What was your "sex ed" (if any) like?

[hermionerhija.livejournal.com]

A conversation I had today prompted me to wonder - what was sex ed like for you, if you had any at all? Mine was just a thing in 5th grade where they separated the guys and girls, showed us a little video, handed out free stuff etc. There may have been more in high school health (a class you could take anytime grades 9-12) but I tested out of that class, so I don't know. So, for all of you lovely ladies - and the guys out there too, I'm especially curious to hear yours - what'd you have in the way of sex ed?

EDIT: The real question I have here is: what sort of things were you taught? I see so many people come here wondering "Am I normal?" for things that (to me, since I've been lurking a while) seem really basic. Did you ever learn about things like yeast infections, masturbation, etc?

Comments

[eos-girl.livejournal.com]

never had sex ed, but in grade 8 we had a helth class for girls that talked about your period and changing bodys ect... with a vido from tampax with handouts ect..

[joybeans.livejournal.com]

My sex ed consisted of my mother telling not to 'do it' till marriage...lmao

if you reeeaaally wanna know

[sunflowrgoddess.livejournal.com]

my sex ed happened the day after i lost my virginity (I was 17) and it scared the crap out of me because it was nothing but a nurse in a cold white uniform with a gaze as hard as steel showing us pictures of infected, scabby, pus filled orifices oozing with all kinds of awful from STD contamination... and I thought I was going to die from one of those horrible diseases she showed us on picture slides... because I'd been bad and had done something very naughty... and I felt like I couldn't talk to anybody about it.

I'm from Kentucky. I graduated in the year 2001. I don't have any STDs or sexual diseases of any kind. But damn that was a traumatizing (s)experience.

[skeletalremains.livejournal.com]

i had a sex ed in every year in middle school, i think at first we were seperated and then 7th and 8th grade were boys and girls both together while a teacher (always the science teacher) talked about this and that... in high school the only sex ed we had was during health class and I only had to have health for two semesters out of my freshman year.

[yafah.livejournal.com]

sex ed in 5th grade was mostly about our bodies and puberty. that's how it was basically every year until high school, and in 9th grade we had to have a sex ed class that taught us about STDs and basic methods of birth control (male/female condoms, diaphragm i think, and spermacide). they didn't mention the pill as far as i can remember, but at least they explained condoms, although i've heard of people who have had sex ed classes where they were actually taught how to put on a condom and had to put one on a stick or something hahaha

[jen-the-spy.livejournal.com]

i had the regular sex ed in 5th grade about our bodies and babies, etc.
in 10th grade, in health class, we learned about everything. birth control, menstrual cycles, diagrams on the reproductive systems, and even the cycle of sex. like..foreplay, orgasm, etc. that was a little odd.
but i definetly got 100% on the big Sex Test in that class.
ha fun times

[chica1.livejournal.com]

oh wow.. i had sex ed from 4th grade till 8th grade, and it always consisted of an embarrassing video and the boys teasing everyone after.. all in all a tramatizing affect, then there was the talk with my mom that consisted of her giving me a box of tampons and pads and saying "here, you know what to do now" after i was recovering from sex ed

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

At my school sex ed or "health" as it was called was a unit in phys. ed. just like basketball or badminton. For a month out of the school year from grade 7 to grade 12 our gym teachers would teach "health". Some years boys and girls were separate because we had separate phys ed classes and some years it was all of us together. Basically we had to watch videos about puberty , look at overheads of genetalia and do presentations on birth control. I remember in grade 7 they gave the girls a tampax booklet about menstruation and some tampons. And in grade 12 we had to learn about family planning and budgeting etc.

[nokomis1339.livejournal.com]

In grades 4th-7th we were seperated for a few weeks each year durring our manditory health classes and told that our bodies would be going through changes, what sex was, told not to do it 'till we were maried, told how to use condoms, and told that other forms of birth control (ie: the pill) were not good at keeping us girls from getting pregnant so we really really needed to wait 'till we were married. Then in 8th grade they didn't seperate girls from guys and we saw a video that was pretty corny and told that if we wanted extra credit we should carry around a flour-sack for a weekend and act like it was a baby. One year I think someone asked what an abortion was, and the teacher said something along the lines of, "That's when the woman's life is in danger and they take out the baby so that she won't die. These are cases where the baby would have died anyway."

We never learned anything about yeast infections, masturbation, or anything. We weren't even taught about tampons except that they will give you toxic shock syndrom, and told that when we got our periods we should wear pads.

And people wonder why over half of the female population of my graduating class has had at least one baby already and we've only been out of highschool for 3 years.

~L~

[the-lissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, we learned about anatomy, infections (incl yeast and bladder), kinds of birth control, basic menstrual cycle info (although I think TakinG Chareg of Your Fertility shoudl be taught because so many women don't know their cycles), etc, and I went to Catholic school!

[had-nuit.livejournal.com]

wow...I went to catholic school, and it was just a nun telling us about our periods and saying not to 'have sex' (without explaining) and that 'touching yourself is a misuse of God's gift to us, and it is a sin".

[overdrive-xx.livejournal.com]

Ours was in Grade 5. They called in Family Life... They told us about sex and menstruation and male and female reproductive systems. Oh and pregnancy. Then again in Grade 8 they told us more stuff... we already knew all of it. They split us in Grade 8 but not Grade 5. But in Grade 8 they taught us STD stuff. Also, they showed this movie on AIDS that had so many long words, I think I just sent notes the whole thing.

Then in Grade 9, we took reproduction... that was even less informative in issues that we needed to know then... the techer told us periods lasted 3 days... haha ya right.

[balmofgilead.livejournal.com]

Haha. I'm definitely a proponent of education, especially about one's own body, but my school rather slacked off in that department. Granted, this was a religious all-girls' school in a community where fairly few teenagers even date let alone have sex, but...

In fifth grade we saw a basic, commercially-produced video about menstruation and the woman who showed us the video also spoke to us and took questions. She demonstrated how to put a pad into underwear. If she mentioned tampons, it was only briefly.

In sixth grade the school nurse came in to talk some more, but mainly focused on informing us that "menstruation is healthy and normal." Somewhere in there I remember her claiming that menstrual fluid isn't blood. I've never been able to figure that one out.

In succeeding years a few other people came in to discuss general hygiene and wellbeing, but they didn't focus much on reproductive/sexual health. Definitely no mention of sex or masturbation. I suppose they generally take the "abstinence before marriage" approach, and since the school is religious, everyone got a healthy dose of that sort of thing from other classes.

People tend to marry fairly young and are taught in greater detail about sex and religious rules and attitudes involving sex by private teachers right before marriage.

Of course, that's only the formal education...I remember giving some of the neighborhood kids a mini-lesson about menstruation using the encyclopedia and various health/human body books we had around the house when I was 9. I'm sure the parents loved me.

[jennifer0246.livejournal.com]

Somewhere in there I remember her claiming that menstrual fluid isn't blood. I've never been able to figure that one out.

well, it's not. it has blood in it, but its uterine lining, not blood like from a vein.

[sshorty.livejournal.com]

Hm. I know we did the "girls go there" and "guys go there" thing in I guess 4th or 5th grade. We watched a video narrated by the girl/woman who played Annie in that Little Orphan Annie movie. It was corny and not very informative. It told us stuff we already knew about puberty. They may have given us pads and tampons that I'm sure we took home and soaked in water to see how much they expanded or something.

In high school, we were taught about reproduction in biology class and while we mostly dealt with animals, humans were mentioned often. In all four years of high school, only one semester of health was required. I took it my very last semester of high school -- should be required in the freshman year if you ask me. We did talk about sex, but I don't remember in how much detail or how much condoms were mentioned. I know there's some bruhaha right now about Texas schools taking condoms out of the curiculum and replacing it with "NO! DON'T! ABSTINENCE! JUST DON'T!" which is dumb.

My first year in college I took a class that I thought was going to be more about gender differences, but a lot of it seemed to be sex ed. We watched what I considered to be PORN. COME ON. Do college students really need to SEE people have sex.. IN CLASS? I was much more curious about gender identity issues than SEX. The class really disappointed me.

So somewhere between high school and college I seemed to have picked up on the whole "use condoms" and "this is a yeast infection" and "this is a bladder infection" etc, etc from thin air. Probably also from my mom, my doctors, and after school specials.

I can't believe I'm too old to remember exactly what we learned in that health class in high school.. all I know is I got a 104 (out of 100) in the class and got to skip out early the last day of school because of it.

[allthingsshiny.livejournal.com]

hey, we got the annie movie too!

yeah, in fifth grade they separated the guys and girls, we watched the annie movie, and that was about it. We got cards to send away for free samples, but i don't think anyone used them.

Nothing in high school, no actual discussion of sex. and this was in southern california in the late 90's!

[neanylicious.livejournal.com]

I'm in the UK and it seems I was in a fairly open area.

At 11 we had classes over several weeks on the reproductive system and we watched videos about sexual intercourse. I don't remember how graphic they were, but there was talk of what goes where etc lmao. Then programs on how babies are formed and I'm fairly sure we had to watch a video of a birth. I was pretty bored during this as I had a very open mother and I'd been taught all this from a very young age. Seeing penises and boobs wasn't something I giggled at because my parents walked around naked all the time so I was totally used to it, I seem to remember most of the other kids being fine too.

So then over the next few years we had various lessons, including several biology lessons devoted to various birth control. Mostly for the science, teaching us exactly how these products prevent pregnancy and disease. We also had the condom on the banana lesson! That was a lot of fun, I did giggle then I will admit!

The only bad experience I had was a nurse that was called in to talk to the girls about tampons and sanitry towels. she was normally fantastic, but boy she hated tampons with a passion! She dropped one in a glass of water and we all watched it expand. Suddenly she literally screamed at us "and thats going to be opening up in YOUR BODY girls! It's bad, bad, bad for girls that aren't fully devoloped to use these HUGE WADS OF STUFF!" (yes she said stuff lmao) I was slightly taken aback by that, but pretty much ignored her, even though I can't use tapons anyway. But other girls were scared by it.

So yeah, sorry it's long but we had a LOT of sex education in my school, I don't think I've even mentioned all of it.

[rhenne.livejournal.com]

In fifth grade, boys and girls were seperated and shown videos about going through puberty. I remember the lady in the video was Annie from the musical Annie.

6th-7th grade involved reading textbooks, labeling diagrams of reproductive organs, and a video about how it was okay to say no to sex.

In 10th grade the extent of our sex ed was a single 40 minute class period where we were shown various methods of birth control. I remember the teacher throwing a sponge at one of the male students to see how he would react.

I suppose my school system's sex ed wasn't terribly informative. When we discussed birth control, the teacher didn't even explain how different methods were used. She just held up an item said "this is a condom" and moved on to the next.

[http://users.livejournal.com/-imnotcrazy-/]

ohh where do i begin. in fourth grade, they had this class that *didnt* separate boys and girls, which is stupid cos theyre just gonna laugh...but then in the fifth grade we had the actual sex ed, w/ boys and girls separated. like you, we had the "dont be afraid to ask questions" video. but this person who came to our class to teach us was this MISERABLE woman, who tried her best to scare us with aids, even though most fifth graders dont know much about aids. and stds. like she was always really angry and anti-sex. she scared me.

then came my mother.

and (eekkkk) then came my dad.

all in all it was pretty grotesque for me.

[disclaimher.livejournal.com]

I had "growth and development" class in 5th grade, which was totally funded by tampax. We watched videos on body changes we should expect, and were given free tampons and secret deoderant to try. My friends and I had already discovered how to use pads, and I liked the idea and comfort of pads much better, but when I brought up pads during class we were told that those were "much messier" than tampons. Because of that, I have only used a tampon once (when we had nothing else in the house), which my body somehow pushed out.

In 9th grade we were all made to take health class. I went to a public school in ohio, and my health class was also taught by the football coach. Most of it was stuff I had already figured out/experienced, but I did learn of several other birth control methods not usually discussed. We were taught the names of the different forms of sex, and then warned by the teacher that, "the anus is no places for a penis!" When my friend tina and I mentioned that he shouldn't bring his beliefs into the classroom, he got rather angry and ignored us for the rest of the semester. He wasn't teaching how to have disease free anal sex at all - just tewlling us not to consider it EVER and then moving to a new topic.
But that is Ohio for you, I guess.

[amber911.livejournal.com]

The sex ed I got in primary school [aged 10] was all about getting your period. The girls and guys were split up and we were taught about tampons and periods and that was pretty much it.
When I was in secondary [aged 14] we were taught about condoms, AIDS, and STD's. But not in any real detail, just that you could catch them if you didn't use a condom, and that you shouldn't sleep around.
But to be honest at that point most of the people in our year had lost their virginity, including me so it didn't really help me at all.
But the subject of pregnancy was only touched on ONCE, and not in very much detail. I had to learn from one of my friends that it was still possible that I could get pregnant because I used the withdrawl method because of pre-cum. I had never heard that word in my life before!! So most of the important information came from my friends, either because their parents told them or through experience. x

[kattlady.livejournal.com]

We had a day of sex ed in 8th grade. We learned about abstinence, basic protection like condoms and birth control, a bit about puberty and getting periods, where the penis goes (only vaginal), and how a woman has birth. That's it. It was in a co-ed class. I learned everything else while working at our teen clinic.

[-she-devil.livejournal.com]

my first exposure to sex ed in about grade 5 was pretty standard "your body is changing, you'll get a period/wet dreams, use condoms" type fare. in grade 9 gym we had a little bit more education regarding STDs but not much and in grade 10 we had a health nurse come in with many different forms of contraception that she passed around and talked about ranging from foam and IUDs to having us place a condom on a wooden penis.

[simian.livejournal.com]

I think we had the old period talk in 5th or 4th grade. They probably showed a video & then they handed out a little booklet that had a story about 3 girls who were waiting to get their periods, which contained a coupon for a sample pack of pads & tampons.

7th grade, I had sex ed (by that time, we had moved from maryland to florida, so the social environment was different). We went over STDs in length, and were told that the only really safe thing was to be abstinant. We had to repeat this aloud several times during the course.

But I think it was the school board's opinion, because our teach (who was also my basketball couch) was allowed to answer questions, but she couldn't come right out & really say anything controversial enless we asked. I think we learned alittle about condoms and maybe the pill, but just what they were & what they did.

I didn't really know much about "cum" but learned about it from older kids during gym class.

We were never taught about yeast infections or bladder infections or female pleasure. I mean, you always hear about how males ejaculate and blow jobs and such, but never really much about female orgasm. At least not in my past school learning experiences.

I think I had a basic idea about how things went though, because my mom had explained the basics when I was younger, but I still didn't get some aspects of it until I was probably in 9th grade or so. And I kind of knew about yeast infections, because of the commercials on tv and because my mom would say that you could get one from a hot tub or bubble bath, but I think I had some when I was in middle school, but never knew it at the time.

[deadyawn.livejournal.com]

in 9th grade a rather crazy french man gave us sti word puzzles and a project on syphilis.
we watched one video all year

ps. i graduated from high school this past june

[pretzelsalt.livejournal.com]

I don't remember anything but being split into 2 groups and then hearing about how soon I was gonna start painfully bleeding every month for the rest of my life.

Then I remember the boys comming back in with huge smiles and silly jokes and high energy like they just heard the best punch line ever.

The girls were all white as ghosts.

[salmonsushi.livejournal.com]

i just graduated last year.. my school was pretty forward about sex education. abstinence is the only way to be completely protected, but if you have sex.. which is ok.. make sure to be protected. then we went over all the different kinds of contraceptions. this is also in jersey btw.

[mynameismaryjo.livejournal.com]

Yeah seems like the northeastern part of the country is more open with sex ed. I live in PA, and my experience was similar to yours.

[http://users.livejournal.com/-tellmelies/]

We were never given sex ed here. We only had the kind that talks about puberty and adolescence and stuff. And last year, my sophomore year, we were taught about STDs and how sex should be saved for marriage and stuff like that. But no one ever formally taught us about sex, how to get birth control, how birth control works, how to put on condoms... We had pretty much an abstinence-only thing being taught to us.