Springing Into New Semester Better Than Ever

Healthy Respect, the classroom-based abstinence in preparation for marriage program, has continued its growth into the spring semester. Before summer vacation comes, the proven program developed by New Yorkers for New York youth will reach more than 800 seventh- and eighth-graders in five public schools located in Yonkers and Brooklyn.

Last semester, Healthy Respect taught just under 800 students in four New York schools.

“More and more educators are seeing the value of abstinence education as part of a goal-oriented curriculum that prepares students for better academic performance in school and a healthier, more successful life after they graduate,” said John P. Margand, Esq., Executive Director of Healthy Respect. “The focus of our program is on helping students to develop the outlook, motivation and skills that will last them for a lifetime. It is important for educators to realize that abstinence has moved to a level of maturity in which we seek to prepare students for success in life, including healthy marriages, which are a major factor in predicting social and economic advancement.”

Healthy Respect is different from most other abstinence programs in that it hires and trains its own classroom instructors, who teach in male-female teams. Each team files a report after each teaching session to ensure fidelity to the program’s curriculum and goals. This year three teams will teach 23 sessions of abstinence education to each class.

Healthy Respect also is a leader among abstinence programs in evaluating the curriculum’s effectiveness among students. An independent team of two Queens College sociologists conduct confidential student questionnaires that evaluate how well the Healthy Respect message is understood and to what degree the classes affect the thinking of students about issues regarding teen sex and abstinence.