I went to a catholic grade school and a catholic high school. One thing i can say in retrospect, is that we talked about this stuff in class, and we all knew how the things worked and what could happen, what did happen, why we should wait, that we COULD wait, and that there were other options out there. We never had a formal sex-ed, and in a way we were taught "abstinence" sex-ed, but the subject was open and discussed and never got more graphic then need be.
Maybe its because we all had decent classes and great teachers who cared about us, in addition to that the whole thing now seems very carefully planned and orchestrated, they went through a lot of trouble to teach us this stuff and the realities of it. Had you asked anyone in our 5th grade class, even, what menstruation was, or how a woman could get pregnant, or what a condom was, we could all tell you. Admittedly at that point much of the stuff was simplified down, but we were explained to why things were happened and how they could be good or bad.
It's odd i think about it and i never had a sex-ed class, but it was worked into every other class, and they talked to us and taught us about it. More than just scaring us, or telling us it was bad, it was offered to us as our first big decision, that we could do this or we could not and they could not really stop us, but they told us it would be bad and there could/would be consequences for our actions. We were encouraged to control ourselves and we were told what could happen if you don't.
it was very different than what public schools seem to teach, which is: "use a condom and you'll be fine you cant help your self", which is a bit off a disgusting thing to tell anyone really. Not only do most sex-ed classes skimp on some important facts like: you can get a STD from oral sex, anal sex, and normal sex and a condom does not prevent most STDs, most STDs are transmitted through genital CONTACT, and you will have to live with your choices the rest of your life; but they tell kids that they are unable to control themselves and are only animals.
It really is a nauseating message when you think about it, and the expectations it sets. The message i was always given was "even if you slip up you can always seek forgiveness and DO BETTER and you have to OWN UP TO YOUR ACTIONS." The message given to many of my peers seems to have been "It does not matter you can't help yourself, your not really responsible." These messages pertain to so much more than sex-ed, but to the whole of public vs. private schooling, private schools hold there students up to an example and say "you are responsible for your own actions and the results of them" and public schools say "its not really your fault."
And we wonder what is wrong with schooling in America.
/monologue
I hope my writing was not too scatter-shot, i tend to write a little bit too much for posts, there is just so much to say! I do not hold to the bests of grammar and such as i really should with something this long. The Quiz itself that was given to these students, who should undoubtedly know what sex is at their age, seems a tad bit on the graphic side but more so on the cautious side. The pepole who wrote this and the school district have the best intentions but it ultimately comes down to the parents and the pepole these kids see as role-models, teachers and coaches, to give them the right message. The test is never gonna make a change in these kids lives' only the teacher can do that, and only the teacher can teach this, and only the teachers and parents are going to have influence over the actions of the children. Not some silly little test.
