For me, it was 11th grade. And the 1st activity was write any words on the board that come to mind when you hear the word "sex." Being the immature, little highschoolers we were, who would giggle at the words penis and pubic hair, there were some colorful expressions and phrases written on the chalk board(we're talking pre-white board days). The problem was, by 10th grade, most kids, or at least a good amount of them, were already sexually active. Prevention talks, STI stories, and gruesome photos weren't gonna stop it once it started. The group that presented explained the different types of sex education, and I would consider ours to be more on the side of comprehensive sexuality education, which is more along the lines of safe sex, education of contraception, but on the same token highly encouraging abstinence. Eventually the school caught on that we were learning/they were educating a little too much a little too late. Each year, Health class had a different topic. One year it was nutrition, another focused on balanced lifestyle (mind, body, soul deal), etc. After several tens of babies, the district realized that sex ed in 11th grade didn't seem very valuable. They finally revamped the program, and now sex ed is in the 9th grade curriculum. Now, there are a few less preggos walking at graduation, but the number will probably never be zero again.
"Don't have sex, or your junk will fall off." "Do it and you WILL get AIDs and die." :If you have sexual intercourse, you will turn into a martian." Whether we are for or against abstinence-only programs isn't the issue. The fact that matters is that there are schools out there that are downright lying to their students. Fine if you want to hold off on letting the students know how their plumbing works; if schools don't teach, the second best classroom also known as the school bus will certainly shed some light on the situation. Not fine to lie to them though.
My personal opinion is the younger the better. I'm not saying parents should give them the 411 and rip out the diagrams the minute their kids are out of diapers; BUT at the same time, they shouldn't wait until their boys are using condoms as bookmarks for Playboy either. There is a danger in keeping the truth from children. I am sure "the talk" is just as uncomfortable for the listener as it is for the lecturer, but there are dire repercussions. The following story has not been fabricated or altered from the truth in any way. One afternoon on the way home from school, one of my friend's younger sisters overheard the word unspeakable word on the bus. She asked her brother and I what it meant. We didn't want to be the bearers of gross news, so we told her to ask her mother. The educated mom came up with what she thought would be brilliant plan to avoid the colorful vocabulary and the look of distaste she could just picture on her daughter's face when she revealed the ugly truth. So, she told her naive, yet literal little (let's call her Jane) Jane that "sex was a special hug you share with someone you love very much." If there aren't 100 different ways you could interpret that... So, our naive little Jane went to school the next day and "shared a special hug" but called it "having sex" with several of her very good friends. Obviously this led to some issues and Jane found herself in the principal's office. I actually don't recall how this story ended, because when my friend told me about it, I was literally "ROTFL" (and I hate acronyms). Like I have implied in several other posts, I don't want kids, so I can avoid this whole awkward conversation. And if that changes, I'll just make sure I research the sexuality education curriculum of the district we chose to live in.
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