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What is being taught in Sex Education classes these days?


vega57

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I went to a Catholic school in the 1960s.  When I was in 6th grade, I had no idea what sex was.  The word was never mentioned at home, or at school. 

 

One day, we were told (by a nun) that the nurse (a lay-person) was going to teach the 6th, 7th and 8th graders a class on "reproduction".  Boys and girls were separated (the boys were taught by a priest). 

 

At no time were we taught that sex was something to be enjoyed.  We weren't taught about homosexuality.  We were taught that sex was something that was going to happen.  In other words, the word 'no' wasn't included in the discussion. 

 

I was just wondering what is being taught in Sex Ed classes nowadays.  Is asexuality even mentioned?  Are kids being taught that they're not obligated to like or want sex, without adding "...but don't worry, You'll LOVE it!"...or some other influential nonsense? 

 

Also, I understand that *we* are taught that it's o.k. to say 'no' to sex.  But if it's o.k. to say 'no' to it, why are we so heavily *penalized* for doing so?

 

 

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Well I first learned about sex from my mom long before it was ever brought up in school, mainly because I was curious (shoutouts to young me watching Family Guy). But more on topic, when I learned about sex in high school it was in the form of:

  • sex is sex, you probably already know how it works because you're practically adults
  • if you don't want children or STIs use contraception/preventative measures (and gave examples of these)
  • here's what you *should* do if you think/know you have an STI (had actual nurses and doctors talk to us about this)
  • other facts about sex, some stuff related to sex + college, being careful at college, etc. 

In addition, they did not make any mention of gender orientation (other than the specific forms of contraception/preventative measures that only fit on/in specific body parts related to sex), sexual tendency (sexual, asexual, etc.) or sexual orientation ("straight", LGBT+, etc.). Basically it was all about providing information rather than telling us what we should or shouldn't do, or should or shouldn't be. 

 

I realize that not everyone has had this experience since mine is rather specific, being a United Nations affiliated high-school and is located outside of the United States (equality for everyone and normal UN stuff). But I am very interested to know what is taught both in public and private schools (in the sense of free of charge and paid participation respectively, I know some countries use different terms or use these terms in different ways) in various countries.  

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The Forgotten Lemon

I went to a public school where they started teaching us about sex in the fifth grade.

 

It was pretty basic, in my opinion. They has us label male and female genitalia with the correct medical terms, and introduced us to the wide menagerie of STDs. Classic scare tactics. They also showed us a video of a real woman giving birth. Now that was terrifying.

 

They did teach the boys how to put on a condom, and talked about the different types of feminine hygiene products, but one thing that always confused me was that they never taught us how sex actually worked. They assumed we already knew, but I was given no sex education at home, and since porn didn't interest me I had no idea how things functioned.

 

In middle school, they taught us homosexuality was a thing but didn't go into much detail. Luckily, I had this friend who was super into yaoi (manga about male-on-male relations). She showed me how to be more accepting of other people (all sex used to disgust me, and I looked down on those who participated in it). She also taught me about, well, love. These characters connected on more than a physical level, which I was kind of envious of.

 

In college they taught us about consent. You's think this would be one of the first things, but no.

 

So to answer your question, no. No one ever taught me about asexuality; it was assumed we'd engage in sexual activity at some point in our lives. As for the penalty, I ended up never dating because I felt it was unreasonable to ask someone to be in a relationship without sex.

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My last sex ed class was fifteen years ago, so its not exactly up to date, but at that time we were taught about the anatomy inside and out for both boys and girls, pregnancy, sti's, contraceptives for both men and women, what is and is not consent, and how its not going to go as smoothly as it does in the movies. It was taught by a pair that was hired by the school, like those anti drug campaigns where every one comes to the auditorium, only for sex ed. We were given a fun activity where we were split into 'boys' and 'girls', though this was thrown off by the fact that I went to an all girls school, and each group designed the 'perfect' member of the opposite sex to date. Since we were all twelve, these 'perfect' specimens came out looking pretty terribly stereotypical...though I insisted that the perfect man was gauged by his ability to play chess, not his rippling abs. 

 

It didn't teach us about anything other than heterosexual stuff, but it did tell us to keep an open mind and try new things if we were comfortable with them, and to NOT do anything we WEREN'T comfortable with, and that there's no 'compromise' on something some one just isn't willing to do. If one person is willing to go all the way and the other is only comfortable holding hands, you don't compromise at going topless, you wait at 'holding hands' until that person is comfortable with more. 

 

So, my latest actual class on sex ed was more inclusive and open minded than the OP's, and I'm sure that's a trend, and that classes going on NOW are talking about homosexuality and other such topics.

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In sex education in middle school I think we maybe spent two whole days on sex education.  It basically told us not to have sex because we could get pregnant or get STDs.  Then said if we did have sex use condoms.  That was it. There was also one day where we learned first aid.  The rest of that class was learning street names for drugs and what those drugs did to the body.  Then in high school health class we also spend only two days on sex education.  This time they didn't even bother with abstinence preaching.  Basically they just said use condoms.  The rest of it was on financial planning to support a baby.  I had no idea what sex was until I  lived in college dorms.

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Apparently, sex education in the U.S. still varies, according to where you live. I know that some health educators speak at high school Gay-Straight/LGBT+ club meetings, explaining homosexuality, asexuality, etc.

https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/for-educators/whats-state-sex-education-us

 

Some school districts teach gender.

http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/23/as-teachers-adopt-gender-unicorn-more-parents-speak-out/

 

Here's an article discussing how the AIDS crisis changed how sex education was taught.

http://time.com/3578597/aids-sex-ed-history/

 

Some European countries also start teaching sex ed to kindergarteners or first grade students, not graphic or explicit things, but more about romantic love and feelings for another person.

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2015/06/22/in-the-netherlands-sex-education-starts-in-kindergarten-heres-what-they-tell-them-why/

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1 minute ago, sg06 said:

Apparently, sex education in the U.S. is still variable according to where you live.

https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/for-educators/whats-state-sex-education-us

 

Some school districts teach gender.

http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/23/as-teachers-adopt-gender-unicorn-more-parents-speak-out/

 

Here's an article discussing how the AIDS crisis changed how sex education changed. I believe it's why one school I attended taught sex ed at fifth grade: the AIDS crisis was still a major thing.

http://time.com/3578597/aids-sex-ed-history/

 

Some European countries also start teaching sex ed to kindergarteners or first grade students, not graphic or explicit things, but more about romantic love and feelings for another person.

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2015/06/22/in-the-netherlands-sex-education-starts-in-kindergarten-heres-what-they-tell-them-why/

Thanks, sg06!  I just finished reading about Sex Education in Wikipedia and found out that there are 8 states that have laws banning the teachings on LGBT in sex ed. 

 

Seems like even though sex ed is being taught to some degree, it's still not enough information to make an informed choice about our behavior. 

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My last sex ed was nine years ago (I live in the Netherlands though, so maybe not what you're looking for?) and it was WEIRD.

They had us give presentations on STD's and they explained all sorts of contraception, which is normal, but then they made us watch this sex ed documentary thing from the 80's which featured actual people actually doing it, both solo and together (only straight couples though), with this weird dry ass voice over going like "and you could also find it pleasurable to lick the boobs" (*people on screen proceed to lick boobs*).

That was traumatizing. Hell I was 13!

 

They also made us play a game with transparent liquid in cups, and one person got a different type of liquid that would turn blue if you put something else in it (represented an STD), but we didn't know who it was because it looked the same. Mixing our liquids mean risking 'infection'. After ten minutes of mixing and mingling (literally and figuratively), the teacher dripped some blue-making stuff in our cups to see who got infected and who didn't. Everyone was infected.

 

I think they may have mentioned homosexuality in like one paragraph in the entire chapter on sex ed. Nothing on gender or asexuality or anything else LGBT+ related.

 

My very first sex ed was interesting as well. This is how my parents introduced the subject to me:

Spoiler

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It's a kids book on sex ed called 'het ei van mama' (Mom's egg). It was my sister's favorite book when she was three years old. She wanted my grandma to read it to her, but my grandma skipped the pages shown above with a shocked "OH."

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@Laurann

 

That's interesting. :D I relate to feeling awkward and uncomfortable when I first had school sex ed at 10 years of age.

 

I'm a little envious of the sex and gender education teens receive, nowadays: I would've liked to have grown up learning about asexuality and gender, rather than spending several years, decades, confused about what my sexual orientation and gender was, due to others labeling me. Trying to figure it out all by myself was difficult.

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@sg06

Yeah it would've been really helpful if I'd learned about asexuality and trans issues in school. Though I guess teens probably also just run into it online without even trying to find it, so maybe it's not even necessary anymore.

Hmm no I take that back. Yay for more inclusive sex ed!

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Let's see if I can remember... I think in Health class we talked about the reproductive organs between grades 6-8, which for me would've been 2001-2003 or so. No mention of sex itself or how the two different male and female anatomy came together to make children. Um, I think it was in Grade 9 (2004/5 year) that they actually talked about sex. I went to public school in northern Canada, so keep in mind that where I lived we're like, 10-15 years behind the provinces regarding up-to-date information (roughly). In Grade 9 they told us about how sex worked, that the only way to not get pregnant was to not have sex, and the wide range of STD's/STI's. No mention of other forms of contraception, no mention of what rape was or how to define it or avoid it (other than girls needed to not wear 'provocative clothing', don't drink or do drugs etc), no explanation on how to tell someone 'no' or that there was any other sexuality than heterosexual. Never touched on any LGBTQA+ stuff at all. Heck, I didn't even know about the pill until college, after I'd been raped (it was a Dr's question for the rape kit). Thankfully, I at least knew a bit more about how sex should work and feel thanks to questions with my mom right before I left for college (I'd had no interest before, so you'd think I'd have clued into my ace-ness before? Nope...). Things are doing better there now (I have a younger brother who is 14.5 years younger and he's actually learning a bit more now), but we'll see how things go down the road.

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I basically just had health class. I went to both public and private schools. They just taught the anatomy and stuff. Nothing was said about actual sex.

Public grade school (K-8) until 2007

Catholic high school until 2011

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I went to a Presbyterian Christian school in southern Mississippi, and let me tell you, we hardly had any, if at all, sex ed. One day in seventh grade, they separated the boys and the girls, and we weren't even taught by another girl, we were taught by this dude who had a powerpoint presentation and everything.. The only thing he talked about was that we shouldn't have sex until we're married, and that if we do, we'll run the "VERY HIGH" risk of getting an STD. And the whole powerpoint was about STDs.. The actual action of having sex wasn't even talked about. They just talked about STDs. (Later, I realized, this was just a tactic to scare us from not having sex until we're married. They made it seem almost as if you could never get an STD after you were married..) They talked about ONLY condoms, no other forms of contraception, and they also said, "They're only 60% percent effective, so you can still get an STD!" No homosexuality or asexuality or anything like that. At the end, we had to fill out this form where it listed a whole bunch of different ways of showing affection. The list was:

1. Holding hands

2. Hugging

3. Kissing

4. Making out

5. Taking clothes off

6. Sex

You had to check off the farthest you would go until you were married. I chose number 4 (I would have chosen 4 if there was an option for the rest of your life, as well, but of course, asexuality wasn't mentioned), and my other ace friend chose number 2.

Every single year, they said they were gonna have sex ed, but it was never said explicitly. And, of course, it never happened.

One day, in 11th grade, they split us up by boys and girls again, and rumors were going around that this was going to be it. Turns out it was just about "relationships," not even dating or sexual ones specifically, and that wasn't even mentioned until the end of the week program thing, and when it was, they didn't even mention sex explicitly, they just said, "Wait until marriage!"

Human Anatomy classes and Biology classes that I took didn't even mention it explicity or mentioned homosexuality or asexuality or anything of the sort at all, like before..

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I live in Texas and the first time I was taught 'sex ed' was in the fifth or fourth grade where they showed us a video about periods and puberty that used pancakes shaped as lady parts to show female anatomy (super weird I know).

 

Fast forward to middle school and we had some dude come into our class and teach about abstinence and present some super vague info about STIs and more about abSTINENCE.

 

In high school you learn more in health class but not much. Basic anatomy, more vague info about STIs with graphic pictures this time, and a lecture about how you shouldn't have sex until you're older. Never was it explained what sex actually was. So I never learnt anything about hetero sex let alone what being gay would entail. Didn't learn about sexual orientation or anything about gender identity(which is probably why it took me so long to realize I was ace). Didn't learn more about STIs other than symptoms and how bad they were, nothing about transmission and treatment or other things. They did throw out that condoms were important but didn't really discuss anything about other contraceptions like birth control.

 

In summary I didn't learn jack shit from school.

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I can't remember much from what sex ed was like for me, but I'll write what I can still recall. I'm from Finland, and we have a school system that is 100% publicly funded. Schooling is free for everyone, and everyone follows the same curriculum. The education secular and based on science, not any sort of religious belief system (though every student has to take courses on their own religion, religion is not even discussed particularly much outside those classes, except on history courses).

 

On fifth grade (11 years old, year 2002) we had the basic biology of reproduction: the classical drawings of reproduction systems, how getting pregnant happens and so on. Nothing explicit about sex, and no "feelings stuff", just basic human biology the way we also went through other organs (for example basics on how digestion works, or what the heart is like). All of this was a part of our biology curriculum.

 

The actual sex ed was a part of our health education classes where we go through all sorts of health related topics: the importance of excercise, good nutrition, what the effects of alcohol, tobacco and drugs are like and so on. I think our sex ed was on 8th grade, we would have been 14 then (year 2005). It probably was nothing I didn't really know already, since I have trouble remembering any of it! I remember some things about safe sex, I think there was a chart comparing different birth control methods. We did not have the classic "putting a condom on a banana", and did not even get any condom samples! There was also something about fantasizing and porn, I especially remember a subtitle in the book saying "porn is like adult fairy tales", and also that people might not really want to actually experience in real life the things they fantasize about. I think there was an example of a girl/woman fantasizing about an older and a bit controlling/rough man and that it was normal to fantasize about things like that but not actually want to have rough sex. It was emphasized that sex was something fun to be shared between people who consented, and that it was a good idea to stay sober if you were going to have sex or things could "go wrong". I think this was mostly to tell girls to stay safe.

 

There was somthing in the book about sex and feelings but I can't remember any details. There was some weird "steps of sexuality" thing where the first one was "the crush you tell no one", the next one was "the crush you gossip about with your friend"s and so on. Somewhere along the steps was having one's first boy/girlfriend, and the last step was having intercourse. I remember finding "the steps" weird, because I felt some of the stairs were ordered so that it did not make sense to me. We had a discussion on whether sex was something you could do with anyone if both consented, or if it would be better to wait until you were in a longer-term "serious relationship", engaged, or even married. I think most of us agreed that as long as both partners wanted it it didn't matter how long you had been dating or even how long you had known each other! There were a couple of people that felt you shouldn't have sex before marriage, all of these people were members of a strict Christian religious movement that is fairly common in my home region. We were told that there was no right or wrong answer, and that you just needed to decide what was right for you and act accordingly.

 

There was some education on sexual orientations, mostly homosexuality. It was regarded as something completely normal though comparatively rare, and that there was nothing wrong with being gay. I can't remember any talk on gender identity issues, though there might have been some and I might just not remember it. I'm pretty certain that there was nothing about asexuality, and that it was just assumed that when you fancied someone you would also want to have sex with them. But consent was regarded as something important, and tha everyone had the right to express their sexuality the way that felt right for them.

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I'm an American college student, and I went to public school.

 

In 5th grade, they split us into boys and girls and showed each group a short video about puberty for their sex.

 

In 7th grade, we studied life science, with the human body as our last unit and the reproductive system at the very end of the human anatomy unit. We learned about the anatomy of the genitals and watched a movie of a woman giving birth, but there was nothing about sex specifically, and I'm not sure they even explained how pregnancy works.

 

In 9th grade, we had to take a health class. The class was about health in general, so we learned about physical and mental health as well as sexual health. We learned about genital anatomy again, and we got sort of an overview of how fertilization and human development work. The unit was mostly about how to prevent pregnancy and STDs. We learned about different types of contraception (our teacher used a banana to demonstrate how to put on a condom). She advised us to make it clear at the beginning of a relationship how far we were willing to go physically, but they didn't really talk about consent beyond that. She told girls to watch their drinks at parties. She definitely didn't talk about gender or sexual orientation (she managed to talk about misconceptions about HIV/AIDS without mentioning gay people). So it was definitely better than some sex ed programs, but it left a lot to be desired in terms of explaining consent and identities other than straight cisgender.

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RoseGoesToYale

I graduated high school in '14, so middle school in late 00s, and elementary school in early 00s. In 4th grade, my class was told that we were going to have a speaker about "bodily health". They separated the girls and boys, and in the girls session this woman talked to us about consent. The word "sex" was never used, but it was more like "if someone touches you inappropriately, you can yell 'no!' and tell an adult you trust".

 

For middle school, I went to a small private Lutheran school. We had a class on drugs and alcohol, but no mention of sex education. The closest thing may have been religion class when it was implied in the Bible, but the pastor would always awkwardly skirt around it.

 

I went back to public school for high school, my "split-school". I think the IB side received some kind of sex education as per Geneva, but I'm not sure what was discussed. There was basically no mention of sex on the traditional side, not even abstinence. I think the administration saw no point in it, save mentioning in health that condoms exist. I think in biology it was mentioned that STDs exist. But in Florida, the education system is really poor and the funding is slim, so I don't think the state put too much interest into sex ed.

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I don't remember much about my sex ed cause I already learned everything about sex when I was pretty young. It didn't go over different sexualities and such and they did really emphasize abstinence (they did educate us about how important contraceptives were though), but I never had a problem with it cause I thought it was a pretty simple concept back then. Don't have sex unless you're ready, and obviously use protection unless you want to deal with a risk of pregnancy. I'm not gonna die if I don't have it so why bother complicating my life? I wasn't chomping at the bit to get laid, so I thought only idiots had sex in high school. Despite my logical prowess, I definitely did not understand my peers very well. 

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F-all

 

Seriously though, British state school, 1980's, there was no sex education at all. 

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EnterCreativeName

I took my health class online over the summer. It was made up of videos with poor actors pretending to be teenagers or doctors the entire first semester. Then the second half repeated the videos, with pages of long text to read. The sex education part was one chapter, and I finished it in an hour or so. It just went over peer pressure, a little bit about STDs, and condoms. That's all I remember at least, I didn't learn much from the class. 

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I came across this and thought it'd be helpful for this thread, as there haven't been many recent accounts from young people who are currently attending school, or recently have graduated.

 

From http://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/161791-what-is-your-romantic-orientation-sexual-orientation/?_fromLogin=1

 

From EnterCreativeName:

Quote

...I remember hearing about asexuality for the very first time at a school assembly. The school's GSA was leading the assembly, and on the very last slide of their presentation was asexuality. I didn't really look into it until summer came around, but it only took me about half an hour to figure out, and accept, that I was asexual. And then the next day, with a little more searching online, I discovered that I was aromantic too. I am currently out to my mom, and most of my friends, and also a couple other people I still go to school with because the topic had come up.

 

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In elementary school there were separate video showings for boys and girls. They went over how a child would grow hair and such during puberty. There were simple diagrams of the reproductive systems and a list of STDs with pictures of sores to deter us. I don't remember much other than that.

 

In 9th grade biology, there was a section of the school year where students had to memorize words like fallopian tubes which were labeled on more in depth diagrams than the elementary school ones. There was a list of STDs and the teacher stressed that they could be passed in multiple ways. Condoms, birth control, and abstinence were mentioned, abstinence stressed as the only way to guarantee that no one would get pregnant. Oral, anal, and vaginal sex were all named, but my teacher didn't say anything about non straight sexualities or trans people. There weren't any condom demonstrations or anything, the name was used and nothing else.

 

For years, people made jokes about blue waffle.

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5th grade, boys and girls were split up to learn about puberty/anatomical development. We all got a thing of deodorant. Boys got a condom, girls got a pad and a tampon.

We also had group presentations about the human body (any part); no one chose the reproductive system.

 

Middle school health class sex ed was hit or miss: some people didn't take it because they took band+ choir all three years (or in 8th grade, band+ Spanish). I only took it 7th grade. 6th grade sex ed (from what I heard) involved the anatomy of genitalia of both sexes, and that PIV sex could lead to pregnancy. 7th grade we talked more about pregnancy and some STD's, also other forms of sex outside of PIV. 8th grade was about relationships and consent, with a bit of review of the anatomy from 6th/7th grade if you didn't take it prior. Our teacher, Mrs. F, was pretty cool about the topic though; she had an anonymous questions box that anyone could submit and she was willing to answer pretty much anything.

 

High school health class sex ed was a joke. I learned more in biology dissecting flowers than in actual health class. 

 

10th grade I didn't have health class, only started learned about other sexual orientations because my math teacher was gay and talked a lot about his (at the time) partner. 

 

Anatomy and physiology in uni was pretty straightforward.

 

My senior year in undergrad I took a "bio of sex and gender" course since a) I needed an elective and b) the prof was awesome. IT was pretty much sex ed for adults; he explained that some people didn't get comprehensive sex ed in K-12 and had to learn it at uni. The textbook did mention LGBT; less information on bisexuals and zero on pansexuals (not enough published data). There was probably one small paragraph on asexuality but we didn't really cover it. There was also a section on transgender individuals but it felt extremely weird, 

 

 

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AncientAmateur

For some reason I can't remember much about sex ed at my school at all. I vaguely remember at one point there was a cartoon & it had a guy jumping on a diving board then seeing a couple of girls & getting a boner, but thats all I remember. I positive there would have been STI, use protection, pregnancy talk.

 

I kinda feel like my forgetting all this is potentially a sign of my aceness. Don't need this information, get rid of it & make room for stuff I will actually need to know :P

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We were told about sex and condoms. We were taught abstinence is the best way to go. The word gay was never mentioned, but we were told different people like different genders. We spent an entire week on the male parts, and 2 days on the female parts. The lack of sexual attraction was not mentioned. We were taught about the body parts  more than how sex happens. We were taught a lot about the dangers of STDs. Transgender was never mentioned when it came to definitions of gender, it was just body parts. One person in my class was so annoyed, she gave us a run down different sex stuff and birth control and condoms. She mentioned people being gay and pan and bi. She talked a bit about transgender people because some people in the class were making fun of trans famous people. The textbook we used is from the 70s. When it comes to something like our health, updated books would be useful. But no, they had to get new history textbooks instead. I'm pretty sure history hasn't changed....

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Being from the UK I can't help but feel I had quite a different experience to most of you guys posting above. I was fairly young, about 6 or 7 I think when I gained a vague understanding of where babies came from - my mum had a book on puberty and the changes the body goes through that she let me read. I actually remember reading it, or at least looking at the pictures, quite a lot. I think because I generally didn't really 'get' what the book was talking about. 

in the last year of Junior school (I was about 10, I don't know how this compares to the Grade system in the US) we got to watch a super vague video about reproduction and that was about it. It wasn't until about half way through secondary school (about age 13) that our science teacher sat us down and told us to write down on a piece of paper every rude word or slang term for genitals and other sex related things we could think of so that we could 'get the laughing out of our system'. Looking back on it, that was kind of a genius move on my Teacher's part. Anyway - I had a pretty short list compared to some of the other kids but that didn't really bother me. over the next couple of lessons we learned the ins and outs of sex in, almost too much detail. Teacher got out one of those 3D medical models of a vagina that had (really way too much) detail to it. I remember being confused by the fact there were two holes (one being the urethra) and asking, honestly and out of curiosity - if it was possible to get the wrong hole. He just sort of stared at me and slowly said 'noooo...' 

We touched on the topic again a year or so later, this time more in the social context so they had a nurse show the boys and girls in the class how to put on a condom/insert a diaphragm. The risks of being drunk while having sex, STI's, child birth, consent, peer pressure - all that stuff (I think it was about this point I began to realise this sex thing might not be for me but apparently ignored the topic of peer pressure as I went along with the general consensus that sex is something I should want).

Finally at college, age about 17 the topic of LGBT+ Identities came up as general discussion along with further talks about STI's and sexual health. Interestingly the specifics of LGBT sex stuff never actually went even remotely as far in depth as the straight stuff did. If you weren't straight you sort of had to go to another room out of class time if you actually wanted to learn about that stuff. I thought I was Bi at that point so I went along to them but looking back on it, it seems weird that there was that level of segregation about it. It wasn't a religious college or anything and this was only back in 2010.

And in all of that, even the last few years during college where sex was much more of a free topic with more open discussion and LGBT stuff was at the very least on the table, even then I don't recall Asexuality coming up once.  

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Reading what other people have posted, I'm realising how pro-(safe)sex my school actually was. 

 

We had sex-ed as part of our health class, over years 7-9 (ages 11-14). We covered all the basic biological stuff (including what the clit was and why you should pay attention to it). We did a unit on STIs, and how to avoid getting them (abstinence was one of the options, but one of many). We did a unit on contraception, including the pill, the morning after pill, in-vitro (spelling?), condoms, and a few other pregnancy-preventative measures. We touched on different sexualities in that it was stressed that particular sexual acts were not necessarily restricted to perticular gender combinations (for the most part, the classes all generally assumed that being straight, gay, or bi were all valid options, but none were ever really discussed in detail). We were taught about consent, and that it was okay to say no. The girls got an additional unit on strategies to get away from someone who wasn't taking no for an answer (I don't know what they taught the boys at the same time). We were also told that the school recommended that we did not have sex until we were 16, but that if we did have sex it was important that it be safe sex and athat anyone could go to the PE office at any time and get some free condoms with no questions asked. 

 

No mention of asexuality was ever made. While I think that it is very good for allosexual people to get a sex-positive education, I can't help but feel like the fact that sex was presented as normal, desirable, varied, and ultimately universal contributed to the fact that it took me so long to figure out that what I was experiencing (emotional/aesthetic attraction) was not sexual attraction. I find it doubly concerning that the controversial Safe Schools program that liberals are trying to implement here (Australia) (criticised by conservatives for giving dangerous ideas to young and impressionable people) has no mention of asexuality anywhere in its resource database. 

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20 minutes ago, Abaculus said:

 

Wow.  It seems like you received a lot more education than so many others. 

 

I DO want to address two things.  The first is quoted here:

 

Quote

We were taught about consent, and that it was okay to say no. The girls got an additional unit on strategies to get away from someone who wasn't taking no for an answer (I don't know what they taught the boys at the same time).

I think this is so important, and I have wondered what the boys are taught about this.  Are they taught what it mean to 'pressure' someone, and NOT to do it?  Are they taught that they're ALSO allowed to say 'no'?  Would be curious to find out. 

 

Also, I noticed that the word 'LOVE' wasn't mentioned in your post.  Again, It's something that's curious. 

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In my school, so Canadian public school, they told us about that sort of thing starting in like fifth grade. We were not split up into different groups, because "These are things that you all need to know". I knew about this before that because my mom told me when I was younger and I was apparently very interested from an anthropological standpoint of view. But also really disgusted.

They taught us about birth control and consent and healthy relationships and such, but never about anything but straight relationships, which lead to some very... Interesting misconceptions in my class.

It really depends on where you're from, in some places in the States, apparently it's a government requirement that they only talk about gay/lesbian relationships to warn people about HIV and AIDS which lead to a bunch of other problems... 

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