Seriously. It’s been 20 years since I took “health” class in high school (which was pretty tame IIRC, even though my parents had to give permission for it). I’m wondering what sorts of things they teach now.
The kids tell the teachers what they’re up to, and the teachers say “Ewww, gross!”. Or something like that.
Oops, must have missed that part. 
Well, I’m sure what is actually taught fluxuates from state to state, maybe even town to town. Although, what was taught to us this year was: sex=bad sex=death/a long life of disease and agony. Then they go over condom use, the male, and female reproductive anatomy and I think that’s about it. I’m not sure how your sex-ed class was, but our sex-ed is in conjuntion with health class, so we only learn about sex and what not for about a quarter. If you have any specific quetions about the class feel free to ask.
Here in England the sex-ed isn’t as anti-sex as bhb.
The teachers here basically take the viewpoint that, “alright, you guys are having/going to be having sex. We know that. We just want you to know about the issues involved with the act these days”.
Then one is taught about sexually transmitted diseases - what different diseases there are and what they do to your body and how one catches them. Often in this section any urban legends about STDs or pregnancy are dispelled.
One then learns about contraception: the various methods, how to administer them, what not to do (with conctraceptive pills, etc), and how much protection one gets from each method (eg. some protect against pregnancy, but not against STDs).
We also learn a bit about relationships and such; you know, “you don’t have to have sex if you don’t think you’re ready, even if all your mates are, because they’re probably not either”, “Everyone feels insecure about sex”, “don’t think just because you’ve had sex before that you have the right to have it with your new girlfriend/boyfriend”, that kinda thing.
We too only learn about it for a quarter.
The education about the differing anatomies of men and women, and the course of reproduction are mainly left to Biology. Puberty is discussed in both PSH (‘physical, social health’, where we learn about what I described above) and biology, though the two teachers approach the topic from the appropriate angles in relation to the subject - in biology, one learns of the physical changes that occur during puberty and has to learn all the hormones that affect these changes, while in PSH one is taught about the social mindset concering puberty.
It’s actually taught quite well at our school.
Very, very educational. We’re talking pop up books of anatomy (okay, that was in grade 6) solid examples of various forms of birth control (the pill, femidom) and instructions on how to use them (nothing like seeing your creepy teacher with an armful of wooden penises and a plus-sized box of condoms), still with the egg-baby project on responsibility, and lots of boring note taking. While all teachers pointed out that abstinence was the only guaranteed way to avoid pregnancy/STDs, it was mentioned as kind of an afterthought, an “Oh yeah…”. I think the number of kids having sexual intercourse among my graduating class was quite low.
Note that many US sex-ed programs stress abstinence – the Bush adminstration has proposed increasing allocations for abstinence-only programs by 33%, according to this USNews article.
From the aforementioned article, $440 million has been spent since 1996 to support abstinence-only programs – every state but California accepts this funding.
When I was in high school (New York, five years ago, give or take) we learned about reproductive anotomy, sexually transmitted diseases, various forms of birth control and how to use them, (and how effective each is), menstruation and the birth process, and “adolescent development” (e.g., what happens during puberty.)
There wasn’t as much stress on abstinence in my program (though it was obviously taught as the “best” birth control method. 
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Oh, and we also had education about drugs and stuff in the same class. I was surprised that my teacher actually admitted marijuana was not particularly dangerous. (“BUT YOU’LL STILL GET ARRESTED!” she assured us. 
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Oh, and we also had education about drugs and stuff in the same class. I was surprised that my teacher actually admitted marijuana was not particularly dangerous. (“BUT YOU’LL STILL GET ARRESTED!” she assured us. )
At my school, abstinance is stressed.
We have the “Baby Think It Over” project in our Health/PE class, in which which you take a plastic dolly that cries every 3 hours home over the weekend. To make it stop crying, you shove a key in its back and twist. Lifelike.
Other than this, I don’t remember sex ed in a class.
Outside of Health/PE, we have the PSI club. PSI stands for “Postponing Sexual Involvement”. We also have speakers come and tell us how sex is advertised all over, in the media, but don’t do it because if you do…
I never had the “put the condom on the banana” “lab”, but maybe the boys did in 5th grade sex-ed class. The 5th grade sex-ed class was a one-day thing, with the boys in one room and the girls in another.
I’m in my junior year now and we had it in freshman. It was a waste of time. They mention other methods such as birth control but abstinence is stressed and they give you no info on how to use condom…pills…etc. Which if you think about it is stupid since even a geek like me had sex.