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Teaching Good Sex

nytimes.com

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Re: Teaching Good Sex

#2

Post by _delirium »

How to tackle this well is a difficult question, so it's interesting to see someone trying. I think sex tends to fall along with personal finance into the category of things most people end up doing without learning anything about it first, or at least, not learning very well. About the most you can hope for in either case is a few don't-do-this rules of thumb being taught in school or via public-service ads, like "use a condom" and "don't rack up huge credit-card debts".

I assume it'd work differently for different students, but for a subject some people find awkward, non-classroom sources of information might also be useful to think about. The internet makes it so that few people are really strictly unable to access a huge range of information. But is the information out there good and well organized? Wikipedia, as often, is probably the least-bad high-profile thing out there, but I'm not sure that Wikipedia on sex-related topics is actually that helpful for a teenager; it somehow has an odd focus, half pop culture and half clinical.

Re: Teaching Good Sex

#4

Post by russell_h » 

    In its breadth, depth and frank embrace of sexuality as, what Vernacchio calls, a
    “force for good” — even for teenagers — this sex-ed class may well be the only one
    of its kind in the United States.
Up until this point I was thinking how much this class sounds like the "health" class I took in 8th grade. And my teacher taught barely beyond the curriculum, I sat in on another teacher's health class that probably violated all sorts of policies and went much further than this. If there were two such classes at my middle school, I can only imagine this isn't really that unique.

Re: Teaching Good Sex

#6

Post by saulrh »

veyron wrote: post #5

The real problem here is that many parents have very strong opinions regarding teaching sex in school. obligatory south park reference (nsfw): http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s05e07-proper-...

That's a pretty common problem all throughout education. http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/06/living/teachers-want-to-tell-p...

Re: Teaching Good Sex

#7

Post by Shenglong »

I recently (well, a few years ago) went through sex education in schools. They don't really teach you sex, as much as why you shouldn't have sex. Even when they're teaching contraception, the consistent emphasis on only x% effective really cuts out student interest. It's almost like saying, "yeah we have a method or preventing HIV transmission, but it doesn't really work." While it might seem like a good idea at first, I found it to quickly invoke the I'm not listening anymore response.

Next, is the issue of effectiveness. Personally, I've been shown way so many gross images of venereal diseases, that I I won't even touch without knowing I have protection. Unfortunately, this doesn't follow through for a lot of other kids who went through the same education as I did. "I was drunk", "we didn't have any", "it doesn't feel as good", and "it's too much work" are all (yes I know it's sad) frequently cited responses among people I know.

Thirdly, and most troublesome of all, some people don't care that they're spreading diseases. I recently found out someone I knew was receiving treatment for Hep B. I asked her when she found out, believing this to be a recent development. "I've had it all my life," she responds. I walked out of the room. She's quite active, and her disdain for condoms is legendary. How anyone can exhibit that kind of carelessness is honestly, beyond me.

Rather than force education, I feel we might have to take a completely different approach. Teaching is great, but it doesn't work when kids don't want to listen or don't care. Perhaps we need to stress the why here, rather than the how.

Lastly - I know this is really aside the point of this article, but schools should probably also teach how to have sex properly. Not using condoms, but common erogenous zones, sensing feedback, appropriate pressure, etc. It's kind of sad that we learn all these things by exploration, again and again, generation after generation. I think it's about time we standardized it. Everyone needs to (well, almost everyone) have sex one day, anyway. Might as well at least have fun.

Re: Teaching Good Sex

#8

Post by giardini »

They may not know how to do long division or compute an angular velocity but, by damn, American kids are going to know how to fuck properly!

I am pleased my tax dollars are so well spent. "Female ejaculation" - sheez...

Re: Teaching Good Sex

#10

Post by mdda »

giardini wrote: post #8

They may not know how to do long division or compute an angular velocity but, by damn, American kids are going to know how to fuck properly! I am pleased my tax dollars are so well spent. "Female ejaculation" - sheez...

Given the choice between 'computing angular velocity' and Sex Ed, your tax dollars would give a life-long benefit to the vast majority of the population if applied to the latter - and the value of people understanding the former is minuscule in comparison.

And what is so ridiculous about Female ejaculation?

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