CLARKSDALE, Miss. — A former teacher is making waves with a video showing an unconventional approach to sex education.
The man, who is also an education advocate in Mississippi is showing people how to bend the state’s abstinence based sex ed law.
Sanford Johnson came up with a way to teach students how to use a condom properly without ever mentioning the word. Johnson posted a video that uses a sock as a metaphor for a condom.
He said it started out as a bit of a joke, poking fun at the state’s sex education law.
He never anticipated it would be seen by millions and spark debate about topics like teen pregnancy and STDs.
“I’m going to pinch out the air out of the tip of the sock, so there’s room for my toes,” Johnson can be heard saying in the video.
Johnson is Deputy Director for Mississippi First, a non-profit which trains teachers on the state’s sex-education program.
He has a big problem with the state’s approach to sex education.
“The law that was passed in 2011 requires all school districts in the state of Mississippi to adopt a sex education policy. It either has to be an abstinence only policy or a more comprehensive abstinence plus policy,” he said.
Abstinence plus allows districts to also teach safe sex practices, but teachers cannot use condoms for in-class demonstrations.
In the video he posted to YouTube in 2012, Johnson offers a way around that using one sock, one shoe, and a lot of innuendo.
Recently, the video went viral. It has been shared by educators across the world.
“I’ve received a few Facebook messages from some teachers who said, ‘I love your video. I shared it with my students,'” Johnson said.
The video now has more than one million views on YouTube.