Sex Education In the world

[crimson5pheonix]

Yet again, I will say that my area exemplifies what foreigners (and we do pronounce it that way, we have respect for our language) talk about when they say the American sex education course is a fail. Our school didn't have one. No explanations. Just no sex education in a real amount. The closest we got was a single day in health class that amounted to "you use it, you lose it". This is southeast Texas for those who care.

 

[vede]

Man, where I go to school they don't teach us anything about this. There was no "Sex Ed" and there was no video or time when they approach you about it. They basically say you're too young to know about it up until about seventh grade, then assume you know what happens by the end of eighth grade. They just left us to our own devices and urges. And now there's three eighth graders who are pregnant. Keep in mind, there's probably fifty or so eighth grade girls in the school.

Oh, yeah, I'm in Oklahoma.

 

[poleboy]

We barely had anything when I was in school in the early 90's. A couple of lessons, some books and a saucy puppet show. Or maybe it was a movie. I guess that explains why I got Clamydia.

 

[PatientGrasshopper]

I don't particularly agre with the idea myself, but as far as avoiding pregnancy and STDs, abstinence really is the only really effective deterrent. After all, there's very little chance of getting anything without having sex, right?
Of course, few people actually want to take that route.

Yes abstinence is the only sure fire way to avoid it all.
Also it is the job of the parents not the school to teach these things but I understand why they do, because the parents don't do it.

 

[Cyclomega]

A couple of lessons, some books and a saucy puppet show.

I think this explains that...

 

[implodingMan]

Here in Ontario we started in grade 5. I don't remember much of it, just that it was a very weird cartoon that we watched where the narrator exclaimed that "Everyone's penis is different! Just like people's noses!" Then in the video the cartoon boys' noses turned into dicks, detached, and grew wings and flew around in the air.

I'm not making this shit up.

 

[klakkat]

One of the biggest problems with the USA education system is they rely on scare tactics for things like sex and drugs. They try to coerce students to their point of view on it by showing them only the consequences of what happens if they don't. However, some student or another will try it out anyway, and odds are, suffer no consequences for that trial. The teachers never explained that it was a RISK, a chance, not a guarantee of consequences. So, the student figures they were either lying or exaggerating or may just adopt the old "it won't happen to me" syndrome, and all the sex/drug education class taught him is essentially wasted.

The other problem, of course, is that these things should generally be taught by parents. No one teaches them how to teach it though, or gives them any reason to do so; so of course the task is shunted off to the schools for most.

 

[klakkat]

Well a lot of the cultures it is pretty much expected for women to have children at the age of 14 (I won't point fingers.) We have a lot of people from outside of our great country who come to make our country better (at least that's what I try to tell myself) When it it acceptable to get have children at 14 for girls then that would obviously skew the results.

On a personal note my parents didn't teach me about sex education and I never had any awkward talks. I just ended up learning it from Al Gore's Interweb and friends, but I expect my parents know I'm smart enough to 'wear glove' otherwise they would likely be worried.

So basically what you're saying is that is migrants fault that you have one of the worst teen pregnancy rates in the world aside from how disgustingly racist that is do you realise how wrong it is?

Seeing as America is a country comprised almost entirely of migrants you cannot blame other cultures influence for your awful teen pregnancy rate.

Oh and thanks for correcting my spelling, It didn't make you appear arrogant at all.

I agree there is some truth to his assertion that immigrating cultures bring customs that lead to heightened teen pregnancy. This isn't saying their culture is wrong, merely that our cultures don't mix as well as we'd like; the majority look down on this sort of thing, but that's also a cultural preference. More than one culture that immigrates to the USA has the belief that women are ready to procreate at 14, as well as other beliefs that are offensive or counter to what we call the "mainstream" belief. The point to this, is that sex education isn't going to change behaviors resulting from this effect. Of course, it isn't ONLY these immigrants who participate, so sex education seems to be failing with those born in the 'states as well.

Don't go off shouting 'racism' every time someone makes a comment about another culture; he worded it fairly softly and went for an un-offensive manner. That part of our culture does exist; it probably does in fact skew the figures. It's not a problem we need to worry about, though; if they're happy with kids at 14, and can take raise them and take care of them, who are we to object?

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

I will say the following as a History Major...

YOU CANNOT STOP PEOPLE FROM HAVING SEX! SAFE IS BETTER! PEOPLE DO NOT STOP FUCKING! ABSTINENCE ONLY SEX EDUCATION IS A LOGICAL FALLACY BASED ON OPINION WITH NO FOUNDING IN REALITY THAT IGNORES BIOLOGICAL IMPERITIVES!

People have always had sex, always will have sex and will always enjoy sex, better safe than sorry, since if you aren't safe you WILL Be sorry, period, stop.

EDIT: As a note Abstinence Only Sex Ed makes me angrier than Pro-Life and Anti-Gay. I feel it is a stupid decision that harms way more than it helps and I DO NOT believe the other side has ANY good reason to maintain it other than the obsessive need for control.

 

[Rankao]

Well a lot of the cultures it is pretty much expected for women to have children at the age of 14 (I won't point fingers.) We have a lot of people from outside of our great country who come to make our country better (at least that's what I try to tell myself) When it it acceptable to get have children at 14 for girls then that would obviously skew the results.

On a personal note my parents didn't teach me about sex education and I never had any awkward talks. I just ended up learning it from Al Gore's Interweb and friends, but I expect my parents know I'm smart enough to 'wear glove' otherwise they would likely be worried.

So basically what you're saying is that is migrants fault that you have one of the worst teen pregnancy rates in the world aside from how disgustingly racist that is do you realize how wrong it is?

Seeing as America is a country comprised almost entirely of migrants you cannot blame other cultures influence for your awful teen pregnancy rate.

Oh and thanks for correcting my spelling, It didn't make you appear arrogant at all.

Seems to me that very much proves my point. A large portion of our immigrants legal and illegal are in fact from more conservative and less industrialized cultures. In fact most of the people who migrate to the U.S. have been belonging to a more conservative cultures. If you look at a demographic you can see that we match out neighbors to the south. Why? because South America is predominately Catholic and traditionally Catholics look at sex as something dirty (if you are not married) so birth control isn't something pushed on children. This could possibly be another explanation on why birth rate are high in America.

BUT...

Lets also look at another statistic Teen pregnancy is higher among non-whites then it is among whites in America(reference) [http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/2006/09/12/USTPstats.pdf]. This would be likely liked more to a trend in poverty then it would be to then racial cultures. Poverty rates for African Americans and Hispanics are 3 times higher then those for Whites and Asians.

Why are these rates higher (teen pregnancy/poverty) among Non-whites in America? That is something I don't know and I won't come to a direct conclusion too because I do not have enough information.

 

[Sirisaxman]

I will say the following as a History Major...

YOU CANNOT STOP PEOPLE FROM HAVING SEX! SAFE IS BETTER! PEOPLE DO NOT STOP FUCKING! ABSTINENCE ONLY SEX EDUCATION IS A LOGICAL FALlACY BASED ON OPINIONS WITH NO FOUNDING IN REALITY!

People have always had sex, always will have sex and will always enjoy sex, better safe than sorry, since if you aren't safe you WILL Be sorry, period, stop.

EDIT: As a note Abstinence Only Sex Ed makes me angrier than Pro-Life and Anti-Gay. I feel it is a stupid decision that harms way more than it helps and I DO NOT believe the other side has ANY good reason to maintain it other than the obsessive need for control.

This. I'd add more, but you pretty much summed up all my thoughts on this issue.

 

[AwesomeHat]

I think England's version is worse. My sex education consisted solely of watching a video called "Johhny Condom" which consisted of a condom, dancing around, or.. something, it was a while back. Needless to say, that made things much more confusing, and as such, I turned to the internet, who explained everything in a way I could understand.

Altavista was a better father to me than my biological parent's ever could have been.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

See in Canada we had Sex Education every year from age 9 until age 14, at which point we then had General Health in Grade 10 Gym which covered Sex Ed and then Career and Life Management Classes in Grade 11, in which they actually make you put a condom on a wooden penis and put a diapraghm in a fake vag, I kid you not.

Ours covered everything from Puberty in the early classes to STD's in the later ones, how they're contracted, how to prevent them etc. It's very thorough, it even goes over "variants" like Oral and Anal and how safe/unsafe they can be.

There is a focus on fear that I don't like, that sex is something dangerous that you need to protect yourself from, but DAMN is this thorough.

That and... how many 13+ people here honestly didn't learn about sex from the media? Unfortunately in those cases it's never realistic, hence why education is important. If you only watched porn/adult movies you may never learn the importance of using a condom etc.

 

[Iffypop]

Sex Ed in the UK for me consisted of: "If you don't wear a condom, you WILL get chlamydia. Even if they don't have it, you WILL get it. Same for every other STD.

 

[RufusMcLaser]

"Sex Ed" in my public school in Wisconsin more or less identical to OP. The Southern Baptist private school I attended in Florida was a very different story- I don't remember anything like sex ed until 7th grade, in which we watched a video which pushed the abstinence line very hard. In 8th grade we went over the topic again; some basic anatomy, some discussions of concepts like safe sex, monogamy, masturbation, etc; the subtext was YOU ARE A SINFUL CHILD AND YOU WILL BURN IF YOU DON'T STAY A VIRGIN UNTIL MARRIAGE.
I don't think a single one of the boys in my class had any such intention- like all 14 year olds, we were stewing in hormones. AFAIK the girls might have taken it a bit more seriously, since they didn't seem inclined to unclench themselves, but it could be we were a bunch of louts.
I had already conducted my own extensive research; I found my mom's copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves when I was 11. It was good reading. Every preadolescent boy should have the chance to find out what an IUD is and what the symptoms of herpes are in such a manner.

 

[RufusMcLaser]

That and... how many 13+ people here honestly didn't learn about sex from the media? Unfortunately in those cases it's never realistic, hence why education is important. If you only watched porn/adult movies you may never learn the importance of using a condom etc.

Yeah, what did we do before the 'net gave us unfettered access to porno? Oh, that's right, stole softcore porn magazines from our older relatives (if they had any) and treated them like holy relics.
I don't know which is worse- ignorance, or being having lots of unsafe examples.
Edit: this [http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/05/07/] is what I mean. We had it rough back in those days. Our fathers had it even rougher.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

That and... how many 13+ people here honestly didn't learn about sex from the media? Unfortunately in those cases it's never realistic, hence why education is important. If you only watched porn/adult movies you may never learn the importance of using a condom etc.

Yeah, what did we do before the 'net gave us unfettered access to porno? Oh, that's right, stole softcore porn magazines from our older relatives (if they had any) and treated them like holy relics.
I don't know which is worse- ignorance, or being having lots of unsafe examples.

Good question, what DID we do? I snuck into the AO section in Videostores. When we got the Internet at about age 14/15 I infected that thing with viruses from irresponsible porning so fast...

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

A recent survey showed that the majority of kids these days learn about sex off the internet, so sex-ed in schools is like shutting the gate after the horse has bolted. No wonder we are seeing such distorted views of sexuality creeping through the younger generation. In my day ;-) we didn't do sex-ed until 8th grade; now they do it at 4th grade.

And while abstinence is a noble cause, any system that promotes it as the only way is bound to fail.