Sex education

I still find it....weird...when you talk about individualism. When you're a collectivist...

It's almost like everyone's naked...that's how weird it is...

Now everyone's doing an orgy...

OH GOD WHY IS EVERYONE DOING AN ORGY?!

...

I was going SOMEWHERE with this... >.>

BlahISuck said:

My point was about individualism, and how sex is really one of those things people tend to be individual about, perhaps in some ways because of the nature of the act itself, in some ways because it's more private than not. It's about subjectivity and allowing people to form their own opinions because I think it's neat we can be individuals when it comes to something like sex.

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they can form their own opinions once the idea of consent is firmly ingrained into their minds

Harlequin said:

they can form their own opinions once the idea of consent is firmly ingrained into their minds

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Generally, the concept of consent should be taught from a very young age. It, obviously, wouldn't apply to sex at such a young age, but it would apply to concepts such as the sharing of toys with siblings and friends, or the courtesy of knocking on a bedroom door before entering. As my parents drilled it into me: If you want something that does not belong to you, ask.

Sex Education seems to be effective enough statistically to lower pregnancies; however, sex in general seems to be appearing in lower age gaps as the years go by. From 11, to 12, and 13. Its certainly something to behold. It may be time to revise sex education in order to disembark these youngsters from doing it so young, and predictably younger. Its inappropriate for children to engaging in such an activity when they're still so immature and growing.

Seems like a lot of people have had some kind of sex ed when they were pretty young, and I remember having some kind of assembly in grade school about where babies come from or something (I was tuned out), but maybe there probably should be a second round of sex ed for kids right before they leave high school. That's the last chance you typically have someone as a captive audience and they're theoretically more mature then than they'd be at the start of high school or earlier. It could help to ingrain somethings more and include more questions and less nervous giggling.

Honestly, I think the purpose of sex education should be to encourage free and open discussion about sex. Of course, it is very important that the possible consequences of unsafe sex are made clear. I don't really understand why abstinence should be promoted as long as students are taught how to not get pregnant ect. Above all it should be taught that to have sex is a choice, and that we always have the option of saying no.

O07_eleven said:

We do that in Australia, a program called Pathways, i'm in my final year and there was a mandatory course on safe sex, smart overseas travel and drug use. I think yes kids are too immature the information being comprehended in younger high school (middle school) years, because I know for a fact some of my peers tried drugs and had sex starting at about age 13-14. So sex ed isn't particularly effective at stopping these things in early years, in early teen years it's probably more effective if parents actually talk to their kids about risks and actively stop them going to risky activities rather than being clueless and gullible.

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Well, I wasn't trying to say I think it's not very effective in earlier years, just that it's probably better to have as much of it as possible so have it at the start and end of high school seems preferable.

Sounds like you have a pretty good system in place if they're willing to talk about lots of "controversial" topics like drug use as well as sex.

Sex education is important. It's better to teach it. If you don't teach it, then plenty of dopey 13-year-old girls will end up knocked up.

Sex education, namely abstinence, by and large won't stop teenagers/young people from having sex, much in the same way that alcohol awareness programs and anti-teen drinking programs at most colleges don't stop most kids from partying. It's a fact of life. So since you can't stop it, the least you can do is educate kids about the risks involved, and teach them to at least try to be safe in an informative, realistic and mature way.

O07_eleven said:

We do that in Australia, a program called Pathways, i'm in my final year and there was a mandatory course on safe sex, smart overseas travel and drug use. I think yes kids are too immature the information being comprehended in younger high school (middle school) years, because I know for a fact some of my peers tried drugs and had sex starting at about age 13-14. So sex ed isn't particularly effective at stopping these things in early years, in early teen years it's probably more effective if parents actually talk to their kids about risks and actively stop them going to risky activities rather than being clueless and gullible.

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Hum, wasn't the case for my school. Maybe it's only in some schools or a recent thing given I was in high school four years ago now.

It's really telling that America, one of the last places to use abstinence only education, has the highest teen pregnancy rate of all developed nations IIRC. It's already a fact that abstinence only ed doesn't work and does nothing beyond attach a negative stigma to an important part of life. When kids find out that their programs lie to them, such as the DARE program or by instilling an illusory negative quality in sexuality, it causes a backlash that makes people take more risks, with people assuming that the entire spiel was overblown and worth discarding entirely.

O07_eleven said:

We do that in Australia, a program called Pathways, i'm in my final year and there was a mandatory course on safe sex, smart overseas travel and drug use. I think yes kids are too immature the information being comprehended in younger high school (middle school) years, because I know for a fact some of my peers tried drugs and had sex starting at about age 13-14. So sex ed isn't particularly effective at stopping these things in early years, in early teen years it's probably more effective if parents actually talk to their kids about risks and actively stop them going to risky activities rather than being clueless and gullible.

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They had something like that at my school.

No matter how much you educate kids about sex, the sad truth is that there will always be some teens who will end up having kids. One of my friends actually got a female classmate pregnant last year and now he has a baby girl to take care of. He admitted that he was too afraid to tell his parents that he and this girl were sexually active. (And at least he tries to care for the baby and even visits her frequently.) That is why I think you should ask your parents about sex - my friend wished that he could have asked his parents.

Unlike some people, I don't think it's right to drag teen parents (gotta include both sexes) through the mud and shame them. (Ironically, I am guilty of dragging teen stoners through the mud. A kid at my school died of an OD a few months ago and I felt no sympathy at all. Then again, the kid was a stuck-up bully.)

I don't see why teaching students about overseas travel is important. Half of my friends have never been outside of Australia.

The problem is a lot of conservative Christians and Muslims don't teach their kids about sex at all. It's ridiculous considering kids will have to know how babies are made. My parents told me when I was 13 because I asked them after hearing guys at my school talking about sex. They told me the truth. Parents who don't teach their kids about sex are ignorant. The Victorian era is over and we can't just explain everything the G-rated way.

I honestly believe that sex education should be taught to everyone because there will be those among us that make foolish decisions regardless of the knowledge we know, but at least they will be able to make an educated decision as opposed to just doing something based on their gut. I wish I knew the things that the internet provided me back a few years ago, even though I'm still a virgin. Some of it is icky but I feel more comfortable with myself, and I know what's normal and what isn't.

My viewpoint is probably going to be pretty unpopular, but here it goes.

I think society's concept of sex is convoluted and destructive. In its essence, sex is a biological function that results in children. That is all it is "meant" for; pleasure is a side-effect that encourages the instinct to procreate. We've instead reversed things and defined sex as a fun act instead, one where physical enjoyment is the endgame and a resulting child is the undesirable "side-effect" to be circumvented. This concept of sex and sexuality has allowed it to become a commodity to be advertised, sold, and exploited on a grand scale.

Now imagine that you have a child on the cusp of puberty, hormones already difficult to manage on their own, being bombarded with imagery of this fun social act that everyone is taking part in that would satisfy the very desires their coming of age has awoken. Sex sells and our youth buy into it with a fervor, because what else can they do when it's always shoved in their faces? It becomes the goal of many relationships and interactions in the public sphere, even going as far as defining social standing (he's a "player", she's a "gardening tool" [you know what I mean haha], etc. etc.).

The rampant resultant promiscuity of this hypersexualised society has lead to all sorts of problems that would not be an issue if sex were viewed in its initial sense: an act that fulfills a biological role. Sexual disease, teen pregnancy, child support issues, etc...these are plaguing youth that have no idea how to handle any of it and our solution? Let's just teach them how to be safe and how to deal with problems as they happen.

It boggles me how backwards this approach is. You've cut someone and then offer them a band-aid, why cut them in the first place? It's like putting a can of gasoline right next to fire and praying it doesn't spontaneously combust.

Sex should not be trivialised to a popular pastime. It should not be a commodity. Sex is an act for people ready and willing to deal with the ultimate result should they choose to want it. We don't trust children with alcohol until a certain age, they should not be trusted with sex either. If that seems like an unfair stance, it's only because we've made sex into something fun and cool that someone can be deprived of rather than a process that fulfills an instinct most teens are not ready to think about.

If any "sex education" needs to take place, it's simply defining it as one of our bodily functions. This in conjunction with de-sexualising our society would render all of the problems surrounding youth and sex a non-issue.

LoudSilence said:

The rampant resultant promiscuity of this hypersexualised society has lead to all sorts of problems that would not be an issue if sex were viewed in its initial sense: an act that fulfills a biological role. Sexual disease, teen pregnancy, child support issues, etc...these are plaguing youth that have no idea how to handle any of it and our solution? Let's just teach them how to be safe and how to deal with problems as they happen.

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Do you think that sub-Saharan Africa is hypersexualized? That area has some of the highest percentages of teen pregnancy and herpes in the world. Herpes is pretty low in Europe as far as I'm aware. I think there are a lot more factors that go into the "problems" that come with young people having sex.

I think it's clear from the context of his post and the thread as a whole that he's referring to, if not American society, Western society.

I fell asleep during the "field trip" we had for this stuff. So I never knew anything about it. Yet I'm still pretty certain I'm going to be abstinent forever. You don't need to know about it to know its wrong (by wrong I mean at a young age), as long as you have some form of morals and self control.

BlahISuck said:

I think it's clear from the context of his post and the thread as a whole that he's referring to, if not American society, Western society.

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I know. I was just saying that the problems (e.g., teen pregnancy) that come from a "hypersexualized" culture (i.e., Western society) don't necessarily come just from being hypersexualized and that there may be other factors at work and that "hypersexualizing" (i.e., allowing for sex without the intent of having children) may be unfairly blamed as a cause of the problems.

That being said, the teen pregnancy rate in the United States, when compared to other Western countries, is incredibly high.

Scarf said:

I know. I was just saying that the problems (e.g., teen pregnancy) that come from a "hypersexualized" culture (i.e., Western society) don't necessarily come just from being hypersexualized and that there may be other factors at work and that "hypersexualizing" (i.e., allowing for sex without the intent of having children) may be unfairly blamed as a cause of the problems.

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It's not so much that I think sex for the sake of is the issue. I think having sex pervade almost every form of media and pop culture our youth hungrily consumes is the issue.

That is what I mean by hypersexualisation. Sex is everywhere, you couldn't avoid it even if you wanted to. We've glorified the act so much to the point where people celebrate sexual "conquests" or are embarrassed about being virgins at a certain age...I think we can agree that such mentalities are damaging to the society.