Nutek

Pretty much at his peak there. Great stuff.

scrubbedexpat091

At least when my wife went through school in BC in the 90's, the only sex ed they taught then was not to have sex, it was the only way to be 100% certain you didn't get an STD or pregnant.


In my days in the 90's in California, we had sex ed in 6th and 7th grades, 6th was more of a basic boys have sperm, girls have this, blah blah, 7th grade they taught us how babies were made, and how to put condoms on a banana.

Teachers didn't teach the info at my school, the school nurse did.


Not sure why parents just don't teach their kids the stuff, why rely on the schools?

yellowroom

You could apply that logic to just about any topic couldn't you? Could all parents name the key parts of the male and female reproductive system, accurately describe the female monthly cycle, factually describe what happens during intercourse, and how fertilisation happens? How various forms of contraception work?

I mean, clearly not if the regular public discussions on women's health, contraception etc are anything to go by. The latest depressing one I saw was the number of people (including women!) who don't know that women have three genital orifces (anus, vagina, urethra) and think that we pee out of our vaginas. The mind boggles.

LondonSquirrel

We had zero sex education at my grammar school in the 1970s. Just did reproduction in biology. Luckily it was an all-girls school as I agree about the embarrassment factor and think it is better to teach boys and girls separately.

I can talk to my mum about anything these days, but I must admit I had no sex ed from my parents at all. My dad tried to talk to my sister and I once but we were too embarrassed. When I started my periods I had no idea what was happening. I thought the terrible stomach pains was appendicitis!

Although I agree with abstention being explained as an idea, I don't agree with not teaching about protection and contraception. It's just not realistic. DH and I both did wait until marriage (or rather just before marriage ;D ) but that was more just what happened than part of any plan. It's pretty disgusting to say that girls shouldn't 'put it about' but boys can. Personally I would complain to the school about sexism. This is the 21st century!

Just asked DH, who went to a private catholic school then a secular private high school. He's five years younger than me and it was the same for him in Massachusetts. Covered reproduction (cue song from Grease 2) in biology only.

scrubbedexpat091

Luckily there is this thing called the internet, and there are plenty of accurate and correct websites one can use to teach. Or the old fashioned way via books.

Its not rocket science and anyone with basic high school education should have the ability to read, learn and understand basic human reproduction and explain it to their children.

I just think people are too dependent on schools to teach everything, where the school is simply 1 part of learning and should not be relied on 100%.

Wintersong

Caught my husband teaching my daughter this exact thing on one memorable occasion. He now knows better and leaves those discussions to me

yellowroom

again, you could say that about any topic - why have schools at all? why are you so squeamish about it? It's just anatomy and biology.

kodokan

Completely agree - it's EXACTLY the sort of thing a mass education program should be including, as it's knowledge that will be useful to 99.99% of the adult population. You might just as well say that schools shouldn't be teaching kids how to read or do percentages, because surely their parents can fill in those gaps.

If they're going to spend time teaching all sorts of arcane stuff - my child is doing igneous rocks this week - then they can certainly schedule the 'essential for all' among the 'mildly interesting to a few' topics. We'll all otherwise be paying for the kids' future ignorance.

SultanOfSwing

I've been trying to remember if we did any specific sex ed classes in school other than reproductive biology (1990s for me). I think we may have had one or two sessions in what they called 'general studies' because I have a vague recollection about them telling us all about the wonders of chlamydia but can't be too sure. This would have been lower 6th I think, so 1995/6 for reference time-wise.

Plenty of reference material regarding intercourse on the internet, that's for sure

yellowroom

I had hoped it was apocryphal, that is just depressing.

kodokan

We definitely did, in Hertfordshire in the 1980s. We had a girls-only class about puberty and periods when we were around 11, then sex ed at, um, probably about 14 or 15.

I can't remember that much from it, except one lesson that consisted of a slide show of every possible suppurating, pustulating disease, with the teacher sitting at the back in the dark telling us in a flat, chilling voice: 'and this is herpes - you get these sores that are itchy and painful and contagious, then after a few weeks it goes away and you think it's cured... then it comes back to torment you... goes away... comes back... and it continues to do that until you D-IIIIIEEEEE...'

SultanOfSwing

Brilliant

I seem to remember photos of STDs on the overhead projector as well but never such a metal description of the gift that keeps on giving.

kodokan

My son's health class has also been doing diseases this last week or two. Other than the usual graphic pictures, they played a game where they all drew a card; the cards had scenarios on about if they had X disease, abstained, used a condom 100% of the time or just 90%, etc.

They then went around shaking hands in the pattern prescribed by the teacher, to simulate sexual contact. At the end, she ran them through who would now be infectious based on their and their partner's behavior (it included an 'exclusive couple' where only one of them was being monogamous). It sounds like she was pretty fair and real-world about it; she even included in her summary a couple of people who were disease-free simply by sheer good luck.

They've also watched a video of various childbirths, including a c-section. It all sounds quite comprehensive.

yellowroom

I went to an all girls English grammar school in the early 80s. We did reproduction in 2nd year biology (so 12-13 years) for a quite a few weeks, but I seem to remember the human reporoduction concentrating mainly on the anatomy and genetics, and very little on the mechanics, social or even moral aspect. Contraception covered in 4th year social studies with the condom on bananas. The most effective lesson was the one when we were shown a French film of a woman giving birth and at the point the baby crowned, the mother tore. Thirty pairs of legs crossed instantly. Must have been fairly effective as I only knew of one pupil pregnancy the entire time I was there, and even that waited until 6th form.

LondonSquirrel

Two words they used to describe the penis always stayed in my mind. Flaccid and Turgid. Hilarious.

DH's class had to watch a childbirth video. He asked to be excused because he's very squeamish about mammal births. The teacher said 'Well Mark, you'll have to see it someday.' He said no I never will. Even at 15 he knew he'd never have kids!