We had one morning each year for 5[sup]th[/sup] and 6[sup]th[/sup] graders set aside for Sex Ed. The classes were grouped by gender (weeding out the few kids whose parents didn’t consent). Each room watched a movie (probably different ones), then a doctor of the same sex as the class would field questions. One question that my friends wanted to ask was how the sperm got into the woman. Tells you how really informative the film was.
In 8[sup]th[/sup] grade Health class, we saw a film (co-ed) about how to deliver a baby. The boys were petrified; the girls were making raunchy comments throughout the film. In the classes before the film, we learned about fertilization, but still no answer as to how those pesky sperm made it into the woman.
In HS, I took biology and zoology, where the subject of embryo development and sexual organs came up, but not in the context of how everything fit together.
18 years later, my wife’s 6 months pregnant. I think I figured out everything they didn’t feel like teaching.
My highschool was very thorough on sex ed. Two female teachers teamed up and taught it, and they weren’t embarrassed at all. We saw movies, they drew pictures (correctly, I might add), they weren’t afraid to say the actual words. And I think that helped us learn it better. I don’t mean the obvious reason, that we learned by listening to them. I mean that they weren’t embarrassed, they were straightforward and as a result no one got the giggles and gave them a hard time. In fact, the class clowns listened intently to them, and they even asked legitimate questions.
We saw an interesting movie that involved the characters being in a live board game. They walked around the board and they advanced by the way they answered questions. For instance, they’d land on a square and a voice would say, “Can you get pregnant the first time you have sex?” and if they answered it correctly they moved up whatever the instructions said. And if they were wrong then you heard the voice explain what the answer is and why and we learned a lot from that.
The main character in that film was Glenn Scarpelli, who played Alex from “One day at a time”. Remember him?
I can only hope that your class is more informative and open minded ( as Catholic dogma can get) than what I went through. But if they pull the religious crap on you that you should only have sex for procreation, please raise your hand and say, " So, then in essense, we are fucking for Jesus?"
But the Waukesha County school system imposed such heavy censorship that I couldn’t make heads or tails { } of what the teachers were talking about.
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.
Heh heh.
I said that for humor, and I have no doubt this class will be legit and all. My Morality class last year was very straight and to the point, no bullshit.
JMcC, San Francisco, JJM’s page from the Bay
If I were a baseball player, and I got beaned by a fastball, I wouldn’t want medical attention. I’d want my limp, lifeless body flung to 1st, cause, dammit, I earned it!
Well, we had the mechanics explained pretty much from 4th grade on, then sophomore year of high school (1980) a Planned Parenthood rep came and put a condom on a banana, showed us a diaphram and so forth. I remember being surprised she considered the IUD an option, since I’d heard about the Dalkon(sp?)shield and the ensuing lawsuits. I’m afraid none of us took advantage of her presence, as we were all far too cool to ask questions.
When I was in 6th grade, they broke up the boys and the girls and had us watch a filmstrip or two and then the teacher chatted with us lads about things like erections and wet dreams. I actually remember it being fairly uneventful. Then we got hustled off on a field trip to the Robert Crown Center (anyone else in the Chicago region ever go there?) where we watched a NOVA-esque movie about reproduction including the traditional clips of two-headed sperm swimming around in circles. Amusing, but nothing to take to the grave with you.
The same thing repeated in 7th (or was it 8th?) grade, with some scant mention of STD’s and the like. Basically, they just taught the mechanics. By 10th grade, in Health class, we learned the nitty-gritty on all the pathogens just waiting to run up our respective penises and vaginas and set up shop as well as working rates for various birth controls, etc. We were all taught to spank our monkeys without shame, there’s nothing wrong with being gay (but, implicity, it was nothing to be overly proud of either) and as I recall, watched some retarded made for TV movie about some dad learning his son was gay.
Nothing about dildos, doggie style sex, or if anal sex hurts as much as it sounds like it should.
As an aside, I can half understand why you wouldn’t want your kids in sex ed during 5th grade or whatever. I don’t think they should be punished for not attending, but I can understand where the parent would rather teach their 10 year old about sex rather than having a 45 year old filmstrip and a plastic vagina do it for them.
“I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”
I remember the first sex ed class I recieved being in 5th grade. My parent’s hadn’t taught me anything about sex. The only shock was thinking, “My mother and father did THAT?” But our teacher was really good. We had slides that went up on the board and when the pictures of naked people were up (and us being 5th graders), a couple of people snickered and our teacher just told us to let it out, at which point quite a few kids laughed. She told us about periods and erections and all the basic stuff we needed to know. As far as the mechanics, she told us who puts what where. Then in middle school, it’s health is required for one period a day, and it was basically the same as 5th, but was personal-health or first aid also. And then in high school it was required for one class out of the four years.
I was a teenager in the late 60’s. Sex ed took place after school, just about everywhere, and it was OJT. Luckily for us, STD’s were relatively rare, but there were quite a few pregnancies.
Oh, I forgot about this: we had a cool Chem/Physics teacher, who would show every year, right before Prom, “Where Did I Come From?” It’s the animated Sex Ed movie. He said it was a deterrent.
If you didn’t want to watch, of course, you could go to the library. But we just watched and made fun of the duck.
This reminds me of the monty python movie, where the teacher brough his wife to the class, and demonstrated the act. Funny as hell, but as i type this, I can’t help but think that perhaps something similar wouldn’t be such a bad way to teach sex ed.
Just show how everything works and be done with it.
I remember my first orgasm (forgot how old i was, 10 or so?). It scared the shit out of me. I knew that masturbation felt pretty cool, but the orgasm thing was terrifying. Altho it didn’t stop me from revisiting the subject again and again
Needless to say, that doesn’t help you very much in the backseat of your parents oldsmobile.
I, however, was one of the lucky two thirds.
In my public high school (about 5 years ago)
we were taught just about anything we’d want to know. Sex, masturbation, abortion, and every other dirty little world the Catholic schools don’t want you to know. Hell we even got to watch a video of a baby being born! Quite graphic. Public school ain’t all bad. At least they can get some things right!
The only downside was that the class was taught by my phys ed teacher.
Our 6th grade sex class was pretty inadequate.They told you where everything goes,but no mention was made of an erection! I didn’t learn that for years(after reading some National Lampoons).
Theres a story in our paper today that says they now have to teach abstinance.
We knew all about that without them teaching it!
Ours was always done by the gym teacher who was usually flustered by us cracking jokes. i remember one year in fifth grade I believe he shamed us for making fun of the teachings and had us put our head down on the desks.
As we went on, the sex talks as we called them became less frequent but were still a ball (no pun intended). One of the best jokes was in Bio class my freshmen year when a film showed a heat sensor of blood rushing through the penis and it slowly becoming erect. As it started to rise, someone began humming the Star Spangled Banner and soon the whole class was humming along and bust into thunderous applause and laughter as it switched to the same member ejaculating (in heato vision). Sorta like the fireworks at the end of the song.
} of what the teachers were talking about.