Modern sex ed

Mister Vain

There was nothing like this when I was in school. I had to learn from drawings in the jacks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk4NyQbMU3Q

What was your sex ed like?

artanevilla

Who's Sex Ed?

mickstupp

All we got was a video of the Fonz saying don't let strange people touch your privates...

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Well they are competing with pornhub.

henryporter

All we got was a crazy nun who show us abortion videos as the consequences of having sex - lovely woman altogether ( this was back in the early 80s so I presume things have improved since then)

Chickentown

Lobster tube

The Backwards Man

I grew up on a sheep farm. I was sixteen before I realised you didn't need a marking harness tied to your belly when having sex.

I remember in my Leaving Cert biology class (this would have been 2007) we had a very young substitute teacher who was just out of college (regular teacher was on maternity leave). Anyway, she was covering the unit on reproduction with us and asked us about what sex ed we'd had; she seemed genuinely surprised by the blank responses she was met with! So she decided to spend a class or two covering it with us, which was good of her. The most memorable thing I learned from it was "don't use empty packets as condoms".

I do think we got a "this is where babies come from" spiel in SPHE class in Junior Cert year but we were never taught anything about STI's. And there wasn't ever any mention of any type of sex that wasn't between a man and a woman who loved each other very much enough.... :pac:

One eyed Jack

Mister Vain wrote: »

There was nothing like this when I was in school. I had to learn from drawings in the jacks.


<YOUTUBE VIDEO >


What was your sex ed like?

Well, that was... weird :pac:


Sex ed was unheard of in primary school, pretty much up until second year in secondary school. We had the one science book for three years to do us from first to third year for the Junior Cert, and we covered the one chapter on the human reproductive system in a week. Then when I went on to do biology for the Leaving Cert, we spent more time studying plant reproduction than human reproduction!

In relation to religion, well, wasn't a whole pile covered from that aspect either (not least from the perspective of the curriculum), but we had a fantastic, open minded layman teacher (attended an all boys CBS and it was mostly still "The Brothers") for religion classes where we discussed all the morality and ethics of human relationships and reproduction and issues such as euthanasia and abortion, etc.

It was only years later I realised how uncommon my experience was tbh. I thought it was perfectly normal, but other people's stories frightened the bejaysus out of me for the amount of sheer ignorance and misleading information they were being given! :eek:

cloud493

I didn't get any sex ed in school. The girls had a video to watch, but the lads were told to go outside and play.

Dante

It went a little something like this:

UCDVet

I don't have anything against sex ed....but honestly - how much education does the average person need? It seems kind of silly to me, especially when I hear about people taking a semester of sex ed.

What's even worse is that, when I took sex ed, they just flat out lied. I distinctly remember being taught that the early withdraw method and the rhythm method 'don't work at all'

Hopefully it's gotten better since then, but I doubt it.

Cupcake_Crisis

I went to an all girls school, the only type of sex ed we got was 'one day you'll bleed and will for about 30 years'. Learning about safe sex was unheard of!

emigrate2012

Haha,his are joking right?!? I did me leaving in 2002 and in all my previous schooling absolutely no sex ed whatsover....

Mostly learned about the two backed beast from my weekends drinking in fields and all that entails.

6 kids from 4 different mothers,so I guess I'm doing it right

(also the internet,you really appreciated your porn back then with dial up modems)

Saralee4

I remember we had a visit from this group. The religion teacher set it up. We were all about 16-17 at the time. They were an American group of attractive 20 something's, I cant remember what their name was, but they were basically a chastity group (cult).

They used role plays to show us all the bad bad things that happen when you don't 'wear your chastity belt'. At the end they each gave a big speech about why they wore the 'chastity belt' and how righteous they were because of it. Nothing about safe sex or anything like that. One guy i think thought that the 'belt' was actually a belt that you wore and not a metaphor.

The book we did in fifth year English around the same time was basically about this girl who goes to live on a farm to work as a maid and ends up having a sexual relationship with the farmers two sons, driving both the men mental. I remember one ending of a chapter it said something like, 'Sarah and Hamilton lay down in the hay' - something along those lines and i remember joking with my English teacher and saying 'wait.... i don't get it, why would they just lie in the hay after having a fight like that? why would you even lie down in hay in a barn? it makes no sense'. The teacher just looked at me, kind of nervously laughed and told me to shut up

emigrate2012

Haha,his are joking right?!? I did me leaving in 2002 and in all my previous schooling absolutely no sex ed whatsover....

Mostly learned about the two backed beast from my weekends drinking in fields and all that entails.

6 kids from 4 different mothers,so I guess I'm doing it right

(also the internet,you really appreciated your porn back then with dial up modems)

One eyed Jack

emigrate2012 wrote: »

Haha,his are joking right?!? I did me leaving in 2002 and in all my previous schooling absolutely no sex ed whatsover....

Mostly learned about the two backed beast from my weekends drinking in fields and all that entails.

6 kids from 4 different mothers,so I guess I'm doing it right

(also the internet,you really appreciated your porn back then with dial up modems)

Clearly missed the point of the word 'education' in "sex education"... :rolleyes:

Jhcx

We got one in 6th Class. nothing like that though

UCDVet

UCDVet wrote: »

I don't have anything against sex ed....but honestly - how much education does the average person need? It seems kind of silly to me, especially when I hear about people taking a semester of sex ed.
.

Relationships, being comfortable about doing it when you want or not when you don't want, STIs, different types of contraception, pregnancy ...
I'd say it goes a bit beyond "this goes in here"

UCDVet

bluewolf wrote: »

Relationships, being comfortable about doing it when you want or not when you don't want, STIs, different types of contraception, pregnancy ...
I'd say it goes a bit beyond "this goes in here"

Sure, you can take just about any topic and spend an entire lifetime studying it. ...you could take just one STI and devote your entire professional career to curing it, understanding it, weaponizing it, whatever.

Still, I felt like it was a waste of time. I don't need to know any of the details about STIs - just that they exist seems sufficient to me. There isn't any practical benefit to being able to name the common ones or any of the medical details. I get it, there are lots of STIs, any sexual activity (oral, anal, etc...) carries a risk of STIs. You can reduce your risk through safer sex practices. 15-30 minutes and everything you need to know about STIs is covered and done.

Different types of contraception....sure. That's important and should be covered. And again, you could get a PhD just studying the mechanism behind the pill and all....but for a regular person? I just don't see it as something that needs a whole lot of time dedicated to it. All of the contraception that requires a prescription needs only the most cursory covering in school because an actual doctor is going to have to prescribe it. Anything sold over the counter is safe enough/simple enough that it doesn't take formal training to understand. You can just read the box. But yeah, a list of the types, generally how they work, the cost, the effectiveness, put that in a nice chart, and you're good to go.

Telling people not to do stuff they don't feel comfortable doing is kind of silly, in my opinion. And if we're going to teach that as a thing that needs to be taught, it certainly should apply to every facet of life and not just sex ed.

All the practical information a sexually active person needs can be covered in a few hours. Having kids rattle off the stages of embryo development or labeling the internal reproductive organs is fine and good as part of a biology class or anatomy class, but it's got about zero practical use and certainly doesn't provide any guidance to horny teenagers. If anything, I found it just bored everyone. The *only* anatomy I've ever been taught or tested on is the reproductive system in my mandatory 'sex ed' class. Never once, not ever, has that information even been REMOTELY close to useful for me.

UCDVet

UCDVet wrote: »

Telling people not to do stuff they don't feel comfortable doing is kind of silly, in my opinion.

It's something that should be said more often and reinforced more often

No, it doesn't matter if your friends are doing it. If you don't want to, don't. Here's how you cope with that situation
No, it doesn't matter if she says you aren't cool for doing it. Here's how you cope with that situation and how you feel about it
and so on

UCDVet

bluewolf wrote: »

It's something that should be said more often and reinforced more often

No, it doesn't matter if your friends are doing it. If you don't want to, don't. Here's how you cope with that situation
No, it doesn't matter if she says you aren't cool for doing it. Here's how you cope with that situation and how you feel about it
and so on

Then surely there is no need to restrict it to a 'sex ed' class

Still, while it's a valid point, it seems like a point that is easily made. Maybe I'm out of touch or have unrealistic expectations, but you can only say the same thing so many times. 'Okay, don't have sex if you don't want to' got it. Good advice. But how many hours need to be dedicated to convey that message?

Skatedude

I went to Christian brothers school and were taught that sex was a sin and wrong in all circumstances , unless it was with a priest.

Just a little Samba

I read this the other day.

Professor of Clinical Medical Humanities from the US sat in on her son's sex ed class and live tweeted it.

It's pretty funny.

Tokyo

Nothing at all until after the junior cert, and then they came at us from two fronts. The first was an unfortunate religion teacher who'd gotten lumped with the job, and had zero desire at being discussing sex with a bunch of teenage boys who spent the class taking the p**s out of everything as he tried to stutter through the material. The second line of attack was a pretty graphic abortion video that everyone in 4th year had to watch, with enough crying teenage moms and dead foetuses to put anyone off sex for life.

That being said, most of us were from farming backgrounds, and knew the mechanics of what went on from a pretty early age.

Saralee4

UCDVet wrote: »

I don't have anything against sex ed....but honestly - how much education does the average person need? It seems kind of silly to me, especially when I hear about people taking a semester of sex ed.
it.

There are so many kids that don't get any proper guidance or incorrect information from family and friends. Teachers and school are big part of a teenagers life. I think it's an important topic to cover.

teenagers need to know that sex is not something to be ashamed of and that if they aren't getting good advice at home that they can turn to someone else like a teacher to help guide them.

With so much sex available on the Internet, I think it's a good idea to teach it as openly in schools as the original post shows otherwise for where teens parents are not open about the topic, the teen is going to learn about sex through porn which is not going to teach them about other areas of sex that are important like respect, trust and real intimacy etc.

It's an awkward time for a teenager but making it more open and not an unheard of subject at school allows teenagers to have another source of information especially if they are not getting that at home or worse if they are subject to some kind of abuse at home which they have been thought is normal and has to be kept quiet.

Wang King

cloud493 wrote: »

I didn't get any sex ed in school. The girls had a video to watch, but the lads were told to go outside and play.

With themselves?

riclad

Went to cbs school,
there was zero sex ed.
Just a few pages in the standard biology textbook.
MY impression is not,s much better now.
i find it fuunt the concept of sexed abstinence sex ed in the usa,
eg don,t have sex till you are married.
All it means is teens get sti,s ,some get pregnant due to ignorance about contraception ,trying to stop teens having sex is like trying to stop the sun rising.
impossible and futile.
sex ed is important ,there,s sti,s with no symptoms ,
a man or woman can have one without knowing it for years.Every school should lose 50 per cent of its government grant s unless it has a full program ,
of sex ed from first year in secondary school.
have it run like the do in holland in a scientific professional manner.
Since most schools are catholic church controlled this might never happen.
Watching porn on the web is not sex ed, you don,t learn to drive by watching f1 racing videos.

SMJSF

It's differs between schools. I was in a strict Catholic school for 2 years (06-08), and they wouldn't even explain how twins were made/formed, or talk about condoms or any protection, or possible infections. So for SPHE/health class, the syllabus was extremely limited, and bare, lets say.

Then went to a multi-national public school, and they talked about back street (coat hanger) & hospital abortions, brought people in to show us the mental effects abortions can affect a woman, etc.
Then later, it went on to teen pregnancies, and the difference in cultures in ages, and sadly the bad health effects that can have when having many pregnancies at a young age, when you body isn't fully developed.

So it's very different in the education system.
But from my experience, I'd never send a child to a Catholic school. They withhold very important information you need to know about future health, imo anyway.

galljga1

mickstupp wrote: »

All we got was a video of the Fonz saying don't let strange people touch your privates...

Stay out of Coppers.

shruikan2553

We had a video in SPHE that explained that hair would grow, balls get bigger, breasts grow. girls bleed, boys get erections. Nothing about sex really, just puberty.

Luckily I avoided the religion teacher who went on about baby assassins.

galljga1

emigrate2012 wrote: »

Haha,his are joking right?!? I did me leaving in 2002 and in all my previous schooling absolutely no sex ed whatsover....

Mostly learned about the two backed beast from my weekends drinking in fields and all that entails.

6 kids from 4 different mothers,so I guess I'm doing it right

(also the internet,you really appreciated your porn back then with dial up modems)

You're an inspiration.

Ciderswigger

Saralee4 wrote: »

I remember we had a visit from this group. The religion teacher set it up. We were all about 16-17 at the time. They were an American group of attractive 20 something's, I cant remember what their name was, but they were basically a chastity group (cult).

They used role plays to show us all the bad bad things that happen when you don't 'wear your chastity belt'. At the end they each gave a big speech about why they wore the 'chastity belt' and how righteous they were because of it. Nothing about safe sex or anything like that.

Ahh! We had them visit our school too. I remember we thought they were so cool because they were American. But by the time their lecture was over no amount of coolness could hide the fact that they were a bunch of smug ar$eholes.

looksee

Numerous classes, talks and discussion groups, between 2 secondary schools and a youth club ... and that was around 1960 to 65.

folamh

I got my sex education from my friends and MTV. In sixth class, the school summoned us along with our parents to tell us a bunch of stuff we already knew. The cartoon representations could only be said to vaguely resemble humanoid lifeforms. Then there was a chapter on the reproductive system at the end of second year biology. These are my collected memories of sex ed in the Republic of Ireland.

riclad

And in most places , 90 per cent of schools are catholic.
SO in practice only the rich, mostly have a choice,
for most people the local school is probably a catholic school.

suicide_circus

The sex education I received in school was, in a word, negligent.

Mister Vain

DaaaaaaaaaaN wrote: »

It went a little something like this:

Now that's how it should be done.

Lia_lia

We watched pro life videos in religion class, was ridiculous. Stuff about foetuses crying when they are aborted and other nonsense... Good aul convent schools!

We did have a public health nurse come in when we were in 1st year and again in 3rd year. We got "goodie bags" with pads and tampons. Was mortified in 1st year, and then in 3rd year didn't care less :rolleyes: The one in 3rd year was quite good actually. We did a Q+A with the nurse about STDs. And she wasn't being all "don't have sex or you will get pregnant and die". She was actually helpful. Shame about those abortion videos..

Cold War Kid

Video of a nun in some rural community hall explaining to an audience. She seemed like a nice lady. The audience were morto though, and we were absolutely in knots laughing at them.

Neyite

Ours was the same year the Abortion Referendum and the X-Case raged in the media. So it was great fun trolling asking the nuns why abortion was so wrong in the case of a raped 14 year old.

I'm old enough to remember buying Cosmopolitan and other glossy womens mags with any family planning clinic advert that offered information or counselling about abortion in the back of it with the big black censored square. I remember the scandal when condoms were put on display for the first time. Not long ago at all.

Mister Vain

I never realised they showed abortion videos in some schools. That's crazy.

I remember we were shown a video in 3rd year. It spent about 20 minutes showing pictures of penises, and then it showed a picture of a vagina for a split second and it was gone. THE END! I felt so cheated.

smash

I'm disappointed that video only showed 2 positions...