Sex Education

shrinking-violet:

I say teach both view points abstinence ans safe sex.

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John St. John:

How can you teach that the right thing is to not have sex and the right thing to do is have safe sex at the same time?

You can....not in absolutes, like "the right thing is..." but by saying that the best thing to protect you from pregnancy and STD's is abstinence, BUT if you are going to have sex you need to be protected so use condoms.
Emphasis that no sex is the safest sex but don't only talk about that.

idk. my bff jill?:

i think the more reasonable thing to do in today's society is promote safe sex. i really, really don't think anyone is going to be abstinent just because some teachers encourage it. you can't prevent teens from having sex.

Exactly. On tv how often is sex present? Now how often do they use or talk about condoms?

the fact is, for most kids the reality isn't clear. They think it won't happen to them. I believe the baby project should be more emphasised where kids have to take care of a doll for a week. At my school they stopped doing it. Alot of kids didn't take it serious but I think if it was vitalised more with more emphasis the impact could be greater. At my school the pregnancy is really high, over 30 percent of the girls there get pregnant. My school does trach us how to use condoms and such but not enough kids take it serious.

^They did the baby thing at my school too. At the time, I laughed at my parents when they encouraged me to do it (I ended up doing it) but now I see it as a completely sensible exercise.

And it wasn't just a doll for us, it was a baby simulator where you get the baby for a weekend or a few days or something, and it cries at random intervals and when it cried we had to cradle it with a key thingy in it's back until it "cooed" and stopped crying.

It was annoying as hell at the time, but it was quite a good course now that I look back on it.

^My schools poor so we couldn't get that. But I think the more annoying the better.

Personally I work at a nursery. Sometimes it's just me and one other women who have to look after 15 toddlers. My job is my birth control. I know some school offer classes where it's a childcare class where their in charge of a certain child or two. I think the more exposed and simulation of really being a parent could really help show kids what their actions can cause.

Sex is already introduced to kids through pop-culture, movies, celebrities. I personally knew what sex was before I was out of preschool, because a fellow 4 year old was all too excited to tell me everything she'd somehow learned. Why would anyone think of waiting until 17, when a good amount of the girls who are going to get pregnant as teens are already there?
I have never attended a sex ed class in my life, but I was fortunately raised in a family that allowed me to know that if I was going to have sex, it ought to be safe sex. I don't mean my parents were hippies running around buying me condoms, but I was smart enough to listen to the tidbits I was given about sex.
I would have liked to learn something about sex other than from the awkward high school teachers from S.T.A.R.S. who came and talked to us in middle school.

i think sex education is definitely a good idea. otherwise, i would not know anything about it. i would have to learn the difficult way.

cannibal girl.:

i think the main issue is not what they should be teaching, but its when they should start teaching it.

I think what they should be teaching is definitely an issue. It I had a kid in school and the school's sex education program consisted of abstinence-only education, I'd be pretty pissed off. I think there are definitely things children should be taught in sex education. And it should be standardised.

My school teaches abstinence-only. It sucks. Thankfully, my parents are actually pretty open about sex, so I know more than most of my peers. And from what I've learned from my parents and from a little bit of research, the school lies. They exaggerate facts and manipulate statistics to make sex look like some evil thing that we should all run screaming from. So this completely destroys my faith in them, not only in the area of sex-ed, but also in other areas. If I wasn't smart enough to look stuff up for myself, I would probably just assume everything they say is wrong, and that STDs are just a story designed to scare us. So not only is abstinence-only ineffective, but exaggerating facts and such is much more harmful than helpful, since very few people will just blindly accept them. Sadly, lots of schools do this.

Well, I starting having sex when I was 14. I was just lucky that I was a fucking genius and knew about safe sex etc.

The "trickle" age (ie, when more and more kids start "doing it" is about 13. So I'd consider the last two years of primary school (for non-Australians, that's 10-12 years old) the right ages to start introducing it.

In and grade one (5-7 years old) start introducing what sex is, but only has a medical thing. "That's how babies are made." Nothing specific, just, penis/vagina stuff. Teach about periods around 7 or 8 (9 years old is the earliest age I've seen for periods) and DON'T discourage masturbation. I've seen people ruined because of that.

That's EXACTLY what I'm teaching my children.

emiliiERASE:

DON'T discourage masturbation. I've seen people ruined because of that.

Try telling that to my old Southern Baptist community. I grew up being told that if I so much as looked at my vagina in a mirror or let the bar of soap linger over myself for more than three seconds I'd go straight to hell for all eternity. It was all very fear-based propaganda and complete nonsense.

Early Education. I really wish that sex wasn't a taboo in our society still. I thank whoever is watching me that my parents were open minded and honest with me about sex, because I knew how to protect myself when I became sexually active.

Sadly, most children, especially here in the south, do not have that luxury. Sex has such a stigma attached to it, especially premarital or teen-sex. Parent's assume their child would never do that, when many of those children were the product of exactly that. It's a never ending cycle without the proper education. If they aren't going to do it at home, they need it in school. It is important for the advancement of society.

Why Early education? I feel that's the issue with a lot of teens. They were not introduced to the basic mechanics of sexuality young enough, and so find sex a dirty, forbidden thing. Why else would no one talk about it? they become curious and engage in sexual activity early. Of course, this is speaking from my experience. I was introduced early, about 5th grade, and taught everything I needed/wanted to know. With my questions answered, I wasn't curious, and honestly abstained until just this year, when I was in a serious relationship, had access to condoms, and was on an effective birth control.

What also helped my wise choice to abstain till my late teens was my parents acceptance of the topic of masturbation. No, we didn't openly speak of it, but when my mother caught me, she sat me down and spoke to me about it frankly. She made sure I knew there was no reason to be ashamed and, if I still believed in God, she made sure to tell me God doesn't mind. He put those desires there for a reason.

Where I live, sex education is taught (albeit only briefly) from the age of 10. After 11, it goes into more depth, and I think that's perfectly acceptable. People will have sex regardless of whether or not they have been taught about it. Abstinence-only is not suitable in my opinion. Everyone knows that if you tell a kid not to do something, most kids then turn around and do exactly that. Sex education shouldn't be a case of scare mongering as it is in a lot of schools. The whole "don't have sex, you'll get an STD or you'll get pregnant etc etc".
In my opinion, sex education should start around the time when young people start going through puberty, and when it starts being relevant. There's no point teaching say a 5 year-old child about erections and sex and all that, when the kid has no idea what you're on about. I don't think that teaching children about something makes them do it. A lot of newspapers make a fuss about primary age children being taught sex ed, but I think there is nothing wrong with starting young. If people are educated about something, they can make an informed decision about whether or not they want to do it.

When kids get to middle school, that's when they should start being taught about safe sex. High school is too late, and especially when some people may think that teaching kids not to have sex at all is an effective plan. It's obviously not.

KeepTheFaith-xofrnk:

When kids get to middle school, that's when they should start being taught about safe sex. High school is too late, and especially when some people may think that teaching kids not to have sex at all is an effective plan. It's obviously not.

Especially since so many middle school aged kids are having sex these days!