Bad Sex Ed classes

[silver wolf009]

Oh, no, yeah, no, I'm not saying it should be lauded as the only way, I'm just saying the knee jerk reaction that saying monogamy makes STI's hard to catch is a negative one. It's a side effect, not a reason. At least, that's how it should be.

It's completely dismissing all the ways you can catch them that don't involve sex, though. Dirty needles, contact with others' blood, contact with others' fluid? Also, you can account for your own monogamy, but you can't account for your partner's. There's always a risk of getting an STI, even if you personally do everything right. It is safer in theory, but there's always reason for caution.

You're right, but considering this is about sexual education, I listed its impacts in preventing infections that would be transmitted through sex. If we were talking about proper use of drugs and drug paraphernalia, then I would have included a cautionary tale about reusing needles. I did not, because we are not.
I never intended to comment about lifestyle choices, I meant to lecture about sexual practices. God help you dirty needles are a part of your sex life.

 

[the doom cannon]

I don't remember anything about my sex ed classes. I remember there was a course dealing with puberty in 5th grade, and my 1st year of highschool we had a sex ed class called health and wellness. Don't remember any of it

 

[RaikuFA]

My class was really good in HS. We had a feminist teacher (an actual equal rights one) teaching the class about each form of protection, their specific use and how to use it. Then telling us all about date rape and that you should always watch your drink at parties (this was both genders). Then taught us that if your partner is intoxicated or says no and you still keep going, it can be considered rape and you should stop. We then watched an Oprah special on abusive relationships. Yet since it only covered women being abused she constantly reminded us that men can be in abusive relationships as much as women can.

Yeah I wish a lot more people took the same sex ed class I did.

 

[Lilani]

Oh, no, yeah, no, I'm not saying it should be lauded as the only way, I'm just saying the knee jerk reaction that saying monogamy makes STI's hard to catch is a negative one. It's a side effect, not a reason. At least, that's how it should be.

It's completely dismissing all the ways you can catch them that don't involve sex, though. Dirty needles, contact with others' blood, contact with others' fluid? Also, you can account for your own monogamy, but you can't account for your partner's. There's always a risk of getting an STI, even if you personally do everything right. It is safer in theory, but there's always reason for caution.

You're right, but considering this is about sexual education, I listed its impacts in preventing infections that would be transmitted through sex. If we were talking about proper use of drugs and drug paraphernalia, then I would have included a cautionary tale about reusing needles. I did not, because we are not.
I never intended to comment about lifestyle choices, I meant to lecture about sexual practices. God help you dirty needles are a part of your sex life.

What good does it do anyone to separate how STIs can be transmitted from sex Ed? The biggest thing that gets young people in trouble when it comes to sex is ignorance. If they don't get straight answers they try to get answers elsewhere, often their peers, which leads to misinformation. If they don't know what sort of sexual contact can transmit diseases and ways diseases can be spread, they might believe some rumor that's been going around about how you have to bleed during sex for something to get transmitted. So if you're going to tell the story of how STIs can spread you may as well tell them everything, just to try and quell any misinformation which might lead to other dangerous assumptions from being made. Knowledge is power when it comes to safe sex. Teen pregnancy and STIs in teens only drops as sex education becomes more comprehensive and less reliant upon keeping things a mystery for the sake of "prevention."

 

[lionsprey]

I'm Swedish. We were taught actual facts. Not all of them, but at least true ones.

Well... True. I remember the sex-ed being fine in a factual sense, but it rather left a few things to be desired. It could've been my district that dropped the ball, but I can only recall about two classes devoted to sex-ed in total. Some delightfully awkward "talk", a very rushed description of a condome and then we got to watch educational cartoons (a few battered VHS casettes) on the matter. They did at least cover the basics and some of the surrounding subjects.

Then we nipped off to the local youth health reception office, got a contraceptive crashcourse and that was it. I think both we and the teachers thought we knew more on the subject than we did. Sex and the matters thereof are complicated, and I don't think making the class watch weird sex-ed cartoons from the 80's in a cupboard is enough.

Some more talky-talk would've been nice. Other sexual orientations than hetero could've done with more than being barely admitted to exist, for one. A discussion about pornography (which both we and the teachers knew where our main source of "education") would've been nice. Particularly what it means and why you shouldn't take notes from it. It was just a bit too centered on how babbies are made, and how babbies are avoided until you're better suited to look after them. Certainly, it's the main point of sex-ed, but it influences so much else of a person's life that a wider overview would've been welcome. At least in my district.

They got the facts down, but there is a lot more to them that they never talked about, in brief.

(And I also worry that religious and cultural concerns might have undue influence over a child's right to sexual education in certain areas, but that is an entirely different discussion that I am not a bad enough dude to tangle with)

My district was pretty much the same. I remember those cartoons... The memories, the memories...

this seems to be a trend in Sweden unless the 3 of us coincidently went to the same school since i remember the same pattern .
a couple of meetings to talk about it or watch a cartoon and then finishing with a visit to the local health association for some advice, Q/A and free condoms.

 

[Something Amyss]

Also, you can account for your own monogamy, but you can't account for your partner's.

Yeah, I was in a monogamous relationship for eight years. Unfortunately, my girlfriend was not. She cheated on me several times. I'm not sure what marriage would have done about that. Except make it harder to stop dealing with her after I found out.

Heaven's above. When Bill O'Rielly is quoted as an authority on the matter, you know that a warcrime against your braincells is incoming. Dear, oh, dear...

Penis goes in, baby comes out, never a miscommunication. You can't explain that.

...I'm sorry, the joke was too good not to make. I feel horribly dirty now.

A fair bit of misinformation about HIV and AIDS, as well as plenty of strange off-hand comments about non-heterosexual sex.

See, I had it the other way. For all the faults of my sex-ed education, we knew about HIV/AIDS by fifth grade and we got some damn good information. I don't remember everything covered verbatim, but it was actual information about what could and couldn't spread it.

If our sex ed had been as thorough, half my class might not have been knocked up by 10th grade.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

I didn't even have sex ed classes. What I've learned was from biology classes, porn and older friends. Most of that was completely fake except the facts from biology which was basically guy puts his pipi into a girls vaga and after the sperms leaves the girl will (probably) get pregnant. So yeah, I had it rough finding out the real deal... especially as a gay person.

 

[Plasticaprinae]

My first sex ed class was "Health" in 8th grade. I actually did not participate because I forgot my slip that my parents had to sign. So I just read from a book about sex ed, which I remember nil about. I heard from some people who were in the class that it was just fear-mongering teaching.

My second class was 10th grade, the teacher taught us the basic definitions of everything. It was awkward. He just breezed right on through.

My third class snuck up on me. It was 11th grade and i decided to take anatomy so I can cut up dead cats. The teacher was great and nice. The final part of the class was basically sex ed. She weaned us in with just straight anatomy, she even told us where the clitoris was!!! And what it does!! Then she taught us std prevention rather than abstinence. She did say that abstinence was the sure fire way (but this isnt true), but then she taught us about female condoms and dental dams. It made me sad that this class wasn't required.

 

[sumanoskae]

Thankfully, never traditionally educated, so I got the "Talk" when I was like 4. Grandma and folks just sat down and said, A does B to C, and therefore D and E, quite simple really; didn't bother me at all. And I've since confirmed it all to be fact via research of my own, which was a healthy habit which they also encouraged.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

Also, reading the comments here made me realise that I've never actually seen a condom in real life. That's rather worrying actually. Do those things come with instruction manuals?

Depends on where you live I suppose, though I would think so. Just buy one and try it out.
They can be rather tricky to put on at first..They can actually hurt going over the widest point of the head.

I'm Swedish. We were taught actual facts. Not all of them, but at least true ones.

Well... True. I remember the sex-ed being fine in a factual sense, but it rather left a few things to be desired. It could've been my district that dropped the ball, but I can only recall about two classes devoted to sex-ed in total. Some delightfully awkward "talk", a very rushed description of a condome and then we got to watch educational cartoons (a few battered VHS casettes) on the matter. They did at least cover the basics and some of the surrounding subjects.

Then we nipped off to the local youth health reception office, got a contraceptive crashcourse and that was it. I think both we and the teachers thought we knew more on the subject than we did. Sex and the matters thereof are complicated, and I don't think making the class watch weird sex-ed cartoons from the 80's in a cupboard is enough.

Some more talky-talk would've been nice. Other sexual orientations than hetero could've done with more than being barely admitted to exist, for one. A discussion about pornography (which both we and the teachers knew where our main source of "education") would've been nice. Particularly what it means and why you shouldn't take notes from it. It was just a bit too centered on how babbies are made, and how babbies are avoided until you're better suited to look after them. Certainly, it's the main point of sex-ed, but it influences so much else of a person's life that a wider overview would've been welcome. At least in my district.

They got the facts down, but there is a lot more to them that they never talked about, in brief.

(And I also worry that religious and cultural concerns might have undue influence over a child's right to sexual education in certain areas, but that is an entirely different discussion that I am not a bad enough dude to tangle with)

My district was pretty much the same. I remember those cartoons... The memories, the memories...

this seems to be a trend in Sweden unless the 3 of us coincidently went to the same school since i remember the same pattern .
a couple of meetings to talk about it or watch a cartoon and then finishing with a visit to the local health association for some advice, Q/A and free condoms.

Make that four. I had trouble remembering the event at first since it was basically nothing new and only charts and talks. And yes, that video and follow-up visit to get free condoms.

 

[Arshaq13]

You guys are atleast a bit lucky.
We had no sex-ed. At all. It was in our syllabus and in our textbooks but it was blacked out when we bought it. We weren't even taught how babies were made, our biology teacher took out her own time, asked for us to keep it between our class and taught us about the birds and the bees. God bless her.

It was the Indian CBSE system at the time if any of you were wondering.

 

[Elfgore]

My early sex-ed classes made it sound like having sex could lead to STIs... which it does. But they made it sound like if even both parties were clean, you could still get an STI if you had sex. That and they pushed abstinence, instead of teaching safe sex. I'm pretty sure God was mentioned at some point too. I think high school was when I actually got a decent sex-ed class.

 

[direkiller]

See, I disagree with that lady in the video. Barring a run in with a an Aids monkey, two monogamous, STI free people would be hard pressed to contract an STI.

Monogamy is effective at stopping infection; a close circuit is a good system.

She doesn't say monogamy. The bad sex ed example is "The true love of marriage will protect us from STI's".

So the only way to disagree with her is if you think marriage will protect you from an STI.

Anyway our sex ed was quite normal and I guess informative. Though this one time we did see a baby's head being squeezed out of a vagina. Thats.. A lot of people say childbirth is beautiful.. It's.. It's not beautiful..

I associated true love with monogamy. I didn't think that's a very big leap...

You also apparently associated it with virginity and a lack of drugs.

Which is a big leap.

Never said anything about virginity, or drugs. I said they had to be infection free, not sexually inactive, and comically alluded to a situation that involved poor judgement on behalf of a drug user and his monkey.

Further, wouldn't an infect transmitted by needle not be classified as an STI?

Nope a STI is a class of infections that can be transmitted via the exchange of fluids common during sex. It dose not have to be caught via nookie to be an STI, and if you catch a cold from your sex partner it's not an STI.

Most STI's are blood infections, not in seaman or vaginal fluids. You just have a very good chance of exchanging a small amount of blood during sex.

 

[Raggedstar]

Wow, the stuff in that video is horrific. How do these people get into the education system and maintain a clear conscience? All non-straight people were molested? Seriously? In-wrapper condoms causing STDs is a hilarious and ludacris thought. Cramps don't hurt? HAHAHAHAHAHAno, you've obviously never been at work or school as a woman and feeling like your guts are ripping apart. Stuffing toilet paper like a tampon sounds like something that could cause toxic shock syndrome (which is potentially deadly in it's rare occurance, even when using a tampon that's meant to go up there). Just...all of those "facts"...wow.

It surprises me when I see people talk about sex-ed as if it was only one day's class (unless I misunderstood). We had sex-ed several times, usually as full-on units in our curriculum. I remember we had it in Gr. 9-11 either as health classes or biology (biology as more for the mechanical and anatomical applications). Our health classes were pretty decent, and even though there was a general "pushing" for abstinence (maybe because our public school systems are also governed by the Catholic school board), sex and sexual behaviours weren't shamed. We saw various forms of birth control as well as learned how they're used (as well as pros/cons), some talks about STDs, what happens in puberty, as well as general advice to healthy relationships. It was pretty well balanced, but then again I live in Canada. I know some of my American friends, especially from the south, don't get proper education on the subject. It's a bloody failure in the education system when you teach people absolute lies about their own bodies and behaviours (especially as teens).

Mind you, I was the kind of kid where most of this wasn't necessary. I didn't even get a real "talk" from my parents, though less because of sex-shaming and more because I already knew. When I got my first period, I was so terrified that I picked through every encyclopedia I had (which was several) to figure out what was wrong with me. And then it just kind of went on from there. I'm weird.

 

[FPLOON]

One example was a story she told us about a student that she'd once had. She claimed that the student got pregnant by giving her boyfriend a hand-job and that when her boyfriend ejaculated the sperm landed on her stomach and then the sperm crawled their way from her stomach into her vagina got all the way to her uterus, and got her pregnant.

Well, that's why you don't give aliens hand-jobs... You don't know where their "sperm" has been... But seriously, I feel sorry for whatever state this particular story takes place it...

This was in California by the way.

Spoiler: meep

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/146/b/5/bahahahahaaa__rainbow_dash_laugh_by_misteralex-d515muw.gif

As a Cali resident, born and raised, I [now] can't stop laughing... And I thought the whole "don't wear a condom if want STDs and some babies" was funny since, at the time, my 6th grade teacher didn't even talk about how you can get pregnant without getting any STIs...

So I was wondering how the rest of the Escapist fared in terms of what they were taught in sex ed. Did you actually learn anything useful in your classes or was it just a bunch of fear-mongering in an attempt to keep all you horny kids from doing the horizontal slide? I wish to know. Any funny stories about your classes or curriculum?

Outside of the withheld [mis]information, that same 6th grade teacher, when talking about masturbation, was telling us how we should not be tasting "our sex juices" like "in the porns you kidswatch nowadays" because, without proper protection, you will get "a face-covering STD"... And then, later, thought this one kid, who was starting to get pimples, was actually having "a STD outbreak"...

Then again, I was at a middle school where almost every day had a "gang fight", a student fighting a teacher (or vise verse), and/or students and teachers having sex in the "vacant" classrooms after school... Luckily, it was only there for one year before I went to a different middle school, but still... Out of all of the sex-ed classes I've had, the one in 6th grade was both the most withheld/misinformed in general as well as the most memorable because of said withheld/misinformation...

 

[Muspelheim]

Also, reading the comments here made me realise that I've never actually seen a condom in real life. That's rather worrying actually. Do those things come with instruction manuals?

Depends on where you live I suppose, though I would think so. Just buy one and try it out.
They can be rather tricky to put on at first..They can actually hurt going over the widest point of the head.

I'm Swedish. We were taught actual facts. Not all of them, but at least true ones.

<Snippety-snip, weird cartoons about Johan, Erik & Achmed learning that their todgers are fine as they are>

My district was pretty much the same. I remember those cartoons... The memories, the memories...

this seems to be a trend in Sweden unless the 3 of us coincidently went to the same school since i remember the same pattern .
a couple of meetings to talk about it or watch a cartoon and then finishing with a visit to the local health association for some advice, Q/A and free condoms.

Make that four. I had trouble remembering the event at first since it was basically nothing new and only charts and talks. And yes, that video and follow-up visit to get free condoms.

I suppose it was the folk education standard package, then. That, or we've got a kickass reunion going!

I think you could get as many free condoms you liked from there, too, up to a certain age. That was the real rite of passage, trying to act normal while asking for them at the cashier in the supermarket. While an old lady slyly glances over as if thinking "Oh, my, the standards have gone right down since my days..."

 

[Shiftygiant]

I remember being taught safe sex and STD's, which was more a scare 'em straight with photographs of malformed dicks and rotting vagina's than anything else, which if anything scared half of us from having sex in case our dicks fell off. We weren't really taught how sex works- we were expected to know that already. Base level all we knew was penis in vagina=sex, and pretty much that, something we were taught in year 5. The only way anyone really knew a thing about the different forms of sex was by watching porn or getting first hand experience. I remember most the Sex Ed lessons (We only ever got 4 through Year 8, 9 and 10) were awkward, the speaker being too clinical or being a scare mongering sexist (I remember once the boys were told that only women could be raped and when someone brought up that men could be as well, he was dismissed and a brief passing was made to homosexual rape). I also can't recall being taught homosexual sex. If we were, it was overshadowed by other things. They also made sex ed 'fun' by encouraging (Read: peer pressured) students to take part in the condom demonstrations, stuff like putting the condom onto a dildo.

So yeah, yay UK?

 

[T8B95]

I literally don't remember my highschool sex-ed classes, except for them being so vague and disingenuous that my mother (a health worker and former nurse) gave me a full re-education on the subject. I remember that I she taught me about effective contraception and STD's, as well as the infinitely invaluable and infinitely overlooked social impacts of sexuality.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Also, reading the comments here made me realise that I've never actually seen a condom in real life. That's rather worrying actually. Do those things come with instruction manuals?

Condoms are kind of like spoons - no instructions necessary, and simple beyond belief.

Believe me, when you crack open your first one, it'll be obvious how it goes on.

 

[asinann]

My first experience with sex ed was when I was in 8th grade.
The 5th through 8th grade classes were called to the cafateria for a presentation. There some ugly, middle-aged men and women told us about how terrible sex before marriage was. STD this, STD that, pregnancy this, pregnancy that, yadda yadda.
I don't remember much because I wasn't paying any attention but there is one thing that sticks in my mind.

The presenters had two boxes of chocolates. One was wrapped in plastic so it seemed like it was new and just bought and the other one was unwrapped and a bit beat up ad some of the chocolates in it were missing, half eaten, and individually unwrapped.
They went on to ask us all which one we'd want. The new and unwrapped one or the one that was all dinged up and "used" (exact word).

One girl from the 7th grade class started to cry a little.
I laughed at the time cuz I was a massive dick but now I can imagine how having someone indirectly call her "used" and "unwanted" probably made her feel.

My second experience was in my second high school. We got shown a lot of pictures of STD riddled genitalia and all of the absolute extreme symptoms of having an STD and a lecture on how ineffective all forms of contraceptive really were and that was about it.
Nobody that was in those lectures actually believed what was being said and they all continued to fuck as they were fucking before.

God, I love the American educational system!

Thank your local religious zealots and their push for "abstinence only" sex ed and their ability from 2001-2009 to be the only ones getting government funding for sex ed. That along with parents being able to exclude their children from sex ed makes up a huge part of the teen pregnancy and STD problem in the US.