Writer's Block: Sex education

[jai_dit]

Taking a break from being MIRED IN TAXES (it's really complicated this year. Partly due to DOMA, Prop 8, RDPs, and community property laws, and partly because we were lazy brokeasses last year and didn't file 2009's) to comment on this, since I glanced it on the home page, and I do feel strongly about this (plus it's relevant to my life).

Comments

[warsop]

A-freakin'-men.

[leora]

Yup, it's basic health and basic biology. I think children should be taught the facts of the matter, but that schools should not teach opinions or values. That is, they can teach accurate effectiveness rates and risks, but they should not teach what course of action a person ought to take. That should be left to parents or other advisers not part of government-run schools. I might be okay with some guidance being offered by schools that offer counseling if it were to an individual within the context of counseling from someone who sought it, but it shouldn't be part of a curriculum.

As such, I oppose anything that teaches that children ought to be abstinent or that children ought to use condoms or so forth. Teach them the risks, teach them the biology, and teach them the law. Leave the ethics and morality to others.

[marklevoyageur]

Yes, prevents kooties.

[raegun]

If you don't teach kids about sex, who's going to teach them when they're adults? Oh, that's right. Their first horrible or frightening situation having sex will teach them. Even if they stay abstinent until marriage, that's setting your honeymoon up as quite a surprise.

But.. yeah, I agree. It's biology. Hello. I never got any sex ed at all, not about how sex happens or what sexual organs look like (other than the very vague sketches in dictionaries) or abstinence education. I got CPR training and that's it.

ETA: Oh, or worse, porn will teach them what sex is, and every boy will expect the girls they're with to be acrobatic, and every girl will expect him to be huge. Switch pronouns around for gay couples and same idea.

[leora]

Well, gay people will at least have themselves as a model, but if they are learning from porn, they are likely to feel inadequate. But that's likely true whether they are gay or heterosexual or bi or whatever, so I guess that's sort of balanced badness.

I am very lucky that my first boyfriend was a really decent guy. I had to learn a lot of things from him. It worked out okay, because he was trustworthy. But if he hadn't been... and you just can't trust that everyone's first partner is going to be a good and informed person. It'd be nice if it worked out that way, but it obviously doesn't always in real life.

I actually did have some sex ed. I just didn't have as much as I really could have used. But at least I was taught some basics, including information about condoms. It could have been far worse. I just would have been better off if I had been more informed than I was.