Is there not, perhaps, a Big Contextual Problem here?

[oursin]

Quite a good article on sex education in the UK in today's Guardian G2 - though I am wincing away from looking at any Comment is Free feedback on it.

However, is the parlous state of sex ed really detachable from wider issues of national culture and Brit weirdness about sex? and while I can see that better sex ed might do something to shift this,

Comments

[serrana]

I would note, perhaps tangentially, that it's all well and good to talk about how the parents should be doing it, but most of us in the parenting biz have had no sex ed ourselves since, well, middle school. It's not like my ob-gyn is making sure I'm up to date on the latest, during our annual canoodles. She's more concerned about have I got cancer.

Most of what I know at this point is that I am woefully out of date...and yet I'm probably still better-informed than most of the world's population.

[oursin]

Oh yes - and lack of training/willingness to do it of teachers is a recurrent theme too!

[tree_and_leaf]

My chief memory of sex ed at school was woman we had in from the council. She saw us in single sex groups; we got various forms of contraception to look at, which was useful in a way, though I can't say I was able to understand how you'd actually put a femidom in from her explanations, only she they started talking about orgasms - broaching the subject by asking who masturbated (obviously no-one admitted to this, partly because we didn't know or trust her, and partly because that's not something seventeen year old girls are likely to want to talk about in the context of a classroom and the presence of Kirsty (or who ever) who you've disliked since primary school. The she asked if we knew where our clitorises (clitori?) were, and barked that if we didn't, we should go home and masturbate until we found it.

I was quite traumatised by the whole thing, to be honest...

[flats]

I've still little idea of how you'd put a femidom on/in! Wouldn't it be too floppy? Don't think I've ever seen them for sale, either. I also don't know why I'd want to use one instead of a condom.

[tree_and_leaf]

They do seem a bit pointless (and I've never attempted to use one, or seen them on sale, either)

[oursin]

I think (on the basis of knowing about the earlier forms of female condom) they were/are about preventing infection for women who could not ensure that their partner(s) used a condom, in situations in which the woman didn't have a lot of choice. Some while since I posted this interesting piece about circumstances in which it is a literal lifesaver.

[todfox]

Its very sad to me that while the UK's sex ed programs are still flawed, they are so much better than what is provided to almost all children here. I try to imagine sex ed in our public schools that showed a cartoon couple having a good time, or covers gay & bisexual topics matter of factly, and I am hard-pressed to do so. It feels like we're many years behind, and there is so far to go.

[oursin]

When and where it's good, it's good, but it's very postcode lottery. And nowhere near as effective as the Dutch.