This time it's definitely about sex.
Oct. 25th, 2008 03:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sister_luckThe "Was he or wasn't he" controversy about Haider is still going strong. I'm more interested in the media coverage than in the actual story.
It's still all about sex for me though.
The BBCnews website has again kindly provided me with a talking point. Sex and relationship lessons are to be made compulsory in English schools and this has prompted someone to write up anecdotal memories of British sex ed which includes delightful readers comments. It's mostly funny stuff - some seems to be bordering on urban legend territory, like the story of the girl putting a condom on a banana with her mouth.
It's left me wondering though. Some commentators talk about positive experiences, but most of the sex ed memories sound like they come from a bad comedy sketch. Now I don't know whether that reflects reality or whether they just chose the most entertaining stories. In contrast my own memories are a lot less hilarious.
That might be because sex ed never really embarrassed me - quite the opposite, I remember how proud I was when I learned all the proper names for the various bits of the male and female anatomy in primary school. I was so proud that I made a little drawing with labels and gave it to my dad. (Okay, that is a bit embarrassing in hindsight.) I think that was also when we were told about the actual mechanics of baby making. Which led to a rather big information gap - I already knew what prostitutes did for a living and I can remember being confused about all the children they were having. Contraception wasn't dealt with then, but I must have acquired knowledge of that pretty soon after that, because at age 11 I tried embarrassing my teacher by asking what kind of contraceptives Roman prostitutes used. She wasn't embarrassed of course and even had an answer - sponges with herbal contraceptives - and promised to look it up in her encyclopedia of sexuality. I was in awe.
Later in secondary school, there was more sex ed, mostly from a biological perspective though we also got information about contraceptives - and because it was the 80s HIV/Aids and safer sex was a big topic. Not all of the lessons were of the same quality and I can remember that at age 15 or 16 we didn't quite trust our female teacher (who we considered to be totally asexual) to provide us with accurate information. Also, our parents had to sign a form that we were allowed to know about all of this, but I can't remember anyone being excluded from the lessons.
There was next to no relationship advice - some of the leaflets we got might have included this - but there were certainly never any moral warnings. I cannot distinctly remember videos or films, but I think we got one of a birth. I think some of my classmates might have been disgusted, but I maintained it was only natural. Maybe my reaction has something to do with being brought up in a fairly open family.
So, how was it for you?
It's still all about sex for me though.
The BBCnews website has again kindly provided me with a talking point. Sex and relationship lessons are to be made compulsory in English schools and this has prompted someone to write up anecdotal memories of British sex ed which includes delightful readers comments. It's mostly funny stuff - some seems to be bordering on urban legend territory, like the story of the girl putting a condom on a banana with her mouth.
It's left me wondering though. Some commentators talk about positive experiences, but most of the sex ed memories sound like they come from a bad comedy sketch. Now I don't know whether that reflects reality or whether they just chose the most entertaining stories. In contrast my own memories are a lot less hilarious.
That might be because sex ed never really embarrassed me - quite the opposite, I remember how proud I was when I learned all the proper names for the various bits of the male and female anatomy in primary school. I was so proud that I made a little drawing with labels and gave it to my dad. (Okay, that is a bit embarrassing in hindsight.) I think that was also when we were told about the actual mechanics of baby making. Which led to a rather big information gap - I already knew what prostitutes did for a living and I can remember being confused about all the children they were having. Contraception wasn't dealt with then, but I must have acquired knowledge of that pretty soon after that, because at age 11 I tried embarrassing my teacher by asking what kind of contraceptives Roman prostitutes used. She wasn't embarrassed of course and even had an answer - sponges with herbal contraceptives - and promised to look it up in her encyclopedia of sexuality. I was in awe.
Later in secondary school, there was more sex ed, mostly from a biological perspective though we also got information about contraceptives - and because it was the 80s HIV/Aids and safer sex was a big topic. Not all of the lessons were of the same quality and I can remember that at age 15 or 16 we didn't quite trust our female teacher (who we considered to be totally asexual) to provide us with accurate information. Also, our parents had to sign a form that we were allowed to know about all of this, but I can't remember anyone being excluded from the lessons.
There was next to no relationship advice - some of the leaflets we got might have included this - but there were certainly never any moral warnings. I cannot distinctly remember videos or films, but I think we got one of a birth. I think some of my classmates might have been disgusted, but I maintained it was only natural. Maybe my reaction has something to do with being brought up in a fairly open family.
So, how was it for you?
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no subject
Date: 2008-10-25 04:29 pm (UTC)Now the students have sex ed though. It's mostly a 2 hours information about contraception, HIV and other STDs.
no subject
Date: 2008-10-26 10:47 am (UTC)Two hours of throwing information at the students doesn't sound like much...
But then, students use all sorts of other sources of information, like their peers, magazines etc. anyway.
no subject
Date: 2008-10-25 04:35 pm (UTC)The relational side wasn't included in these lessons. This part was left for the religion lessons. (Really!) So it depended on the openness of the teacher whether we'd talk about it or not. One teacher lived next to a youth café, and she would go on and on about how disgusted she was with kids kissing right under her bedroom window. Where else would you go to kiss?
Nowadays sex ed and talk about relationships is included in between the lessons. I'm very open about it with my fifth and sixth graders: when they ask a question I answer it. I also talk about relationships, and different kinds of relationships, but that is indeed part of my lesson program.
When they get the regular sex ed in sixth grade there is talk about different ways of love-making and enjoying each other's company. It causes many giggles with the kids, but I think they'll be grateful to know this kind of thing, whereas I got loads of info from woman's and teen magazines back in the day...
no subject
Date: 2008-10-25 04:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-26 10:52 am (UTC)Where babies come from and how they get in there (just the very basics) we learned earlier, probably at around eight or so, which must have been fairly progressive for a Catholic primary school, though I think my parents had told me about this before.
Nowadays, in primary school, there is even talk about the fact that mum and dad enjoy this - which scandalises some of the parents...
no subject
Date: 2008-10-25 04:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-26 10:53 am (UTC)Yeah, we're about the same age, so learning about AIDS and condoms played a big role. It's sometimes neglected today which isn't good.