What do you wish you'd learned in sex-ed?: Click to tweet and and join the movement

[KathyHoh]

I am opening another topic about Sex Education, this time specific to Canada. It should be a role model for other countries. Not only is there a sex education curriculum but they are also taking public opinion. 

https://www.actioncanadashr.org/campaigns/sexedsaveslives

 

And I agree, proper Sex Ed does save lives!

Quality sex-ed WILL work to promote consent, reduce STIs, create LGBTQ+ visibility and inclusion and generally make young people HAPPIER, HEALTHIER and SAFER!  

[Kikuhiko]

Everything?!

 

I didn't get sex ed, I went to a religious school and they didn't have a class for it.

[KathyHoh]

3 minutes ago, Kikuhiko said:

Everything?!

 

I didn't get sex ed, I went to a religious school and they didn't have a class for it.

Yes, I did not get any either. Just a biology session "put penis in vagina get baby". You can also tweet you wish you had sex ed and what you want to learn from it. Hope to make the world for next generation a bit better. 

 

[Lord Jade Cross]

In a sense, nothing since Im not interested in having sex so it would be kind of a moot point now.

 

On the other hand, it would have been good not to have thought that I needed to break my skull trying to understand the damn thing or being made to feel as something less, a freak, etc.

[KathyHoh]

2 minutes ago, Jade Cross said:

In a sense, nothing since Im not interested in having sex so it would be kind of a moot point now.

 

On the other hand, it would have been good not to have thought that I needed to break my skull trying to understand the damn thing or being made to feel as something less, a freak, etc.

That is exactly what I tweeted. I wish I knew it was ok to live without sex, be virgin, not feel broken. so in a way, if I knew about Asexuality back then, I would have been much happier and avoided trying desperately to be a "sexual person". Would have saved me so much grief and disappointment.

[Philip027]

I wish I learned *why* sex was something people wanted.  They just kinda assumed everyone knew already, which made the whole "look, don't get pregnant (as a teen), but here's how to get pregnant!" thing that sex ed seemed to be pushing seem just kind of ridiculous.

[KathyHoh]

1 minute ago, Philip027 said:

I wish I learned *why* sex was something people wanted.  They just kinda assumed everyone knew already, which made the whole "look, don't get pregnant (as a teen), but here's how to get pregnant!" thing that sex ed seemed to be pushing seem just kind of ridiculous.

Exactly!! I was made to feel broken, and a freak for not wanting sex when everyone made a big deal out of it. I was confused why my peers worried about contraception when they could just avoid sex (I used to think sex was optional and peer pressure like drugs or smoking LOL)

[Philip027]

Quote

I was confused why my peers worried about contraception when they could just avoid sex

Yeeeeep.

 

To be fair to the schools though, I'm still confused over that, so I'm not sure that I ever really would have gotten it even if they had explained it.

[KathyHoh]

7 minutes ago, Philip027 said:

Yeeeeep.

 

To be fair to the schools though, I'm still confused over that, so I'm not sure that I ever really would have gotten it even if they had explained it.

to be fair, I guess I would not get it if they explained lol. I am still confused but try to understand (very hard). Like imagining a science fiction. I think Calculus would have been easier

[Lord Jade Cross]

Just now, KathyHoh said:

to be fair, I guess I would not get it if they explained lol. I am still confused but try to understand (very hard). Like imagining a science fiction. I think Calculus would have been easier

Yup. At least in calculus to can always corroborate the answer and all you needed was to follow the formula. 

[Philip027]

Trig/calc is what took my initial love of math (which I've since realized is actually a love for arithmetic, which is oft confused with but not quite the same as math) and changed it into "actually, this sucks" so I can't share quite the same sentiment as you.  I dropped out of high school partly because of it.

[brbdogsonfire]

4 minutes ago, Philip027 said:

Trig/calc is what took my initial love of math (which I've since realized is actually a love for arithmetic, which is oft confused with but not quite the same as math) and changed it into "actually, this sucks" so I can't share quite the same sentiment as you.

It killed mine to and I took a few semesters of calculus in college and love math again. It's hard to see why trig is so useful while learning but once you learn to make it useful it's very interesting to see how much you can apply it!

[Philip027]

Quote

So is the consensus that asexuals would rather sex ed was about calculus?

 

Seems... unique to AVEN...?

I mean, that's what two out of three said, which admittedly is still the majority.  Gotta know when to fold 'em.

[Philip027]

Oh well, it's a sine of the times.

[Traveler40]

3 minutes ago, CBC said:

learning to play the French horn.

That’s an interesting thing to pick up. I’ve never known anyone to decide on the French horn. Why that? Can you still play? 

 

Coming out from under a rock here - been busy. 😬 All good stuff....

 

As to the topic that started this thread: I skimmed through and kept wondering why post here in SPFA? Agreed, maybe better on other areas of the forum. 

[Traveler40]

I hated sex ed. The nuns just weren’t in their wheel house, you know?

[Traveler40]

2 minutes ago, CBC said:

(To be clear, not that I'm against sex-ed. It's vital and should be thorough and progressive.)

I want to be the one to teach this to my kids. (Minus the “butt pluggers”!) 😬😂

[Traveler40]

Headed back under my rock. The 5 minutes alone are up!
 

Glad we’ve gotten away from angry and bitter in here. It was a bit wayward these past coupla.

[Lord Jade Cross]

22 minutes ago, Philip027 said:

Oh well, it's a sine of the times.

Ah, one of the three indeed

[Lord Jade Cross]

20 minutes ago, CBC said:

In all honesty, I don't think I wanted to learn about either sex or calculus. Definitely not calculus, because fuck that shit, but I wasn't too interested in sex yet either. Around sex-ed age (early teens; I missed anything in that realm that was taught later in high school because of illness), I was mostly fascinated with things like the music and culture and politics of the 1930s, tarantulas, anything and everything to be found in an atlas, learning to play the French horn... and other nerdy shit.

Pythagoras delved a bit into things such as music and politics, so you were learning calculus or by proxy assimilating pieces of it, just unknowingly 

[Lord Jade Cross]

11 minutes ago, CBC said:

Good, I like to keep calculus in the realm of the unknown lol.

 

Oddly though, I won a regional mathematics competition as a 14-year-old...

See? 

[KiraS]

One of the big problems with calculus is that it's taught out of context. I struggled with it until I got into my sophomore year in college. Once you start getting into real physics, quantitative genetics, and statistics, what Newton was up to makes a lot more sense.

 

Except for the explicit bi erasure, I had a reasonably good sex ed curriculum.

[flatulence]

My high school in Australia (not sure how other countries' schooling works, but year 7-12) Had very elaborate sex-ed. There were 5, 1 hour long sessions of it in year 9. The first one made me so uncomfortable that i wagged all of the others. If anything, there's probably stuff I wish I didn't learn... The program was very graphic and awkward.

[MarRister]

Sex ed was super awks as a kid, and quite uncomfortable to sit through for the most part. I'm glad I got what education I did though really. I do wish it was more comprehensive, and I wish they provided more like take-home type resources, because I probably would have learned more reading it on my own rather than in class cause I was thinking far too much about how uncomfortable it was. There are so many great online resources now though that I don't think existed in the same capacity when I was a kid. I was given a book by my mom at one point I think, which I through in the closet as some weird act of rebellion, but did eventually look through it. Though from what I remember it was again a lot of anatomical stuff and puberty talk rather than comprehensive sex ed. 

 

I think also if my family/friends were more open about this stuff as a kid I would have developed some healthier perspectives even if it was uncomfortable for me at the time. 

[MarRister]

2 minutes ago, CBC said:

Yep, that. You're in Ontario too, right? When would that have been for you? Mid/late 90s for me. 

No, in Alberta actually. Would have been I guess earlyish 2000's for me. And I think we started in grade 5 or 6 with a few quick lessons on anatomy and puberty, then moreso got into the drugs/pregnancy/std/general life choices type stuff in grade 9 I think. 

 

I think there was talk about introducing a more comprehensive sex ed curriculum here, but all I remember is hearing a lot of terror and backlash from the conservative religious folk that are far too prevalent in this province, so not too sure if it actually got implemented or not. 

[Traveler40]

All I remember was the damn glitter....

 

Once I moved to a Swiss high school, I heard all of the German students talking about learning to put condoms on bananas and was oddly jealous. 🤔😂

[MarRister]

Just googled the Alberta sex ed curriculum and they start in Grade 4, not sure if that changed or I just don't remember lol. Sounds a lot more comprehensive in the upper grades too compared to what I got. 

 

Still looks like a ton of abstinence talk, and see nothing about pleasure or arousal. So could probably use some more work lol. Also no direct mention of LGBTQ+

[Traveler40]

35 minutes ago, CBC said:

my best friend and I bought flavoured condoms

Haha, we did something similar with edible undies from Spencer’s. Gross!

 

I was the last to lose mine in my gaggle of friends. It was to a classmate in the Swiss Alps on a ski lift over summer. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Ever the monogamist, we went on to date on and off for the next decade. He flew me all over the world to rendezvous. Fun times. Yeah, the King’s Garden at Versailles has a stone bench forever etched in my mind. Haha

 

Ahhh youth! The 80’s-90’s were a blast. 
 

I digress. Sex ed was a waste that was taught by folks who likely never HAD sex. Sooooo, this is all somewhat pointless, no? 😬

[MarRister]

24 minutes ago, CBC said:

 

My best friend had sex for the first time that summer, at 14. Ever the nerdy late bloomer, I was over 20 when that happened for me, haha.

Well I think there are at least a few "late bloomers" around here 😝

 

I was late in a lot of ways haha. I like to tell people I live life in the slow lane.

 

Spoiler

First period in grade 9. First drink at 17. First joint at 18. First time driving, first party, first cigarette at 19. First date at 24. Driver's license at 25 (never drive through). First kiss, orgasm, sex at 27 (none at the same time either 😂 big year I guess 😅), still waiting on finding a real relationship. 

 

[Traveler40]

14 hours ago, CBC said:

the beach late at night a couple times

Omg - same guy flew me to West Palm Beach one winter. We learned the hard way: Never, EVER get nude on the beach or have sex sans blanket on the sand. The cop’s lights are damn powerful....DAMN POWERFUL! 😳
 

I had sand issues that lasted longer than the interview at the patrol car. 😂

 

To be clear, the ski lift was where you’d normally get on at the bottom in winter. It was nighttime and shut down for summer. We had a hotel room, so no idea why we ended up there? It is a great memory though. He was (and still is) a wonderful man.