation of sex education. According to Sharron

Lamb, discourse of health and healthy choices means that, “This discourse focuses on choices

that individuals make that purportedly interfere with their health and suggests that certain

choices reflect moral failings (2013, p.453).” When reflecting on my school career sex education

was first introduced to me when I was in middle school and then once I had hit high school it

was never talked about again. The only lesson that was taught through this class was that

abstinence was the only way of living until you are married. But in reality there was many

aspects of sex education that should have been talked about. What should have been talked about

as students continued on in our education was those different aspects. Because as they continue

on in their education and lives they will be more aware of the parts of life that have been talked

about. Students are left in the dark about gender and sexuality due to the lack of teaching. For

example the difference in what makes something masucline or what makes something feminine.

That topic is brought up when discussing social constructivism. Social constructivism is the

notion of what makes masculine and feminine. This topic should also be talked about in classes

so students can understand fully how most of society see’s the roles of both genders. Gender and

sexuality are a big part of how students identify themselves and when they are able to gain a

better understanding of what each word means earlier in their school careers then they are able to

fully start to understand themselves. The discourse of health and healthy choices assumes that
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individuals who are given enough information have the capability and obligation to ensure their

own health. As a pre-service teacher, they need to address the discourse of health and healthy

choices in sex education in order to address the issues of gender and sexuality in the classroom.

First, I would like to explain the purpose of education in a democracy and why sex

education is needed to realize that purpose. As a whole, education creates hard working people

who once they are done with their schooling are able to go directly into the workforce and who

are able to make choices that will benefit everyone in the democracy. As you already know,

democracy is run by the people. So when these people are properly educated then they are able to

run the government to the best of their ability. To a democracy, the citizens that come out of

schools with the knowledge they have gained are able to keep it functioning like a democracy

should function. Sex education is needed to keep a democracy running because of the gender

roles that are put into place in it by society. In order for students to truly understand the gender

roles or the roles of a certain group of people in a democracy they must understand masculinity

and femininity. That's where social constructivism comes in and the discourse of health and

healthy choices too. As pre-service teachers start to explain social constructivism, students then

gain the information they need to either continue to work in the gender roles that are assigned or

they can make the choice to change the roles to make everything equal between genders.

Students are also able to look at the health benefits from working in the environments that are

provided to them. If the environment wouldn’t be good for them because they would be judged

by their sexuality or by their gender then they are able to recognized that becuse they were able

to learn about the health and healthy choices aspect of sex education. A democracy has a

hierarchy in social class and students should be able to work in a healthy environment where

they don’t have to worry about that hierarchy. The students should also understand enough
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information to make choices on their own if it has something to do with their mental health

decreasing due to being treated in a way that is negative. Because in this hierarchy men are

usually above women when it comes to gender. This is the part that pre-service teachers need to

talk about. That gender sometimes has negative effects on the health of the students. So by

understanding that students have the choice to do what is right for them in that moment then they

should listen to how they are doing mentally. On page 105 of the article titled Good Girls It

states, “This homogeneity, though a limitation, allowed us to isolate ways that social class

shaped women’s positions on campus and moral boundaries they drew with respect to sexuality

and gender presentation” (Armstrong 2017). Researchers were able to see how different social

classes shaped women’s positions and they were able to see how different their lives were and

how they had respect for sexuality and gender. Having students understand this then they are able

to go into the world with a thought of how they either want to contribute to their society or how

they want to change it to make it equal for everyone. By having this background knowledge

given to students by the pre-service teachers, students are able to look at the world through a new

perspective and are able to change it in any way they are able to. They are able to change the

world to help benefit the health and the healthy choices that others make.

Next, the problem with how the United States is teaching sex education today is that the

only teach about the changes of the bodies and how abstinece is the way to live until you are

married. When really alongside teaching about the bodies, the different sexualities should be

introduced. On page 454 of Lambs (2013) article it states, “Practically speaking, such a focus

renders unimportant the ways in which the school system and the political system participate in

censorship, vigilantism regarding low-income students and girls of color, silences about lesbian,

gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and questioning students, and other problems.” When
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students are being taught about a topic that is usually censored then that allows them to

understand a lot earlier on about what everything means. Schools choose to censor this type of

information just because it is out of the “norm” for them and that this type of conversation was

never had with them, so they are making the choice for the students themselves to sort of shelter

them from this information. By taking away their choice to understand this information they are

becoming behind and they are missing out on learning valuable information that will help them

shape how they see the world in the future. But by getting rid of the censorship that gives

students a chance to gain a better understanding of how they might be feeling at the moment

about themselves and others around them. Because there might be a chance that a student is

confused about why they are attracted to a certain person when it has been trained in their heads

that straight is the norm and there is no other way to live. By having that extra explaination early

on in their sex education they are able to make a decision and determine how they want to

identify themselves. Students must understand that there are other ways than just abstinence to

not get pregnant. That information should also be taught and students should be given the choice

of what way they are comfortable with and be able to choose how they want to prevent having

children. With the knowledge of the discourse of health and healthy choices also being taught to

them, students are able to know that they have the choice to do what they want and they get to

choose what they think is the healthiest choice for them. If abstinence is the best choice for them

then that's their choice but if they choose to use any other different form of birth control than that

is their choice and whatever they choose is ok. Pre-service teachers need to allow their students

to choose what they want to do and what they are comfortable with when it comes to being

sexualty active and even when it comes to their own sexuality. Teachers can just force their

students to stick to the “norm” of being straight; they have to let their students learn and decide
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what they are most comfortable identifying themselves with. So part of sex education should

include lessons on sexuality and gender to let the students start to begin forming their own sense

of idenity.

Overall, gender and sexuality are used to identify many of the students in a classroom. If

students know that their teachers understand how important that part of their identity is to them

they feel more comfortable and are able to fully understand the information. How a student

chooses to identify themselves is their own choice and no one can make that choice for them. By

having the students completely understand the topic of gender and sexuality they have to

understand gender performativity. Gender performativity is also another aspect of social

constructionism. This is when the more indepth teaching of the hierarchies of men and women

comes in and also class boundaries are also explained. Students will better understand

themselves once they are able to understand the genders and what comes with both of them.

When students feel comfortable with themselves they are able to perform better in their

classrooms and teachers would better understand them because the teachers too would have more

knowledge on the topic of social constructivism.

This is why I believe the discourse of health and healthy choices should be addressed

within the classrooms when talking about gender and sexuality. In Lamb’s (2013) article it states,

“This emphasis on choice making presumes that all students are equal in their capabilities,

situations, and resources to make healthy choices using a variety of strategies described in the

next section of this essay (on the discourse of efficacy) (p.453).” With this discourse students are

given the opportunity to make their own choices and choose what they want to do with their

lives. They are able to choose what aspects of sex education they want to truely learn about. With

the pre-service teachers now teaching more on gender and sexuality in their classrooms students
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are able to receive information that will help with their choices in the future. Learning about

gender and sexualtiy comes with the information about how there will be times where students

who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community will experience homophobia. Homophobia is a lot

more common in men while women tend to try to stay away from it but some still partake in it.

According to Pascoe (2007), “For boy and girls at River High gay was a fairly common synonym

for “stupid” (p. 56).” This shows that some students might take part in homophobic comments

and they should be awasre of what they are saying might hurt their peer that are a part of the

LGBTQ+ community. So, this gives students a chance to first learn about the struggles that many

parts of that community go through. Pre-service teachers should teach their students about the

dangers that come from society when something that is not the “norm” pops up. Teachers should

teach their students that they have the choice to speak up for themselves and defend themselves

when the time is right. When discourse of health and healthy choices is compared to the

discourse of science it is a lot more beneficial for students. According to Lamb (2013), “Within a

discourse of science, personal experience is rendered illegitimate, sentimental, and manipulative

because it is not ‘‘evidence-based.’’ (p.450).” Basically discourse of science leave emotional and

social aspects out of discussion in sex education and only the aspect of science would be apart of

it. The students wouldn’t be able to share their thoughts or gain the knowledge they need of

gender and sexuality that truly matters. It’s important to know talk about more than just the

science aspect of sex education. Even when it comes to gender and sexuality, teachers should

talk about the social and emotional aspects of those two topics. Students should be able to

understand all aspects of sex education and have a choice on how to take care of themselves and

make sure that they are doing what is right for them.
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In conclusion, the discourse of health and healthy choices should be addressed by

pre-service teachers when assessing the topic of gender and sexuality in the classroom. By

addressing how the students have a choice in how they want to approach sex education and how

they want to live their lives allow them to truely understand how to live. They are more aware of

how gender and sexuality is so important when it comes to running a democracy and living a

healthy life being themselves. Pre-service teachers would be better at preparing their students for

the world due to the more information they give their students. By further explaining social

constructivism students are able to understand how gender roles are very important to society.

Those same students are then able to live by those gender roles or they have the opportunity to

have the choice of changing how society looks at gender roles. By addressing discourse of health

and healthy choices students are provided with information to keep themselves from harm due to

them being able to further understand what they have to do to keep themselves healthy. They

have the choice of how they want to identify with their gender and sexuality.
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Work Cited

Armstrong, Hamilton, Seeley, “Good Girls”: Gender, Social Class, and Slut Discourse on

Campus. Social Psychology Quarterly. 2014 Vol 77 (2) p. 100-122.

C. J. Pascoe, “Dude, You’re a Fag: Adolecent Male Homophobia”. Dude, You’re a Fag:

Masculinity and Sexuality in High School pp. 52-81.

Sharon Lamb, “Just the Facts: The Separation of Sex Education From Moral Education”

Educational Theory 63(5) pp.443-460.