Sex education at school - Play Safe Forum Topics
Use this button to quickly leave the website
Quick Exit
Visit the blog

Home Forums Sex & Relationships Sex education at school

Tagged: ,

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 21 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #106571
    ekoorb9
    Keymaster

    So….sex ed for me (I’m British) was the whole ‘put a condom on a fake penis’ and then watch a video about the inner workings of the female reproductive system.

    It was one one-hour class when I was about 14. Not exactly useful or very thorough. 

    I just wondered what other people’s experiences were? Were they as bad as mine?

    #112600
    peachy
    Participant

    @ekoorb9 Ooh that’s pretty bad!

    I had the condom on the fake penis class too at 15. At 13 they played us an abstinence video which was just a bunch of teenagers saying how much they regretted having sex with their partner and that it ruined their relationships! Terrible! I went to an all-girls school and this was like, 10 years ago so I’m really hoping things have got better! 

    #112601
    MintMilanoMintMilano
    Moderator

    I never got to do the condom on a fake penis thing! But at my school sex education was just learning about anatomy of the reproductive systems, how babies are made, and the names of STIs with basically no other information other than they were transmitted sexually. So there were some foundations there, but knowing what I know now, it was still pretty abysmal. 

    #112602
    Aunt_FloAunt_Flo
    Moderator

    The girls in my grade (at a co-ed school) went on an excursion for sex ed once. Otherwise, it was kind of just anatomy, a list of STIs and some basics on contraception. We did watch an extremely dated video about how god won’t punish you for masturbating as well. It was a good start, but I think we could have done with a lot lot more. Particularly around how sex actually works in real life, e.g. with issues of consent, someone not wanting to wear a condom, it being generally awkward sometimes etc.

    #112603
    HappyHooHah
    Participant

    All I can remember is watching a cartoon about erections and how they can be embarrassing for guys. I went to a Performing Arts High School and was surrounded by dancers, actors and musicians. No one was really shy so when this video was playing, the guys started lifted their tables gently as though they had intense erections and it was hilarious.
    The only part of the video that I remember was a guy standing at the top of a diving board, getting an erection from seeing the girls in their bikinis, turning bright red and then diving into the water…

    #112604
    peachy
    Participant

    @HappyHooHah omg I think I watched that same video!!! Did it feature super cringey Australian accents? 

    #112605
    HappyHooHah
    Participant

    haha most likely – I cant remember!

    #120373
    teatea
    Moderator

    I’d be really interested to know what sex ed in schools is like currently? When I was in HS (many moons ago) it was not inclusive in the slightest and didn’t really go past the basic condom process…..

    #120412
    veryelle
    Participant

    My HS sex ed was very biology-based too, which I found irrelevant at that age! I also remember watching an animation about STIs (although they were called STDs at the time). The STIs were spiky, evil characters and the point of the video was to scare students into wearing condoms.

    I think sex ed is SO important to include in HS, but I think teachers put it in the ‘too hard’ basket because there’s potentially so much to cover and they’re not necessarily trained/equipped to teach it sensitively and appropriately. We really need to include aspects of healthy and respectful relationships in sex ed, not just focus solely on STIs!

    My younger sister went through HS the last few years and she mentioned sex ed was still taught predominantly from an anatomical/biological lens. But what her school did was bring in trained people to run ‘SAPPSS’ (sexual assault prevention program for secondary schools). She said it was very empowering for her female peers to understand consent in different scenarios and contexts (boys and girls go through the program completely separately). It sounded like a valuable program for students to understand limits, boundaries, respect, sexual safety… etc. We need more programs like this!!

    #120413
    teatea
    Moderator

    Ah yeah @veryelle definitely the same for my experiences in HS, the STI’s were always demonized and framed in such a negative way that kind of scared you off from wanting to engage with sex in any way? Which is just sO counterproductive,,,,,

    YESSS 100% sexual education needs to be broader!!! Bringing more into the curriculum is such a hard thing to do though, education policy just makes it so freaking difficult to get any new information through the system, especially when it’s something so controversial like SEX?????

    SAPPSS sounds like such a cool program! I’m glad your sister was exposed to such a cool program, even if her sexual health education was still limiting. There IS another cool initiative like this called FemPower, which is full of rad people who go to schools to educate on feminist issues and female empowerment! Highly recommend giving that a look!

    #120786
    sextronautsextronaut
    Moderator

    @happyhooha @peachy I think I watched that video too! I remember two cells doing the tango, smashing together and out popped a baby cell, hahah! I find it really interesting that sex ed is delivered so biologically, rather than socially. But in biology the genitals were always unlabelled and the teacher didn’t talk about them! I’m a big believer in comprehensive, pleasure informed and sex positive education. I wish I had learned about my clitoris and how unlikely it would be that I would orgasm just from sticking something into my vagina. What’s one thing you wish you had learnt through school sex ed?

    #120788
    curiousss
    Moderator

    Sex ed at my all girls high school seriously sucked!
    I barely remember anything it was so average.
    Highlights were a lesson where we were shown a HORROR slide show of different pictures of genitalia infected with untreated STIs (WTF AHHHH). Scare tactics much. And now i think of it the point of traumatising us like this wasn’t around getting tested and treating STIs before they progress it was about always using a condom and abstinence.
    Another weird thing we did was CONDOM RACES? (any one else do this!!!????) we literally lineup and had to run down to the end of the class room and put a condom on a banana as fast as we could. Then the next person in your team would run down rip it off and put a new one on that poor banana. Thinking about it why were we taught to rush putting on a condom – now i know its pretty important to take your time making sure that bad boy is fitted on a penis properly and i never rush it.

    @sextronaut
    i feel ya girl i so wish i learnt about female orgasms ESPECIALLY CLITORIS ORGASMS (had to wait a bit longer to work that one out for myself hahaha). I think that would of helped me feel less embarrassed about enjoying orgasms when i was younger also.
    i also wish i learnt more about testing and treating STIs instead of just prevention, especially since reality is 1 in 5 young people get an STI these days!

    #120794
    teatea
    Moderator

    “I remember two cells doing the tango, smashing together and out popped a baby cell” @sextronaut

    HAHAHAHA omg, also wow unlabelled genitalia??? that’s so odd, what did they call these parts if you asked about them then?


    @curiousss
    Oh man yeah I remember the horror show!! Nothing like scare tactics to induce abstinence!! Also, OMG condom races????

    “Then the next person in your team would run down rip it off and put a new one on that poor banana.”

    I PEED HAHA poor banana, I never got to participate in the exercise at all actually! Lucky bananas..

    Yeah, I definitely wish I learnt more about STI prevention and intervention when I was in school and 100% more about pleasure!!! Sex should be fun not scary!

    #120810
    sextronautsextronaut
    Moderator

    @tea there would be a diagram of a female reproductive system, for instance, front on. So the uterus, fallopian tubes and cervix were labelled and you could see the mons pubis and labia majora but non of it was labelled! There were just body parts and no words. 🙁


    @curiousss
    the races sound hilarious!

    I also remember learning about sex, drugs, and drink driving all at the same time and the fear tactics they used for taking drugs were the same as having sex/contracting an STI. So at the time, contracting an STI seemed equivalent to overdosing on drugs. WHAT! I remember them bringing in a man who had sex with men, contracted HIV and told us that his life was over. Worst education ever. For anyone who’s wondering, contracting an STI/HIV is NOT as dangerous as overdosing on drugs and is most certainly not the end of your life. My school sex-ed was just ridiculous.

    #120829
    PurplePurple
    Moderator

    I don’t have anything to add because I’m single/don’t regularly have sex but just wanted to say that the comments here are so cute/funny/caring and I love this thread !!!

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 21 total)
  • The forum ‘Sex & Relationships’ is closed to new topics and replies.