Oh, Vinyl Turnip, I forgot to comment. It seems that it should be up to parents whether they want to discuss such matters with their children - it’s definitely outside of the school mission.
And I’m from a liberal town, so my experience may be skewed, but our sex ed. most certainly didn’t implore students not to have sex. If you count reports on the various STD’s as discouragement, then maybe…
I don’t mean to be condescending, straight man, but as a Christian 18 year old, I suspect you don’t even know how much you don’t know. What’s the worst thing that could happen from teenagers learning more about sex than “the penis goes into the vagina” at school?
Wait, the penis goes into the vagina?
No the wee wee goes into the ho ho. Use those other words and your going to get suspended.
What the hell. Change it to “The ding dong goes into the ho ho,” and see if you can’t pick up a Dolly Madison sponsorship.
Excuse me? I teach these little darlings every day, and I have for 20 years. Did the teacher in question get lazy and screw up? Sure. Did it scar the little sweethearts forever? No way.
Eesh.
I had my first sex ed class in the 6th grade. That’s right – I wasn’t even a teen. It was taught by Sue Johanssen, a noted and well-respected sex educator who’s written books and appeared on TV and radio. (Kind of the Canadian Dr. Ruth Westheimer without the German accent.) It was a fun – and funny – class, and afterwards, at recess, us kids would gather and giggle and make crude comments about what we’d just learned. And then we went about our normal running about the playground as us kids were otherwise wont to do.
That was, of course, after the mass orgy in the gymnasium.
:rolleyes:
Having read this, I can opine that this is the kind of thing that it is reasonable for 14-year-olds to be informed about. (Except that some U.S. kids may be baffled by the suggestion that condoms can be obtained from a chemist, or that male masturbation requires a foreskin.) But to expect them to read it aloud in mixed company? :eek: Not cool.
Quite true. However, it’s easy to see where they’re coming from: every day you hear about how “kids these days” are becoming sexually active younger and younger, and it’s a simple extrapolation. Some use the erroneous assumption to bash the kids; others use it to defend increasingly radical sex-ed programs. Both are based on the same error.
Ok, we were brought up in a different culture and everything, but I don’t see what’s so bad about that. I haven’t found anything on that page that wasn’t covered in our biology classes at that age. (in somewhat rural Bavaria, Catholic conservative heartland)
While I certainly can understand your supposition, I have made a point of not refraining through ignorance – besides which, you already know that I read the SDMB and should be able to guess that I talk about sex with my peers regularly – we are, after all, teenagers. Beyond that, you are indeed being condescending and do not deserve any further personal information from me. As for silenus and Mindfield, I don’t think I claimed anywhere that such a mistake would “scar” children for life, and I’ve already stated my support for sex ed. in general (even, as it was in my school’s case, from grade 4). Nice strawman, though.
Actually, silenus, I’m not sure that we disagree on anything other than how bad a mistake it was.
Again, the point is not what was covered, but how. There’s something at least potentially creepy about an adult forcing young teens to read aloud about oral sex. From the OP’s link:
Having to read aloud to the class about oral sex is pretty icky. That doesn’t sound like a mistake on the teacher’s part.
I remember when I had The Filmstrip in 8th grade, in Catholic School. When they got to masturbation, the narrator said, “It’s not worng or sinful, just immature.” At this point the teacher (who was in her late 20s, very pretty, and seven months pregnant in May) stopped the projector and said, “The Church’s position is that masturbation is wrong, and it is a sin. We got this filmstrip from the Anglicans.” Then started the projector back up without further comment.
Probably not. Luckily, neither of us has to defend his actions (right or not) to a bunch of honked parents. 
Wow - that’s like, the Cadillac of sex education.
My sex ed in HS was pretty good, in that the teacher had us write down questions we had on pieces of paper. He put them all into a hat, and drew them out one by one. All were anonymous.
I don’t know to this day if he made them up or if these were genuine questions, but he covered the whole myth of not getting pregnant your first time etc. It was handled well.
Now my kids go to this HS–a fairly well off, large, suburban school. All they got was STDs and abstinence.
Thank god I have talked to them at home. But I know that most parents haven’t–most of my acquaitances with kids this age are in complete denial re their kids’ sexuality.
Awesome!
When I was in Catholic High School, my sex ed was exceptionally brief. The teacher, a mid twenties married lady, was very embarrassed and pronounced
vagina as vag-ne-ah.
Us girls looked around at each other and went, " uhhh, what?"
Then she pronounced penis like you would say the name Dennis.
The boys in class burst out laughing.
That ended our class right there.
We also had an even briefer sex ed talking too by the Head Nun in 8th grade.
" YOu can get pregnant by holding hands."
My best friend, the youngest of 15, looked at me and said, " No. It’s not like that at all."
I do love me some Uptight Sex Ed Stories.
Oh, yes, that’s exactly what I said. Say, can you hand me that large paintbrush you’re using? I think I see a spot you missed.
Gee, a spot?