# Sex education **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 12, 1999, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027 "1999-12-12T13:53:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![galen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecc23a/32.png) [@galen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 1999, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027/1 "1999-12-12T13:53:00Z")
## I think that at adolescence, young people should be taught about sex in a systematic way. I mean there should be live demonstrations in the classroom by trained professionals who could explain and demonstrate techniques so that people don’t spend half their life learning by trial and error what hundreds of generations learned before them and didn’t pass on to the next. The development of a healthy attitude, especially on the part of boys, would be a large part of the cirriculum. The result would be a young adult population with a healthier, more responsible attitude toward sex who are prepared to be knowledgeable and sensitive sex partners. They would not, as all previous generations, have their heads stuffed with myths they learn from ill informed siblings and which they had to learn half a lifetime unlearning, if they ever do at all. Let the discussion begin! The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it. (Karl Marx, 1845) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 1999, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027/2 "1999-12-12T14:03:00Z")
1st-If there were “hundreds of generations before them” they couldn’t have gotten much wrong about sex. 2nd-- This is unmistakeably a Great Debates subject, & not a question. * * * Save The Endangered Jackalope! Send Cash Now! If You Do This, I Will Use The Cash To Save Any Jackalope That I Happen To Find! Send Cash Now! Before It’s Too Late! My Bills, I Mean **The Jackalope’s Bills** Are Due The 15th Of The Month! _This has been a message from the Illuminated Committee To Save The Jackalope. Fnord._ ---
**Author:** ![galen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecc23a/32.png) [@galen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 1999, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027/3 "1999-12-12T14:12:00Z")
No, Dan, just because people can reproduce, it doesn’t mean they have great sex. All animals must reproduce. Evolution demands it. You may be right about this more appropriately being in “Great Debates”, however. * * * The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it. (Karl Marx, 1845) ---
**Author:** ![Cleo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/41988e/32.png) [@Cleo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cleo)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 1999, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027/4 "1999-12-12T15:54:00Z")
so what would the homework be? “Everybody find a partner!” Although you make an interesting argument, I doubt many of these adolescents are ready to have sex and I imagine that more kids would go and practice than would have without the class. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 1999, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027/5 "1999-12-12T15:58:00Z")
Oh, yes perhaps we all need a teacher like Mary Kay L. Yep, lets have the teachers have sex with us starting at 6th grade. ---
**Author:** ![Felinecare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Felinecare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Felinecare)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 1999, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027/6 "1999-12-13T01:36:00Z")
> [@](#): > > The development of a healthy attitude, especially on the part of boys, would be a large part of the cirriculum. You think the curriculum planners have headaches now (so to speak), wait until they have to have the local community agree on a definition of _healthy_. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 1999, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027/7 "1999-12-13T11:57:00Z")
But what if sex became like reading and everyone started to hate it because it was required in school? ---
**Author:** ![Poto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ab992/32.png) [@Poto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poto)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 1999, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027/8 "1999-12-13T12:13:00Z")
Like in driver ed, they should issue learner’s permits, with condoms, at the end. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 1999, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027/9 "1999-12-13T16:53:00Z")
On the other hand, can you think of a better way to restrain teenage sex than to make it **homework**!? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Globe-trotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cab0a1/32.png) [@Globe-trotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Globe-trotter)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 1999, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027/10 "1999-12-13T16:54:00Z")
Look what happened in Monty Python’s “Meaning of Life”. The kids weren’t even paying attention. 😃 * * * Some drink at the fountain of knowledge…others just gargle. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 1999, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027/11 "1999-12-13T21:37:00Z")
I read a suggestion that at 18 years old you were taken in hand (so to speak) by a 36 year old of the appropriate sex, who would teach you everything. Then when you were 36, you would take it upon yourself (so to speak) to work with an 18 year old. I like to read… ---
**Author:** ![PurpleCrackwhore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc348/32.png) [@PurpleCrackwhore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleCrackwhore)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 1999, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027/12 "1999-12-13T21:43:00Z")
I am more than happy to volunteer my services and knowledge… for a price mind you! * * * I really try to be good but it just isn’t in my nature! ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 1999, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027/13 "1999-12-13T22:54:00Z")
PurpleCrackwhore, If only you’d been there when I was 18… (we really must stop meeting like this) ---
**Author:** ![PurpleCrackwhore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc348/32.png) [@PurpleCrackwhore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleCrackwhore)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 1999, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027/14 "1999-12-14T04:13:00Z")
LOL Glee I have to hand it to you…you do follow me into some of the oddest places =) * * * I really try to be good but it just isn’t in my nature! ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 1999, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027/15 "1999-12-14T09:21:00Z")
PurpleCrackwhore, Luckily I’m an English gentleman, otherwise I’d be highlighting (from your last post): ‘Glee I have to hand it to you’ A woman walks into a bar and asks for a double entendre. So the barman gives her one… (Tacky? Moi?!) ---
**Author:** ![PurpleCrackwhore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc348/32.png) [@PurpleCrackwhore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleCrackwhore)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 1999, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027/16 "1999-12-14T14:27:00Z")
LOL. Glee… I choose my words very carefully when I post, the entendre was intentional. I work very hard at keeping up… my image. * * * I really try to be good but it just isn’t in my nature! ---
**Author:** ![BrainWeasel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@BrainWeasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainWeasel)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 1999, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027/17 "1999-12-14T17:44:00Z")
“We believe in the old ways; that children should learn about sex on the streets and in the back alleys, and not in a cold, clinical way from their parents and teachers. Yes, we feel we need to keep a healthy mystique about sex, and the best way to do that is through paranoia, half-truths, and misinformation.” Actually, I think that having parents or teachers demonstrate sex would significantly lower the teenage sex rate. Sure, so would the rate of administered psychiatric help, but there’s always a tradeoff. ## Seriously, as a teen, my father explained to me the basics of sex and supplied me with some of your more basic “reading.” Curiosity sated, I pretty much lost the desire to hurry up and have sex, and just let it come when it would. I like to think I’m much happier – and have retained much more hair – than I would have had I spent my early years stressed out about my virginity. -BrainWeasel Squeaks from BrainWeasel’s Cage [http://brainweasel.home.att.net](http://brainweasel.home.att.net) ---
**Author:** ![Cheese\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cheese\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheese_Head)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 1999, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027/18 "1999-12-14T23:15:00Z")
Any teen can get enough sex ed from tv/movies nowadays, unfortunately. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 1999, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027/19 "1999-12-14T23:51:00Z")
I caught my folks having sex once, the image is permanently imprinted into my brain. yuck. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 1999, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027/20 "1999-12-14T23:52:00Z")
Also, despite what a lot of you seem to imply, seeing them doing it DID NOT explain sex to me, thank you. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education/12027.md?page=2)