The Rachel Chronicles

Wordle

Although I had already known about this site, SBB introduced me to the idea of using it for my thesis. It is called Wordle and it will make a word-art picture out of text that you submit. The size of the word is directly proportional to the number of times that it is used in your text.

I copy and pasted my thesis into the program and got this:

How cool is that? Think my thesis was about Sexuality Education in Jewish Schools?I apparently used those words alot!

Crawling out of my hole

My thesis is DONE and HANDED IN!
I am quite proud of my finished product and am excited to get feedback on it.

I have so much to share with you about the past few weeks. I've known for a while now that the month of March would be crazy, and its not over yet. Gann's Prom will be next Sunday night, and then life should be a bit less crazy.

In the past month I've:
* run a Purim program (6 hours for 350 people)
* facilitated Exploration Week for Gann and taught a T-shirt quilt making course
* finished a thesis (yay!)
* learned a new quilting technique
* broke my sewing machine
* was tempted to buy a new one
* planned a prom that will run next week
* gone to a cousin's bar mitzvah and next week, I'll officiate at another one

Pictures and more information should come soon. In the meantime, head over to iTunes and look up the Anderson Cooper (AC 360) podcast from March 16. Gann students are featured during their week of volunteering in New Orleans. It was a pretty special week.

Thesis Interviews

I've conducted a number of interviews for my thesis this week (and have a few more planned for the next coming weeks). While all have gone well, some have been more encouraging than others for the state of sexuality education in Jewish schools.

It is hard for me to be a neutral interviewer. I try to be an active listener, rather than being in dialogue with the other person. But it is hard for me to leave my opinions and thoughts completely out of it, particularly when the interviewee wants advice. I tend to leave my advice, resources, and offers of help until at least the end of the interview, if not until email contact afterwards.

One interviewee expressed concern over his knowledge of abuse and didn't know how to teach about it. Did I have any advice or curriculum, he asked. After the interview, I sent him an email with a few thoughts and a book recommendation.

If you've ever engaged me in this topic, you know how strongly I feel about it. So you can imagine my excitement to receive an email back from him, telling me that he's already ordered the book that I recommended. I am hoping that one day my research will make a difference in the world of Jewish Sexuality Education. To know that it might make a difference on a smaller scale, right now, is a fabulous feeling.

Abstinence-only makes me cry

I know, I know, other people might cry at the mere thought of abstinence....but that is a conversation for another time.

For now, all I want to say is that I've spent the evening reading about abstinence-only education, for my thesis. And I want to scream. This sex education allows for only one view-point: that faithful, marital relationships are the possible place for sexual relations. Nonmarital sexual relationships are deadly at worst, unsafe at best.

This view point is dangerous on so many levels. It is unethical to withhold possibly life-saving information from our students. It has been proven that abstinence-only education DOES NOT work. In fact, quite the opposite. Because these students haven't been taught how to make good, safe decisions, more teens taught only abstinence engaged in sexual activity - and do it less safely.

What are we doing to our children?!?!

funny...

I was doing a bit of "light" research (meaning, on google, amazon, etc. - not real academic search engines) for my thesis. I plugged in "sex ed" to Amazon, to see what popular books are out there on the topic. I found this t-shirt for sale. It made me laugh....click on it and you'll see why.