When I was in elementary school, I had my first sex-ed class in 5th grade, as part of the science class (which strangely mostly covered ecology as I recall). While simple, it was complete enough to include basically how sex happens, the risks (pregnancy + std), and info on condoms (I think that's the only contraceptive they covered). It also had the part about biological changes between childhood & adolescence.
Then in high school (went to a private school), I had sex-ed in 7th, 9th & 10th grade. Each more complete then the last. 7th & 9th grade's were part of the "Personal and Social Training" class, 10th was part of the mandatory biology class. 7th was mostly the same as 5th grade but had the condom on banana demonstration. 9th covered contraceptives in details & even had a section on basic positions (including the pros/cons of each). 10th was really biology oriented.
I understand public school didn't go as much in-depth, but back then there was still 2 years that included some form of sex-ed (including the mandatory biology class).
That was quite complete and useful. And I really doubt me or any of my classmates got scarred from that experience.
Yet, now, last I heard, they don't have sex-ed anymore in school, not even an optional class, and they expect kids to have it at home... Sure, what kid would love to hear about sex from their parents. From what I'm seeing, I think by "home" they mean "internet ads"...
Seriously, a few months ago, I was talking with a 19yo coworker. He was saying he wasn't 100% sure that his girlfriend was completely faithful, but that the sex was so good he didn't want to stop. So I just mentioned something about going back to using condoms to be safe. He replied there's no need as she was on the pill. I just looked at him and said "not for against babies, but to be safe against STDs", he's reply? "What do you mean?". Took a bit of back and forth, initially I thought he might not know STD but one of the modern terms, turns out he thought that all contraceptives prevented against STDs... I ended up having to do his sex-ed about contraceptives and which ones are good against what.
And health officials are surprised there's an increase in STDs among teens & young adults. |
