Sex-ed. When did it happen? When was it needed?

[dragon]

Growing up in a DoD (Department of Defense) school we had sex ed starting in 3rd grade just the basics such as what happens during puberty, pregnancy, birth control etc.

My German wife got sex ed starting in their version of 1st grade, in 3rd grade they demonstrated how to put a condom on using a dildo.

[LaCroix]

So in a nutshell, England, most of the US and Canada give real pointers too late, too little. I don't think that giving sex-ed at 13/14 is early enough, since it's already in mid-puberty. I remember us guys talking about wanking in 6th grade(age 11), and most of us were already rather experienced with that.

It's really funny what some school give as sex-ed. Just frightening kids of sex is, in my opinion a sure way to make them do every mistake in the book.

One of the more amusing questions was "What does sex feel like?" to which the teacher actually responded as best she could, which is to say, her actual response was "It depends on whether or not you actually know what you are doing."

The most truthfull answer possible. Just thinking of that situation makes me laugh.

On a tangent, what puzzles me the most, is that, according to a recent survey mentioned in News, there is that high teenage pregnancy, but still, the average 'initiation age' is at 21 in the US. Either there are lot's of permavirgins or lots of lying.

[Aaron]

So in a nutshell, England, most of the US and Canada give real pointers too late, too little. I don't think that giving sex-ed at 13/14 is early enough, since it's already in mid-puberty. I remember us guys talking about wanking in 6th grade(age 11), and most of us were already rather experienced with that.

Canada (well Ontario) actually starts at Junior Kindergarten now, with a description of the differences between males and females and a dose of sexual abuse prevention. I'm sure Canadian's with older kids could tell you more though. Aside from a talk from my mother at about 14 or so on the mechanics and STD's I didn't get anything in depth until I joined the Army at 19. I know there was a months worth in PE in grade 10, which I missed because I transfered into the school after the year had started.

We've been answering our kids questions on it for a couple years now though, they've caught us a few times and there is a lot on TV that they pick up so there is no sense in lying or just brushing it off.

[Dooey Jo]

The relationship workshops were great in retrospect, but at the time some of them got a bit uncomfortable. In one of them, we got together in a group to roleplay how we'd react to certain situations from a card - "a former partner tells you he/she has an STD", "you sibling says he/she is gay". Mine was "your partner tells you she just had a great wank". Yeah, answer that one on your feet

That sounds awesome. I wish we would have had something like that. Then again, all things considered, it probably would have been very, very silly.

In 6th grade (I think) they taught us about how "it" works, contraception, STDs, the biology behind it, and stuff like that. Pretty sure we even had a test on it. Abstinence was never mentioned, as I recall, but they never taught us anything about having actual relationships either. Which in hindsight is rather strange because it was not called "sex ed", it was actually called "sex and relations" (although the teacher called it something like "sex and smut", so maybe that's why).

[Decue]

In 6th grade (I think) they taught us about how "it" works, contraception, STDs, the biology behind it, and stuff like that. Pretty sure we even had a test on it. Abstinence was never mentioned, as I recall, but they never taught us anything about having actual relationships either. Which in hindsight is rather strange because it was not called "sex ed", it was actually called "sex and relations" (although the teacher called it something like "sex and smut", so maybe that's why).

I had it in 8th grade (age 14) and we had a bit about about relationships as I recall it. We even had a field trip to the local RFSU office (Swedish Association for Sexuality Education) where we got a pair of condoms each. Overall it was treated like just another subject in biology.

[Adrian Laguna]

I went to Middle and High School in South-Eastern Florida. Whatever it is they taught in Sex Ed, it must have been utterly unremarkable in every which way, because I do not remember any of it. Only thing I can tell you is that in 7th grade I had a health class taught by a grossly obese guy shaped like an egg, and in 10th or 11th grade I had another health class taught by a South African podophobic basketball coach. I am fairly certain the the matter was covered in both classes, and if not in the first then definitely the latter, but I remember absolutely nothing of it.

I do, however, remember my sister telling me that in her health class they demonstrated on a banana how to proper use a condom.

[KlavoHunter]

We were taught some things in 7th grade health class, but most of the in-school education came from a Freshman-year Health class in High School. Being in Wisconsin instead of some bible-thumper state, we were actually taught in a fairly thorough manner about most forms of birth control, along with the more physical and biological bits of it.

We also got to see some fairly hideous STD pictures during an instructional movie they played for the entire Freshman class in the auditorium.

[Netko]

We had instruction during biology classes each year in the higher grades of primary school (grades 5 through 8), up to 10 hours a year. It was taught by our biology teacher and the school doctor and nurse. I remember it being relatively unremarkable - it focused on protection a lot - condoms on wooden dildos, notes about the efficiency of various birth control methods (I remember the slightly manipulative method to get the girls to take it seriously - the doc asked if anyone had a toddler brother or sister and when one girl responded positively, she was asked how it was to live with him, to which she was guided by the doc to respond that it was hell since he never stopped crying, at which point the doc pointedly asked the girls if they want to have that happen to their lives). Didn't mention anal, nor had any mention of homosexuality, beyond that some people like the persons of the same gender and that it is something they were born with. On masturbation, the lectures were that it was healthy, but that one should be careful about moderation, since doing it too much can lead to soreness. And, of course, that you shouldn't become a loser who does nothing but masturbates the whole day. Of course, we were shown the penis-about-to-fall-off STD videos. There was remarkably little mention of the actual mechanics of sex or the biology, to the point where some guys, or rather boys, still thought in early high school (9th grade) that girls had their clitoris below the vagina.

All in all, for its main purpose, getting kids to have safe sex if they have to have it, it was worth it (I know for a fact for my class, since we had two girls who had some idiotic notion that they don't want to leave primary schools as virgins so they had a roll in the, literally, bushes with some local loser, but they at least used protection). However, it was eminently lacking in describing actual sexuality.

[Alferd Packer]

There was remarkably little mention of the actual mechanics of sex or the biology, to the point where some guys, or rather boys, still thought in early high school (9th grade) that girls had their clitoris below the vagina.

Wait, they don't?!



Seriously, though, this made me remember something they did as part of sex-ed in fifth grade. They split the boys and girls into separate classes, the boys with a male teacher and the girls with a female teacher, for a Q&A session to attempt to clear anything up. I don't remember much of what was asked (because it was, after all, 15 years ago), but I do remember that the boys used up all the allotted time asking a wide variety of questions, while the girls spent much of their time playing one of those games you had to play it was raining and you couldn't have recess outside.

Also, like some others, I don't recall having the subject of homosexuality broached at all in any health classes, even when we were in high school. Somewhere around five kids in my class of 200 have since come out of the closet, and perhaps it would've behooved them to have it addressed in a positive form while they were still in school.

[Dooey Jo]

In 6th grade (I think) they taught us about how "it" works, contraception, STDs, the biology behind it, and stuff like that. Pretty sure we even had a test on it. Abstinence was never mentioned, as I recall, but they never taught us anything about having actual relationships either. Which in hindsight is rather strange because it was not called "sex ed", it was actually called "sex and relations" (although the teacher called it something like "sex and smut", so maybe that's why).

I had it in 8th grade (age 14) and we had a bit about about relationships as I recall it. We even had a field trip to the local RFSU office (Swedish Association for Sexuality Education) where we got a pair of condoms each. Overall it was treated like just another subject in biology.

On further reflection, it was probably in 7th grade, and in 8th grade we went to some "boy seminar" or something, where I think we would talk about relationships and other stuff, but the woman who were supposed to do the talking cancelled, and instead we got to meet a famous pair of authors. Which was great, because they read from their new book, but the rest of the seminar was mostly walking around, doing irrelevant stuff and winning condoms at a lottery.

[Murazor]

I remember no specific examples of getting any sex-ed from the Spanish public education system, although the biological aspects of reproduction I studied fairly early. Certainly nothing practical about contraceptives (I think that I first learned what a condom was after watching the Coneheads around '94 at age 12) and I mostly got "the talk" from my parents.

[Zaia]

l don't know exactly what the curriculum is for sex ed here in England, but l am going to find out firsthand sometime in the spring as l am expected to teach it to my class of 12/13 year olds in my special needs school. l suspect it will leave me feeling a combination of , , and .

[spaceviking]

grade4: learned basic anatomy of both sex's, mostly good touch bad touch type stuff.
grade6: learned about puberty, not much about sex
grade 7: got awkward lesson in gym class, not really told anything except that guys are selfish.

High School: learned about human reproduction in biology class.

I never really had any lessons on contraceptives or the mechanics of sex.