Along with many others children, teens, and adults, this week I went back to school, too. I started teaching Introduction to Human Sexuality at a local college, something I haven’t done in about six years. In an effort to gauge what my students had already learned and what they wanted to know, I gave them an anonymous questionnaire which, in part, asked them to describe their sexuality education up until this point. At least five of them said that they’d had the “standard” or “usual” high school sex education. Unfortunately, this wasn’t particularly enlightening to me because as a new report from the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) highlights: when it comes to sex ed there is no such thing as standard; every district or even every classroom is different.

The single biggest reason that Long Island can be mistaken for heaven on Earth is the beaches. From the boardwalks of Coney Island and Rockaway, past the world class resort quality of Jones Beach, passing through my personal fave’s Tobay and Gilgo beaches, all the way to the Hamptons, Long Island beaches are central to our way of life. We have a thriving fishing industry and our oysters, from Blue Point on the south shore and Oyster Bay on the north shore, are legendary.