Sex Education

Here in the Philippines, whether to approve or reject the idea of sex education is still yet to be decided on. It's because it's greatly opposed by one of the high sectors of the Philippine community--the church. The church here believes that it's the responsibility of the parents and the families to educate the young about sex and other related issues. Also because "sex" is still considered a taboo word in some part of the country. Anyway...

I believe my country needs sex ed though. I'm a Christian by the way.
But for me it must be approved under certain conditions. It must be age-appropriate, must provide information regarding the dangers of early or unprotected sex, values formation, abstinence.
I think it's better to be open about it and properly inform the community regarding issues related to sex than to remain ignorant about it and witness young people trying to shun their curiosity by themselves. I can say that a lot of young people turn to their peers and other unreliable sources about sex because this was a topic in a debate once and I have read statistics. Only a few children here can open the subject to their parents and I guess that is a problem and would cause children to turn to unreliable sources. Instead of risking that, let them be informed through age-appropriate sex education.

That's my opinion anyway.

This article supports that abstinence only education in the U.S. equals more teen pregnancies.

dru never knew.:

This article supports that abstinence only education in the U.S. equals more teen pregnancies.

I don't think the abstinence only education alone is to blame. The US has this whole culture of abstinence which is something nobody else in the developed world does.

Mr W. H.:

I don't think the abstinence only education alone is to blame. The US has this whole culture of abstinence which is something nobody else in the developed world does.

No, it's certainly not the only factor otherwise states without abstinence only education would have no teen pregnancies. However, the higher number of teen pregnancies in those states does indicate that it has some bearing.

My school only teaches abstinences. It really ticks me off.

Mr W. H.:

I don't think the abstinence only education alone is to blame. The US has this whole culture of abstinence which is something nobody else in the developed world does.

My high school/school district didn't teach abstinence-only. In fact, abstinence was probably mentioned once, and off-handedly when we studied sex ed in my freshman health class. The other HS in my district was also featured five to seven years ago in Seventeen because they had one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the nation.

Would abstinence-only sex education have helped any of the girls I knew in HS or middle school who got pregnant? Probably not. But apparently, neither did sex ed which centered around using birth control. And my district isn't alone in seeing this problem despite sex ed programs that press condoms and the pill and other methods of birth control and safe sex...so that leads us to the truth that sexual education has a lot less impact on the habits of high schoolers sex lives than we give it credit for.

I think sexual education (limited to where I am) is severly under-taught.
It does not create a foundation that can truly benefit the individual in the class; because it is so bare-minimum. No methods of birth-control are taught (aside from abstinence) and what we do learn, that STDs are bad, and you get them from sex; we learn nothing about the disease, how it effects you or what treatment options are. 72% of teenagers in America (13-18) are sexually active. With no education on STDs, contraceptives or a good knowledge of how sex effects your life; its no wonder we have STDs running amock and teen-pregnancies off the charts.

I remember sex ed. I used to love it, because people would get all squirmish and I found it interesting the different reactions people had to it. I remember when I was in year 9 (about 14/15 years old) I was at an all-girls school and the teacher unwrapped a condom and passed it around the classroom and half the people were weirded out and refused to touch it I found it amusing.

In Australia, or at least in NSW, I think there is a sort of 'curriculum' regarding sex ed that every school has to follow. I'm sure there are exceptions, but overall I think that's the case. I used to go to a private all-girls Catholic school, so of all places that would be one to reinforce abstinence or discourage the use of contraception, but it didn't, it was quite in-depth and I found that to be very professional and realistic. I don't know whether that was necessary or whether that was the school's choice, but either way I found it impressive.

Sex Education at senior school was merely a doss around subject. It was a module in a wider subject we called P.L (Preparation for Life). We watched videos and focused a lot on the 'love' side of sex, looking into sexuality. However we did do a lot of worksheets on contraception which I found useful. It's always good if you have an appropriate teacher who doesn't make it uncomfortable for you, which I what I had. My teacher was so 'down with the kids', he even knew the right slang to use in order to help us understand.

My school doesn't really have a specific Sex Ed class. When I was a Sophomore I took a class called Decisions and in that class we learned about decisions that teens have to make in every day life. For about two weeks or so we had a Sex Ed teacher come in and teach us how to put on a condom properly, how you can tell if you have and STD, and stuff like that. It really bugs me when people say that Sex Ed classes promotes promiscuity among teens, when that totally wasn't the case with my class. Not once did the teacher say "Now class, you may freely sleep with whoever you want since you know what all can happen." No, that never happened. She told us that it's best to wait to have sex, and that if some had all ready started having it, that they should take the precautions that she talked about.

I actually wrote a paper at the beginning of the semester on why Sex Ed should be taught in schools, and pretty much everyone that read it completely agreed with what I said.

I find it weird that so many school teach abstinence-only Sex ED. I go to a Catholic school, and even so, in our Sex ED classes the teachers always more or less said, "look, Catholics believe that contraception and sex before marriage is wrong, but we know that you're probably going to do it anyway" so we still got taught about contraception and STDs. I think that's the way it should be, teenagers being taught proper Sex ED is far more important than Catholics getting another chance to preach about their beliefs.

At my school, they only speak about AIDS, and using a condom. I do agree with you though. In my grade, eigth grade, there are a lot of girls (and some boys, but very rarely) that are trying out with different sexuality. I feel like middle school and high school are the years when kids are experimental, so they need to go in depth with everything.
Partly, I think they reason why they don't speak about homosexuality in my school, because a lot of people are Christians here, and I believe it would offend them somewhat. I'm a Christian, but I still think of homosexuals as people. Most Christians bash them and tell them "God intended love to be between a man and a woman."

Back on topic though, I totally agree with you. My school barely has sex education though. I think we had one small class earlier this year, and then one in 7th grade, but that's as far back as I can remember actually going to sex education. I know I've been a few times earlier, but they always taught us how to put a condom on, talked about AIDS, abstinence, and then it's over.

No wonder the children nowadays are getting preggers.

@ fragile spine.
I would say a lot of people pretend to be Christians there, if they're preaching a message of hate.

But, beyond that, it's pretty easy to discuss homosexual sex without actually discussing it. You just have to point out that a condom should be used for anal sex as well and a dental damn should be used for oral (or a condom, depending on cunninlingus or fellatio). Heterosexuals have sex the same way gay people do, just with different equipment.

I don't know about other school in Australia or what, but the school that I went to basically never taught anything about sex.
We briefly went over how the male and female reproductive system works in year 7, then in year 9 the boys and girls were separated and again went over the female reproductive system only this time.
It was all on video. They never taught us anything about pads, condoms, tampons, only very briefly gave us the knowledge that STDs, AIDS, etc exist though how they can be transmitted we were never told. They said 'use a condom, be safe' and then dismissed us.
That was it.
All the birds and the bees and more sex talk we had to learn from our parents. It was really really really annoying. Like, by the time were 15, half the people didn't know what an 'ovary' was and the other half didn't know where the testes were located. Few knew what a Fallopian tube was. Some girls continued to believe that the period was the actual egg and it's shell (not the tissue as well).

Really annoying. Highly disappointed in our school's teaching system.

Our school was great with sex ed.

We started in year 5 (young, I know) with the general period/sex ed talk. Basically we learnt where babies come from. In year 6 we made male and female penises and vaginas with clay. From year 7-9, we were taught how to put condoms on cucumbers. Clearly our school thought we were all sexing it up from year 7 (funny, because my year started from year 8, ha!) The whole STD talk was in year 9, and in year 6 we got the full birds and the bees to how our periods worked. We even got a cute little package from Libra (pad company).

In year nine we were given flavoured condoms to put on cucumbers so OF COURSE we all had to taste them. And then blow up the condoms. This was also just a girls class, but it was a good laugh.

The high school that I went to didn't have too much of a Sex ED class. I was given a Sex ED class my freshman year, all freshman had to take it at some point. Well, at least, the school called it a class. It was more like an 45 minute long talk about condoms and birth control. Nothing more. At my high school, freshman were required to take a semester long health class. After that semester, we took a State History class though some students started with State History first and did Health second, I was one of them.

We were pretty much given something like a 'crash course' in Sex ED. The talk was only for one day and it lasted about 45 minutes. They had medical student come in from one of the colleges to talk with us, I think she was in her first year of college. It didn't go well. She had no idea how to control the class and our teacher had left at the beginning of the period, so the student was all alone with us and she didn't quite know how to control the class. All she talked about was condoms and birth control, I vaguely remember her also attempting to push abstinence onto us at some point as well. There was no talk of STDs/STIs, AIDS, HIV, or anything like that. It was just basically going over condoms and the different types of birth control and that was the extent of it. I think a lot of people in my class didn't take her seriously since she was only a few years older than us.

My high school didn't have much Sex ED because the school board said it was "inappropriate", claiming it would "encourage" students to have sex. The only reason we were given a 45 minute lesson was because the State required we get some form of Sex ED in high school. If they had a choice, we would have gotten nothing. My school also had a clinic that wasn't allowed to give condoms to the students because it was, again, seen as inappropriate and encouraging by the school board. Though the other districts near us had better Sex ED classes and also allowed their school clinics to give free condoms to students 16 and older. They all had lower rates of teen pregnancy than my school did. This was all in New Mexico.

I sort of remember going through something like a Sex ED class in 4th grade when I was in California. It was just a class about the basics of human reproduction and them explaining to us what will happen to our bodies as we hit puberty and mature. It was a lot more comprehensive though than what I had in high school. It was a whole lot more informal, which is kind of sad in retrospect.

I think we need to do a complete rehaul of the way we teach sex education. Major changes would include:

- teaching consent culture (not only does a partner need to consent, what is consent, ask for permission before touching or kissing someone, etc.)

- positively teaching about sex (sex is actually a pretty positive part of one's life, generally. I don't think teens should be having it, but they are and to make them feel guilty or like they are doing something wrong isn't going to help them protect themselves from unplanned pregnancies and STDs, which are what make sex negative in the first place)

- teach more than heteronormative sex education

- discuss alcohol and the role it plays in sex and consent

- discuss abusive relationships and what EVERYONE can do to intervene

I think my school(s) have done pretty well on the Sex Ed.
Year five and six we got told about periods and all that and were split into male and female groups, where we asked the teachers questions after we had watched a video and had a small discussion. The questions the girls in my session asked weren't very helpful though. It was about pregnancies and if it hurt to have the baby, and our teachers didn't know how to answer.

Year seven I can't really remember, but I think it was a recap of everything and a bit more in depth to the boys' side of puberty.

Year eight we had it as a section in science and we covered everything. Albeit not very in depth for some things, but we watched babies being born.

Year nine we put condoms on bananas and our teacher was very positive about it. He didn't push abstinence on us, but he did say that it's better to wait but if that's not for you it's fine too, as long as you take the necessary precautions. We did all the consent and things that may influence / hinder our consent making ability.
All in all, the only thing we haven't covered is sex between homosexuals, but I think that's what we're covering this year? And apparently we get to go more in depth with stuff in year eleven and twelve. (Health classes are mandatory)

After reading through some of the posts, I wholeheartedly agree with Dru. People need to know these things and all aspects have to be taken into account and taught.
EDIT: Actually, I would really like to add something to Dru's list and it would be that schools should teach females all of their genitalia. I'm fifteen and all I know is the baby making bits. It's a bit ridiculous. Males have known all of their anatomy from age ten (possibly younger.)

I think it should be taught. Personally, it's a part of life, like peeing or pooping. And we learn about nervous systems and things like that, so sex should be taught.

Obviously, don't tell them how to have sex, or especially encourage it at a young age (11, 12, 13), but teach it. It's important.

treat02:

Obviously, don't tell them how to have sex, or especially encourage it at a young age (11, 12, 13), but teach it. It's important.

How would you teach sex ed without explaining how sex works? (I hope that doesn't come off as snarky; I genuinely don't understand what you mean – do you mean schools should teach sexual health stuff like "this is a vagina this is a penis this is what menstruation is etc."?)

I think it's important to teach kids the mechanics of sex, even little kids to some extent. It makes it easier for them to identify abuse if they know what's going on down there and that it's not okay for anyone to put anything inside them. I don't think it'll encourage them to have sex; as I recall most kids' reaction upon finding out how sex works when I was in elementary school was oh my god whyyyy would anyone do that?!