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What should you learn in sex education?
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
At the moment sex education in schools only needs to cover the bare minimum of the biological side of sex and not some of the issues young people have to face every day. This article in the Guardian newspaper looks at how sex and relationship education is taught at a school and whether our sex education leaves young people ready and fully armed with the information they need to know to have a loving and respectful relationship.
The use of smart phones, the internet and social media got me thinking about the different pressures young people have to face now and whether sex education is good enough.
What do you think? Is sex education at schools good enough? What topics should it cover?
The use of smart phones, the internet and social media got me thinking about the different pressures young people have to face now and whether sex education is good enough.
What do you think? Is sex education at schools good enough? What topics should it cover?
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Too much is missed out, when I was in primary I remember being shown a tampon, but not told what it was for. Thankfully my mum was pretty up on sex ed stuff but not everyone was in that position and I know there were a couple of girls really confused about how dropping a tampon in a mug of water could ever help them "when things change". And yes, that was how puberty was referred to :eek: :banghead:
Actually their is a youtube personality called Laci Green. She talks about all matter sexual and not entirely sexual (like nudity in domestic and public nudity on for example nude beaches) in a very convincing manner that makes you feel curious about engaging in those topics instead of being wary. I post her channel here, maybe that gives some people insight about how I feel a sex Ed should be loosely structured. I find her talk about consent is what every teenager should somehow in this form and style get presented.
https://www.youtube.com/user/lacigreen
It seems to be that sex education is taught very much from the biological and non-emotive stance. From what I can remember - it's very much factual based: "This is what happens - this is how you can stop getting pregnant or catching STI's, etc".
I think there are classes called PSE (personal social education) that are meant to cover off non-curricular subjects, so things like relationships. From what I recall, no one seemed to take any of these subjects seriously, and the classes just ended up being a waste of time with nothing much being discussed (they might even have been only 20mins long anyway). It didn't seem like the best place to be discussing personal things - with all your classmates sat around listening to you - you may also not be too comfortable asking questions in front of your peers - especially the ones you don't know too well.
There should be a way of adding another dimensions to sex education - so that people have the chance to ask about what worries/concerns them in a non-judgmental space - like on here
This. I think they want to teach kids that you should only do it with the right person and not sleep around but i think kids should know that its ok to sleep with a few people and be a bit promiscuous as long as theyre safe.
A note on what Tues said - our classes did cover a lot of non-heterosexual stuff which I thought was really good. We also had sessions were we could write things anonymously in to a box that the teacher then answered. But like a lot of classes like sex ed/PSE, a lot of people didn't take them seriously. Which is a shame when there are people there who really want to make the most of lessons like that.
This reminds me of an article I read not too long ago: What If We Admitted to Children That Sex Is Primarily About Pleasure?
It's kind of long, but worth a full read if you have the time. For those that don't, the tl;dr is:
That's an interesting read...
There is just no downside to it. Studies (yea I am not going to look for them now, so believe or die) have shown that knowing much about sex, demystifying sex, knowing sex is also there for pleasure and giving a positive outlook on sex does not make teenagers have sex earlier.
I want to create an atmosphere for my own children one day that if they - lets conjure up a hypothetical situation - have a gf or bf by the age of lets say 14 (its the age of consent here anyway) and they would feel absolutely free and comfortable to approach me (and/or hopefully my partner) to tell me they plan to have sex with their partner so I can provide a safe environment for them (as opposed to they have to sneak behind my back about it). They would know the ins and outs of safe sex by then, can say no if the whole thing suddenly grows over their head and feel comfortable with their sexuality that they also can communicate with their partners in a non-misunderstanding fashion. They can come for advice anytime and rather learn new things than being embarrassed about asking.
/edit: Incidentally I opened the article after I wrote my post and I realized I already read it before and formed some of my opinions because of that article.
That is a really good piece James.
I didn't learn anything about relationships or sex being pleasurable at school, but I did learn how to construct a representation of the female reproductive system using a pear, paperclips and plums! (Interestingly, I don't think we ever learned about the pleasure parts for women).
This is something I never understood. I missed sex ed in year 8 due to illness and we had sex ed in year 11. Why? Many were 16 at the time and I'm sure many 15 year olds had already started having sex.