Most of you lot are young enough to have gone through sex education lessons at school. When I was at school it was reproduction in biology and the odd mumbling here and there from the PE mistress about periods.

Why then do we hear that the numbers of teenage pregnancies in GB are the highest in Europe and occurance of STDs reaching mad levels :?:


It seems to me that more knowledge about sex = more sex happening.
Am I right?


[Michael_W : Capitalised Title]

Hrm.. I have mixed feelings about this.
Even after the sex education lessons, I still feel like I know very little about sex (still a virgin).

One thing for sure is that the more knowledge about sex you have, the more curious you are to have it.. :oops:

I remember mine. I was 10 and it was a video and then a class discussion in which no1 took part. Then we were told about bodily hygiene. I knew about both these topics in detail way before we were taught about them. I remember one girl having to run out before she fainted and threw up. I dont think any1 pays any attention to them. The number of people round here who get pregnant at school must be higher than ever, yet we're taught about it more and more at school. Schools even give out free condoms, but no-one dares to go and ask for them so whats the point.

Don't know how sex education is taught these days, wasn't much when I was at school, but maybe a few explicit videos on childbirth and the hardship of looking after babies and young children would put a few youngsters off dabbling in sexual activity too early.......just a thought !

Its taught from a very scientific video these days (if you count my sex ed which was 8 years ago as these days) depicting the biological aspect of it with scientific illustrations and animated clips of sperm meeting egg and baby growing in womb. Thats probably why no1 listens.

I think that sex education, and drugs education for that matter, simply don't work. The message is fundamentally 'heres how you have sex, heres how you use condoms, now don't have sex!', as well as 'heres what different drugs do to you, now don't take them!'. First of all the kid is now armed with knowing how to do the things they shouldn't, and secondly the fact that they shouldn't and have been told not to will encourage some of them even more! Theres certain things that should be left to the parents, and sex education is one of them.

Originally posted by "t020"

Theres certain things that should be left to the parents, and sex education is one of them.

That seems to be kinda old fashioned now..
Besides, I'm not close to my Dad, my parents are divorced and him telling me about that stuff would just be..... Weird.

Originally posted by "Neo"

One thing for sure is that the more knowledge about sex you have, the more curious you are ...
...and end up with the wrong person because the curiosity about sex has overwhelmed all vestiges of rationality and sex has been mistaken for love or screwing around or getting involved in "unconventional" activities in a continual pursuit of something better. (There is something better, best done at home alone - a really good chocolate fudge cake, no that's not a euphamism! Yes I mean eat it! No it doesn't even need to be the Alice B Toklas recipe! OK I'm getting old!).

My small son just had "the lesson" at school and brought the booklets home, they seemed to be more about puberty than sex though (and I was surprised that both girls and boys were given both the one about periods and the one about wet dreams and stuff).

However he's seen Monty Python's "Meaning of Life" recently so he's probably utterly confused. Among other things there's the Catholic children singing "every sperm is sacred" and then John Cleese giving an utterly emotionless sex education lesson - including a (not very explicit) practical demonstration... Maybe the schools should use that as their model, he made it all sound about as exciting as "double maths". Anyway son's verdict was that "Life of Brian" and "Holy Grail" were much better. He simply didn't get the sex stuff - a bit like the innuendo in Pantomime, the kids just wonder why the adults are laughing some of the time.

When I was at school, it was Y6 I think... the boys were took to one room, the girls to another. Girls were given a talk about periods, pregnancy etc. The boys were shown a video about 'how things happen/work.' It was quite strange come to think of it. When we got secondary school though we maybe had 2/3 talks about pregnancy which was mostly things like, "Go see the school nurse" bla de bla. It didn't do much for me really. I think you learn more things from your mates than anywhere else... I know I for one did!!
Chloé

Originally posted by "Chloe"

I think you learn more things from your mates than anywhere else... I know I for one did!! One of my wives (no that doesn't mean I've got more than one!) had been told nothing and ran to her mum when her first period came... Mum's reaction was "you'd best not mess with the boys now then" and that was it. So she went and asked her best friend who was a year older and explained what she needed to know. So I reckon it's good if the schools cover the essentials in Y6 - but having fore-warned the parents so they can pre-empt the school or at least be ready for any supplementary questions.

Originally posted by "robh"

I think you learn more things from your mates than anywhere else... I know I for one did!! One of my wives

'ello dave... you're my wiifee nowww ;)

Hmm sex education in schools...

*Caprice wracks her brain*

Well, its been a while since they taught us anything, thats for sure. In Year 6, just before we went to Secondary school, we were taught the "key words" how and why women menstruated and drew diagrams of the penis.

Looking back, we weren't old enough to need to learn the emotional side to it all, but as you can see they didn't teach us much!

When I got to Secondary school, I think we had a unit on it in year 7. Once again, we were labelling diagrams, but this time it got a little more practical. I think one practical lesson we did in science was testing the absorbancy of tampons/pads. The moral of the lesson (for the ones who had enough about them to work it out) was that women have the choice, and looking at absorbancies prooved that we could choose either according to our needs and such.

Then, there was an absence of sex education. In Year 9, we had a half and hour session on sex with a guest speeker. She was the most helpful source that school had provided us with. She didn't make us draw diagrams, she didn't talk about key words etc, instead, she did the one thing we all responded well to, she let us join in and participate! We handed round various methods of contraception, talked about how they worked, what they looked like, if they were a good form of contraception or not. Then she showed us how to put a condom on a model penis. (Not the cucumber or banana we'd expected!)

And that was all we had!

Originally posted by "caprice"

We handed round various methods of contraception, talked about how they worked, what they looked like, if they were a good form of contraception or not. Then she showed us how to put a condom on a model penis. (Not the cucumber or banana we'd expected!)

And that was all we had!

We had a similar thing when I was at school, except the teacher was very nervous and she had a rather over-sized cucumber. We learnt a couple of things from the lesson, but the main things was that "Femidoms" should never have been invented :lol:! (They're simply horrible things.)

Again, the focus was on "how to" and not "why". One major problem with sex education these days is that it's called "sex" and not "reproduction". It's almost being taught like it's a recreational activity.

If they taught more kids that having sex results in a baby being born (and didn't emphasise the fact that it's actually preventable if you use one of the many methods on contraception) then that would scare more kids IMO. The kids are shown condoms, told that they're 99% successful and the kids think "I'll never be that 1 out of 100" - and they're wrong...

Sex education in schools is and has always been absolutly shocking!

By the time our school got around to giving us "the talk" 3/4 of the class were already having sex!

I think the best way to educate kids about sex and drugs is to be totally honest. Bring teenage mothers, people with aids, heroin addicts etc...into class to tel the kids how things really are.

I think it would be wise to teach the kids the emotional side of sex, not just the physical. They need to know how to handle feelings of hurt and rejection, how to keep their self respect and not get blagged into doing things that can wait.

I wish I had had good sex education then I might not have been so stupid when I was younger.

I have always maintained that sex education in schools is wrong, children are naturally curious about their sexual organs anyway, so why tell them what and how to do it, it is simply encouraging them to experiment, hence many under age pregnancies.

It does not need a brain surgeons intelligence to know what young children will do with that knowledge, seems to me that it is just one more example of perverts in our education system who must get some kind of thrill from talking to little boys and girls in this way.

When I went to school. we were allowed our innocence in our young days and the word SEX was taboo both at home and in school, these idiots who advocate sex education shouldn't need to ask WHY when little girls become pregnant at ten , eleven and twelve years of age!!!

Perhaps school isn't really the best place for kids to learn about sex. Mabe we as parents should be sitting our kids down and telling them about sex in a way that emphasises the importance of love, relationships and respect, rather then merely the act of sex.

One thing worth mentioning here is that when the teenage pregnancy rate is worked out it includes all teenagers up to and including 19 years old. This takes in married teenagers as well, so like all things involving statistics it is slightly misleading. :roll:

In a perfect world, every parent would sit their child down and talk to them clearly and reasonably about sex. Even more ideally, as was the case in my family with both my sister and I, there were books available from the year dot - picture books like 'Where did I come from', to 'sistertalk', to a great book, very dry and 1960s, that explained sex from an adult point of view that was very useful after adolescence when I started to have more detailed questions. Despite all this information, actually BECAUSE OF IT, I was very grown up about my attitude to sex, knew the pitfalls, and did not start until the age of 18 which I don't think is too early, kept it to one special partner at a time, and never had any unfortunate accidents. At 18 now, my sister has followed the same balanced path. Both of us can have casual conversations with our parents about it as well.
Unfortunately, many parents are uncomfortable with this level of openness, or do not care, or grew up expecting to have children early and expect the same for their kids, or or or...
So what is needed in my opinion is sex education at school that addresses real issues, is not pathetically self-conscious and uncomfortable, does not hide behind ridiculous euphemisms like rabbits birds and bees, and starts from an early age.

My two cents worth.

Older generations didn't have sex education lessons. The problem with sexual related diseases is growing, i.e. implying that the old generation (with no lessons) has performed (excuse pun) better than our current "educated" generation.

So, why is it that the more we experiment with different sex education classes and teaching styles, the worse the problem becomes? Very odd!

Resurrecting this thread as came across this clip tonight!!

Birds and Bees (http://www.crazyclip.ws/animation/446254.html)

I found it a very informative clip for kids - I hope nobody is offended by it!

;)

This has been posted about before. So my reply is unchanged - during sex ed we all asked the female teacher for practical.

Old ones are always the best ones ...... unless they aren't.

Dragon

Originally posted by Dragon
This has been posted about before. So my reply is unchanged - during sex ed we all asked the female teacher for practical.

Old ones are always the best ones ...... unless they aren't.

Dragon

Don't think it is a repost...I did search first!!

I thought it funny to see all the sperm...lounging around the seminal pool...:P

Good way to show kids though I thought!!

I thought kids nowardays kids had sex at school and therefore that is their sex eduation?:confused:

Originally posted by halevan
I have always maintained that sex education in schools is wrong, children are naturally curious about their sexual organs anyway, so why tell them what and how to do it, it is simply encouraging them to experiment, hence many under age pregnancies.

It does not need a brain surgeons intelligence to know what young children will do with that knowledge, seems to me that it is just one more example of perverts in our education system who must get some kind of thrill from talking to little boys and girls in this way.

When I went to school. we were allowed our innocence in our young days and the word SEX was taboo both at home and in school, these idiots who advocate sex education shouldn't need to ask WHY when little girls become pregnant at ten , eleven and twelve years of age!!!

I'm not so sure that when I was at school we were allowed our innocence. It was more like allowed our ignorance.

Sex education at my school (circa 1963) was a novelty. It consisted of one 2 hour lesson, the details of which revolved around anatomy, and culminated in the class teacher announcing that if ever one of us lads got a girl into trouble, we needn't go asking him for help - because he'd now warned us of the consequences! Few of us were any wiser about sex after this one lesson.

In the mid 1970s, I worked for a short time in a girl's approved school. A lot of the girls were young mothers. Some were as young as 11. Few indeed had a clue how they had become pregnant, and remained in ignorance about how their bodies functioned, and how babies were created.

I am a strong advocate of sex education at school for a number of reasons. With few exceptions, parents generally feel awkward about discussing sex with their children. I recall that when I eventually choose the time to discuss sex with my son, he simply smiled and told me that he had learned "all that" at school.

Sex education is about explaining both the mechanics and the responsibilities. It's not about being prescriptive, but about equipping our young people to make informed choices.

It's not about being moralistic, but being realistic. Young people have sex. The UK has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in Europe. In the Netherlands, the rate is one of the lowest in Europe. Why the difference? I suspect it is because in the Netherlands they start sex education in primary school, and continue the education throughout the secondary school years. Food for thought.

I suppose i was luckier than most, having parents who were pretty cool and unafraid to explain to me ( even before i went to junior school) that the stork brought my sister, and i was found under a gooseberry bush.

I think a big problem with the standard of sex education in schools is that we are asking teachers who would ordinarily teach science or PE to cover a topic that is either unrelated (PE) or much bigger (biology) than the subject they ordinarily teach. Most teachers I know absolutely dread giving sex education - so how can we expect it to be of a good standard? I really think that there should be full-time sex education teachers who travel around all schools, who are comfortable teaching the subject, and who are prepared for any question that will be thrown at them because they have heard it all before.

I think it's a bit niave of people to think that if you don't teach sex education then you can help to eradicate the problem of teenagers having sex. Teenagers will have sex whatever they are taught or not taught in school. There is so much sex around everywhere in society today that if they don't get the information from school then they will get it from television, or the internet, or friends. At least if the education is in school we can ensure that they are getting the correct information. The pre-occupation that society has with sex also doesn't help. Even adults see sex everywhere and think everyone must be getting more than they are (and that is a bad thing!), so what are teenagers meant to think?

I also think that a big reason for why there are so many teenage pregnancies is because it is seen as an easy option by many girls. They see that you can get away with not working, get benefits, a place to live etc, and actually CHOOSE to get pregnant at a very young age. I also think there is much less emphasis now on monogamy and on sex being something special between people who care for each other (for all ages, not just teenagers). It seems to be accepted that most people will have a fair number of sexual partners in their lifetime, and that sex comes naturally after just a few dates (if that).

My 'official' sex education took place at Middle School. This was in the form of three planned lectures by the Headmaster. The first lecture concerned the breeding habits of selected animals [frogs and rabbits], without any reference to human sexual congress and reproduction. The second lecture was about The National Trust, and its admirable conservation work. The Headmaster failed to deliver a third lecture.

Therefore, I am eternally grateful to my fellow pupil, Craig Machin, for the many diagrams he drew at lunchtime in an enthusiastic, generous and selfless attempt to make up for the deficits in the Headmaster's master classes on sex. Thanks to Craig, I eagerly learned that sex is 'when you're bare', the proper name for the female genitalia is 'the Virginian' [there was a cowboy series of that name on television at this time in the early seventies], and the attributes of manhood when aroused are subject to 'a lob on'[scientific term].

Thankyou, Craig wherever you are. There was never a case of under- age pregnancy in that school, or in the Senior school we both attended. This, one reflects, is undoubtedly due to your dissemination of carnal wisdom as Sexologist par excellence.

i saw one or two eductional films in either science or humanities or something similar. learnt everything else from books - re: anatomy etc.
then learnt everything else the "hard" way.
but are we talking about the actual act of intercourse or the morality of it.?

why show & teach children how to have sex if they don't understand why, i.e love,procreation etc,relationships,self respect.?
but then again why advise a 14 year old not to have 1 night stands & wait for the right person when the people telling him usually ignored the advice & 25% of them are getting divorced.

You'll have to excuse me because there's a rant coming on here. My contempt for FDU tabloids is so great that I find it difficult to keep it under wraps.


The problem with sex education can be traced back to the Daily Mail and their ilk. They take the view (christian in origin) that sex is wrong, and that we should all feel guilty for having it. There are lots of magazines for teenagers like "More", "Sugar" etc that give practical comprehensive advice on all things sex related, especially safe sex. The problem is that these magazines are ineveitably shouted down in moral outrage from the conservative majority. The same thing applies to teen sexual health clinics; places where you can get great advice explained by people who really know what they're talking about.

In short, the problem is that sex still isn't talked about, and sex education isn't anywhere near as comprehensive as it should be. Teenagers are always going to have sex because that's what puberty does to a person. :)

Originally posted by kittykat
I remember mine. I was 10 and it was a video and then a class discussion in which no1 took part. Then we were told about bodily hygiene. I knew about both these topics in detail way before we were taught about them. I remember one girl having to run out before she fainted and threw up. I dont think any1 pays any attention to them. The number of people round here who get pregnant at school must be higher than ever, yet we're taught about it more and more at school. Schools even give out free condoms, but no-one dares to go and ask for them so whats the point.

Thats pretty much how they are now except we have flash cards with nasty sexually transmitted diseases on them. It would seem that the more we know about the more curious we are to have we are but I don't think thats the case. It's more that its peer preasure there are some people who think that if they've had sex then they're cooland grown up. Our school doesn't give out condoms I thought that was illegal? But people are too embarassed to get them from clinics which, to me says that they aren't ready for sex but..

I personally don't think we're taught enough about sex in schools.

No kids in class are gonna say 'Oh, please may I have a condom ?' are they? I was fascinated with periods, and things like that. But kids in your class laugh if you ask a question about it. Also with sex. I think no-one likes asking in front of kids and are embarrassed alot by asking there teacher. I know I've felt it before.

yeah i agree with that

I've read the adult POV on this topic with interest...but... it's been a while since most of us were at school...

I'd be very interested to hear from anyone still at school who is currently receiving, or has recently received sex education lessons.

I'd like to know how they think the lessons should be given to get the message across in the best way possible.

e.g. to mixed classes? To segregated boys & girls classes? Individually? By normal teachers? By experts brought in just for sex education classes? Or even by using a language laboratory method, that is, interaction with a computer, avoiding all embarrassment?

I'd also like to know what aspects they think should be covered, the purely physical? or are the dangers of sex, the morality of it and the complexity of responsibility in relationships also important to them?

Originally posted by halevan
I have always maintained that sex education in schools is wrong, children are naturally curious about their sexual organs anyway, so why tell them what and how to do it, it is simply encouraging them to experiment, hence many under age pregnancies.

It does not need a brain surgeons intelligence to know what young children will do with that knowledge, seems to me that it is just one more example of perverts in our education system who must get some kind of thrill from talking to little boys and girls in this way.

When I went to school. we were allowed our innocence in our young days and the word SEX was taboo both at home and in school, these idiots who advocate sex education shouldn't need to ask WHY when little girls become pregnant at ten , eleven and twelve years of age!!!

I completely disagree. the reason why we have such a high teenage pregnancy rate is summed up nicely in your post.

Because children aren't honestly and un patronisingly told exactly what sex is, why and what will happen, told how to use condoms at 11 , told the risks about pregnancy and sexual diseases we have such a high rate.

tell them everything in as much detail as you can at an early age.

tell them using condoms is the norm. have free condoms to give out to anyone. Surely young boys will want to practice with one to become comfortable before having sex?

destigmatise it. make conversation about it open.

I

Originally posted by redrobbo
I recall that when I eventually choose the time to discuss sex with my son, he simply smiled and told me that he had learned "all that" at school.


Oh god I remember that day.... as if I wouldn't already know by then... I was 24! ;)
Dad: Steve.....<uncomfortable pause>....there comes a time in a young mans life-
Steve: -Dad are you about to try and give me "the talk"? <shudder> Please don't. :D :D :D lol

Yeah I did learn it at school....

.....just not form the teachers! ;)

PMSL :D
(Andy told me to put that bit, it's not true, I'm still very pure & innocent of course ;) )

Originally posted by SupraSteve
(Andy told me to put that bit, it's not true, I'm still very pure & innocent of course ;) )

Are you trying to get me into bother? :blush:

I remember our sex education - it was carried out by the electronics teacher :confused: That covered the "mechanics" but didn't really cover the important things like STDs or pregnancy.

In the final year we had a nurse come in to talk about contraception, however it was a bit late as at least 1 girl in the class was pregnent by then.

Just because we have the worst in Europe does not mean the problem is getting worse. It just means others are getting better faster than ours.

In fact if you go to the source of the data.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/Expodata/Spreadsheets/D9029.xls

You will find that since 1961 the number of births where the mother is under 20 have been on a steady decline, with a slight blip in 2004 (the results for 2004 are provisional, so that could change). It's also the case for the 20-24 range and 25-29.

It was in the 60's and 70's where the real problems were. Thats when we had little sex education.

All Under 20.
1961 811.3 59.8

1964 876.0 76.7

1966 849.8 86.7

1971 783.2 82.6

1976 584.3 57.9

1977 569.3 54.5

1981 634.5 56.6

1986 661.0 57.4

1991 699.2 52.4

1992 689.7 47.9
1993 673.5 45.1
1994 664.7 42.0
1995 648.1 41.9
1996 649.5 44.7
1997 643.1 46.4
1998 635.9 48.3
1999 621.9 48.4
2000 604.4 45.8
2001 594.6 44.2
2002 596.1 43.5
2003 621.5 44.2
2004 639.7 45.0

I remember not so long ago a magazine aimed at teenagers (just 17 or something) with "sex position of the week". Why education is to blame in some peoples eyes i have no idea. Kids don't really listen to teachers much, we know this, but their peers are where their influenced come from.

Also i would like to know what happened in 1976, something had a big effect on the rates. Could it be the implementation of better sex education in Schools? Or in a frequanomics fashion, was it the The Sex Discrimination Act 1975?

Still progress to be made even though the trend is good. I personally like the idea of making everybody sit through a video of pregnancy, all of it, not just a clip.

we have had a lot of sex education through schools in my opinion so people who are saying we dont get enough i cant really see where they are coming from...

in Y6 we went through all the technical stuff (how it all works, what things were called n what to do with things etc.).. i think we spent a couple of weeks looking at the topic before moving on to one about drugs..

in y7 i know we did something pretty much the same in our science lessons, the technical stuff and about contraception and STI's etc..

in i think it was about y8-9 we did some stuff in our tutorial which was mostly about contraception + STI's again.. with a little bit about what having a baby means..

in y10ish in PSHE we did more about being a parent, the responsiblilties and all about the contraception n stuff again, mostly concentrating on the emotions n stuff (where we got to watch a hillarious home movie of our teacher when her son was a baby!)

some of us also did a 2 day course with the learning mentors all about what it would be like to have a baby ( with those doll thingies we had to look after for a few days) and what it would mean us giving up and haveing to do and how people and ourselves would feel about it, and more drilling into us about contraception and STI's)

.... overall i think we have done an awfull lot of sex education and i think as most of it, especially in later years was aimed at discouraging us to have babies, it was probably quite usefull..(i dont think there weer all that many people left our school with babies)

i think that maybe there are more people having sex younger than they used to be, but also think that maybe people are being a lot more carefull with it!

...however, saying that, i am 17 with a 5 month old daughter.. so who i am to talk, perhaps just say that no matter what you have been taught, and no matter how much you dont want it to, these things do still happen and sometimes you just have to live with them!

Why don't we just treat young people as the adults they actually are.

It's fairly safe to say that if they want to have sex, they're going to. No amount of lectures on biology, emotional engagement or pure scare tactics is going to stop them, and to be honest we shouldn't be trying to stop them.

The best thing any parent can do, and any school for that matter, is to admit that they have little actual control over when their charges start having sex. All we can do, all we should do, is to equip them with the information they need to make their own minds up - on contraception, on the risks, on the consequnces both physically and emotionally, and not forgetting on the joys that it can bring. If you engage people like adults, they will behave like adults.

One day, my as yet non-existent child is going to want to have sex, and I hope that when that time comes I have the ability to say 'Look, I couldn't stop you having sex even if I wanted to. But you need to take responsibility, you're not a child anymore, this is serious.'

Of course, if I have a little girl she will be hidden in an ivory tower until she's 30 - there is no way that I'm letting some grubby kid get his mitts on her :heyhey:

Originally posted by limpetboy
.

The best thing any parent can do, and any school for that matter, is to admit that they have little actual control over when their charges start having sex.


One day, my as yet non-existent child is going to want to have sex, and I hope that when that time comes I have the ability to say 'Look, I couldn't stop you having sex even if I wanted to. But you need to take responsibility, you're not a child anymore, this is serious.'


:clap:

However the EASIEST thing a parent can do is blame the Schools, and that actually is on the increase.

It seems to be the Schools fault if the kids are violent. The Schools fault for teenage pregnancies, the schools fault for drug use.

Last time i checked all these things are the result of bad parenting, not bad schooling.

certainly sounds like you got a lot more coverage on the topic at school than we did 10 years earlier, which can only be a good thing.

Originally posted by SatanInHeels
we have had a lot of sex education through schools in my opinion so people who are saying we dont get enough i cant really see where they are coming from...

in Y6 we went through all the technical stuff (how it all works, what things were called n what to do with things etc.).. i think we spent a couple of weeks looking at the topic before moving on to one about drugs..

in y7 i know we did something pretty much the same in our science lessons, the technical stuff and about contraception and STI's etc..

in i think it was about y8-9 we did some stuff in our tutorial which was mostly about contraception + STI's again.. with a little bit about what having a baby means..

in y10ish in PSHE we did more about being a parent, the responsiblilties and all about the contraception n stuff again, mostly concentrating on the emotions n stuff (where we got to watch a hillarious home movie of our teacher when her son was a baby!)

some of us also did a 2 day course with the learning mentors all about what it would be like to have a baby ( with those doll thingies we had to look after for a few days) and what it would mean us giving up and haveing to do and how people and ourselves would feel about it, and more drilling into us about contraception and STI's)

.... overall i think we have done an awfull lot of sex education and i think as most of it, especially in later years was aimed at discouraging us to have babies, it was probably quite usefull..(i dont think there weer all that many people left our school with babies)

i think that maybe there are more people having sex younger than they used to be, but also think that maybe people are being a lot more carefull with it!

...however, saying that, i am 17 with a 5 month old daughter.. so who i am to talk, perhaps just say that no matter what you have been taught, and no matter how much you dont want it to, these things do still happen and sometimes you just have to live with them!

Originally posted by Pseudonym
I've read the adult POV on this topic with interest...but... it's been a while since most of us were at school...

I'd be very interested to hear from anyone still at school who is currently receiving, or has recently received sex education lessons.

I'd like to know how they think the lessons should be given to get the message across in the best way possible.

e.g. to mixed classes? To segregated boys & girls classes? Individually? By normal teachers? By experts brought in just for sex education classes? Or even by using a language laboratory method, that is, interaction with a computer, avoiding all embarrassment?

I'd also like to know what aspects they think should be covered, the purely physical? or are the dangers of sex, the morality of it and the complexity of responsibility in relationships also important to them?

yeh hi im still in skule and recieving sex ed
i thinki mixed classes are ok, i dont think we learn enough about it. One of the reasons i agree with sex ed is because a young girl did not know what was happening when her periods started she didnt know what was happening, and one of the results of this was death. I think everyone should know whats going on in their lives and if learning about it helps then i think we should. i dont think we learn enough about it though. All we know is how to put a condom on a plastic thing and what a period is and how to avoid sexually transmitted diseases. I think we should learn more about it personally

Scrap sex ed, you clearly need to go to more english lessons.

a worthy contribution to the debate Cyclone ... :rolleyes:

FF, when you say one of the results was death - do you mean she killed herself because of it?

Has anyone ever discussed the subject with foreign exchange students? It'd be interesting to know how their sex ed lessons differ from ours. Whether it's the actual lessons that lead to the fewer teen pregnancies or whether it's a cultural difference that makes it less acceptable (or financially viable) in other countries?

Originally posted by FilthFan
yeh hi im still in skule and recieving sex ed
i thinki mixed classes are ok, i dont think we learn enough about it. One of the reasons i agree with sex ed is because a young girl did not know what was happening when her periods started she didnt know what was happening, and one of the results of this was death. I think everyone should know whats going on in their lives and if learning about it helps then i think we should. i dont think we learn enough about it though. All we know is how to put a condom on a plastic thing and what a period is and how to avoid sexually transmitted diseases. I think we should learn more about it personally
Hi FilthFan... Thanks for answering my questions.

And I agree with you, I think that you should be taught a lot more about it, particularly the moral, social and relationship aspects of it. Teaching you only the absolute basics doesn't enable you to fully understand many of the responsibilities that can result from it.

Originally posted by rubydazzler
a worthy contribution to the debate Cyclone ... :rolleyes:



Do you find that level of spelling and grammar acceptable? I'd expect better from a 10 year old.

Originally posted by Cyclone
Do you find that level of spelling and grammar acceptable? I'd expect better from a 10 year old.
The name of the game on here is communication as far as I'm concerned. I asked a series of questions, FF answered them and I understood her answers... That's all that was required.

So what if it was written hastily, included a smattering of text-speak and wasn't spell-checked, the information requested was given, that's sufficient for me.

Incidently, going on some of her previous posts, she can write to a standard that would almost satisfy even your discerning taste when she wishes to. ;)

"Judge not others, lest Ye be judged in turn!" :D

we're not in an English Language lesson in school though, Cyclone. We're having a conversation about sex education lessons ....

If we had to look at everything we posted with a view to it being marked by someome, very few of us would post anything. I've noticed errors in some of your posts but I can still read and understand them, which is all that's necessary, surely?

Back to the topic ....

Well said, ruby. There has to be a certain amount of tolerance on the forum regarding the written style of the posters. I publish in academic journals and books, and my papers and book chapters are proof read. When I post on here I am 'rattling off' something of little importance to anyone in the greater scheme of things, so I do not pay 100% attention to grammatical construction, syntax, concision etc. After all, as ruby says, these are not essays to be marked. As long as we can understand each other, that is all that ultimately matters. The forum should be fun, not a star chamber in which every little slip of the typing fingers is held up as a sign of illiteracy.

Cyclone, your postings often contain plenty of errors too. I have known you to [shock! horror!] split the odd infinitive...

I'm certainly not claiming to be perfect, but you're all very understanding all of a sudden.
I'm sure if I go and look up the thread discussing text speak in posts you'll all have soundly lambasted it.

If only we could all send our children to the romance academy....!
The stats may show that we have have the highest rates of teenage pregnancy / STDs in Europe (?) but we do not have the most liberal approach to sex education or the lowest age of consent - so there isn't necessarily a positive correlation between the two.
My beef is with the abstinence / ignorance is best brigade - encouraging young people to deny their natural feelings and curiosity and ultimately saying that marriage is all about getting laid - this can only be damaging, and is storing up problems for the future.
Sex is a positive part of human life and is something to be celebrated. Sex education should be teaching people how to engage in their sex lives safely, respectfully, non-exploitatively and when they are ready.
The reported prevalence of teenage pregnancy, one night stands and rampant STDs point, I think, to a wider problem about how teenagers seek to acquire self-respect, love, comfort etc. This also needs to be addressed in sex education but is symptomatic of a wider phenomenom in society.

Originally posted by Voise
The stats may show that we have have the highest rates of teenage pregnancy / STDs in Europe (?) but we do not have the most liberal approach to sex education or the lowest age of consent - so there isn't necessarily a positive correlation between the two.


Indeed there is plenty of evidence to suggest the opposite, countries with more liberal attitudes who engage in teaching sex ed at a much younger age tend to have much lower rates of teenage pregnancy and std than we do.

Originally posted by limpetboy
Why don't we just treat young people as the adults they actually are.

It's fairly safe to say that if they want to have sex, they're going to. No amount of lectures on biology, emotional engagement or pure scare tactics is going to stop them, and to be honest we shouldn't be trying to stop them.

The best thing any parent can do, and any school for that matter, is to admit that they have little actual control over when their charges start having sex. All we can do, all we should do, is to equip them with the information they need to make their own minds up - on contraception, on the risks, on the consequnces both physically and emotionally, and not forgetting on the joys that it can bring. If you engage people like adults, they will behave like adults.

One day, my as yet non-existent child is going to want to have sex, and I hope that when that time comes I have the ability to say 'Look, I couldn't stop you having sex even if I wanted to. But you need to take responsibility, you're not a child anymore, this is serious.'

Of course, if I have a little girl she will be hidden in an ivory tower until she's 30 - there is no way that I'm letting some grubby kid get his mitts on her :heyhey:

Best post I've read on this topic!

Kids will be kids, you cannot stop them in this day and age having sex- unless you do what you said, lock them away.

We need to be teaching kids openly about sex in school, from 1st day of high school upwards- BUT the parents should be learning them from earlier than that.

My mam and dad did that with me and I'm all the better for it :)

Originally posted by halevan
I have always maintained that sex education in schools is wrong, children are naturally curious about their sexual organs anyway, so why tell them what and how to do it, it is simply encouraging them to experiment, hence many under age pregnancies.

It does not need a brain surgeons intelligence to know what young children will do with that knowledge, seems to me that it is just one more example of perverts in our education system who must get some kind of thrill from talking to little boys and girls in this way.

When I went to school. we were allowed our innocence in our young days and the word SEX was taboo both at home and in school, these idiots who advocate sex education shouldn't need to ask WHY when little girls become pregnant at ten , eleven and twelve years of age!!!

Do you have 'stone-aged' views about everything?

I realise that it is understood now that better education means better preparation. It may mean that people start their explorations younger, but with education, they may be better equipped. I do agree with this but just to throw a spanner in the works....I had no sex education at school nor was it talked about at home...period. As a result I was petrified of it all and turned out to be a 'late bloomer' due to lack of knowledge. The 'not being prepared' just scared me off the whole thing for the longest time rather than made me go out and 'get to it' without the proper knowledge. Same applied to my pals, and actually to most people in our school year come to think of it. My other half things our school year was a bunch of weirdos cos we all rarely had fights, hardly had any trouble, had hardly any people in relationships...and basically everyone got on with everyone..not much nooky going on cos we were mostly pals....and this was a big school. Maybe that situation is somewhat unique. However, my point was, I could not have been LESS interested in the opposite sex during my formative years if I tried (or the same sex, before you guys say anything!)

I remember that I had S/ED. in games and P.E for approx 1 hour. Prior to that I had a lesson in junior school, aflim and handouts. That was it.
Now friends can be helpful at times, one of mine got talking about his parents magazine stash and invited me to see it.
This opportunity led me to his house early on school morning to begin my education into the world of nocturnal activities, which I may add is still healthy and strong.

Having W/Indian parents, the chances of me asking them about sex etc.... was, whats too low for zero?;
Their attitude was "Yu doan' need fi' noa dat, dat is not fi'yu, tings like dat is naaasti', dem gyal gwaaan put yu inna trubble!"

Need I say more?
I have 2 daughters and have always said to them talk to us about anything that is bothering you and over the years they do.
As long as you instill trust and confidence in your children hopefully they should trust you with anything.
The stories about my parents still crack them up but they are true, just check out Lenny Henry when he is on the TV and see.

Cyclone - what on Earth did that point have to do with the debate.

While you're complaining about it English has a capital E.

Rather than digressing from the topic of the thread, please keep a look out on General Chit Chat - there will be a topic made for you as soon as I've finished writing this.

On topic - I think the problem with sex ed in schools is it's so boring. But I don't think that it is the culprit for the statistics of teenage pregnancies/STIs. I think that is down to peer pressure and that we should just be thankful that there aren't more.

I knew several girls who had started sexual relationships at 15 years of age but they were either on the pill or their partners used condoms.

And, the story Filthfan was telling, in case it hasn't been clarified, the girl started her period but couldn't talk to her mother. She tried but her mother didn't have time and as there was nobody she could talk to, and she hadn't learned about periods, she thought she was bleeding to death. So she ended it quickly. Yes Ruby, she killed herself.

Lottie

to be fair it is only loosely linked, but covering any particular thing, ie sex ed, does mean that less time is spent on other subjects.

Clearly the poster I was replying too needed more English lessons, and my tongue in cheek opinion is that they would be more valuable for her than sex education lessons.

I would personally rather have bad spelling than an unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease thankyou very much!

Originally posted by FilthFan
I would personally rather have bad spelling than an unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease thankyou very much!

TONGUE IN CHEEK

But she doesn't because she's my sister and I know she can spell. I've seen her do it - she also writes stories that are pretty darn good too.

She simply didn't feel the need to write out long words when people can understand 'txt tlk'.

Personally - I'd rather have a 'dumbass' sister who can't spell to save her life than one with a baby at 15.

I think you have your priorities wrong :suspect:

Originally posted by Cyclone
TONGUE IN CHEEK

But you said it so I said my opinion....maybe it's my tongue in cheek opinion :)

I think we are digressing...

Can we keep to topic and if anybody wants to join the debate about filthfan's spelling there's one going on on another thread. :D

Let's keep to the topic now. Sorry Mo - for hijacking the thread :rolleyes:

Originally posted by FilthFan
I would personally rather have bad spelling than an unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease thankyou very much!

maybe you don't actually understand what tongue in cheek means.
You stated your opinion as if it was different to mine, but since i'd already explained that the opinion was tongue in cheek (although expressing a genuine annoyance at the gibberish posted and apparent lack of education of the poster) it obviously wasn't different.

So, what exactly was the point of it?


The point about disgressing was made whilst I was still posting this, you are correct and there is now another thread to discuss the use of text speak, I had already (to the earlier comments) and will again stop following the point in this thread

Originally posted by Lotti
I think we are digressing...

Can we keep to topic and if anybody wants to join the debate about filthfan's spelling there's one going on on another thread. :D

Let's keep to the topic now. Sorry Mo - for hijacking the thread :rolleyes:

Cyclone - read this post dear and understand the point of that.

DIGRESSING AGAIN

Filthfan, is one of those kids who go to school every day, she gets mentions from the teachers for her attendance and returns from school every day, goes upstairs and gets on with her homework before coming downstairs to watch TV or go on Sheffield Forum

So she has no lack of education.

There is a time and a place for things - sometimes people don't understand those times and those places, like your post taking exception to FF's spelling. And like FF didn't realise she would offend you by simply posting something in text talk.

Believe me, when neccessary - she uses 'proper English' ;)

look at it this way. I don't check my spelling, grammar etc. why? because I've spent a long day at work checking everything and I cannot be bothered. It normally comes out readible (unless too much sauce has been taken). I don't see the problem. It is only a problem when you can't understand it are we get 100% etx speach through an entire post.

This topic, started by Mo, is: Sex education in schools. This extremely interesting debate has been hi-jacked by the correct English squad! Can we please put an end to this little squabble about spelling and grammar, and get back on topic?

Knowing sex ed in school as it is taught in King Edwards I think we need to learn more about it. The most detail we went into in our sex ed lessons was looking at a picture and matching it to the name and when people didn't know the answers that seemed to be an end to the topic

It sounds like it's rather hit and miss depending on which school your at, or maybe even which teacher covers the topic.

True, but from the people I have spoken to they don't rate sex ed either. I just don't think we cover subjects thoroughly enough. We had a few leaflets thrown at us after that lesson and sex was never mentioned again.

... sorry... i am an idiot...

Originally posted by back2basics
... sorry... i am an idiot...

............why???

Originally posted by FilthFan
............why???

I posted something in the wrong thread :)

oh ok :)
im sure we all do it sometimes