As uncomfortable as it was taking sex ed in middle school, I have always been grateful that it made me savvier and more thoughtful about my own sexuality. As it turns out, I am not alone. According to a new study conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sex education actually helps keep teens from becoming sexually active too soon. To me, this is great news, since so many people make the argument — in my opinion, a foolish one — that sex ed makes kids want to have sex earlier than they otherwise would. Here's more:
Teenagers who have had formal sex education are far more likely to put off having sex, contradicting earlier studies on the effectiveness of such programs, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.
They found teenage boys who had sex education in school were 71 percent less likely to have intercourse before age 15, and teen girls who had sex education were 59 percent less likely to have sex before age 15.
Sex education also increased the likelihood that teen boys would use contraceptives the first time they had sex.
So not only are teens thinking harder about whether they actually want to have sex in high school, but they are also having safer sex when they finally do take the plunge. What about you? Did you have formal sex education in school? If so, what effect did it have on you?
Just Cavalli
7 For All Mankind
Ezekiel
Yes, but my parents' influence, guidance, and overall raising impacted my choices much more than sex ed.
Of course, 25 years ago it didn't involve quite as many options, but it did include safe sex options overall.
1Sex ed was a joke in my middle school. I was lucky enough to have a nurse as a mom who understood that education begins at home and gave me a better "class" than some health teacher/football coach ever could.
My parents made sure that I wasnt put in any sort of position to have sex, i wasnt aloud to date, I wasnt aloud to be alone with boys under any circumstances, I dressed age appropriate and did age appropriate activities and for that i am thankful, i had a full and wonderful childhood, and am thankful to my parents for that.
2sex-ed was a free *A* on my transcript...didn't help much, except my GPA.
u know what i think THEY SHOULD teach in school? money management and about how to keep your credit at a high score...finances and such. NOT econ, that's diff...high school tries to prep u for the world by having pottery classes and sh*t, maybe they should put their funds to better use. (NOT saying art should be out, I went to an art school, I'm just sayin...)
I know that maybe it should be up to the parents, but my parents never taught me and I learned the hard way. they were always working.
3I'd like to know what exactly they define as "Sex Education." Does this include learning in detail about what each STI is, what your anatomy includes, and that you should ALWAYS use a condom unless you want to get an STI or pregnant? Or is it like my middles school where it was pretty much a "Worth the Wait" campaign that didn't really work. Abstinence Only Education doesn't work as well as most would like to think it does.
4my mother put the fear of God into me about sex so i didn't have it until i was 18 (at college, out of state of course). i took health education in 9th grade in catholic school and learned a fair bit about STD's and pregnancy so i can't say it was a horrible education, although the message was pretty clear: DON"T HAVE SEX!
but still, schools do need to do a better job of teaching kids about sex because if they are anything like my mother, just saying 'don't do it' won't cut it. i swear i will not do that with my children!
5Formal sex education started in 6th grade for me and I also had an HIV and AIDS mini-course in 7th grade (with a parent present for all five days). Both early classes were great and left me with a lot of questions that i then took to my parents.
6i had like a 2 week class in 7th grade during our reg. science class and then once in high school in my peerleading classes we use to have public speakers and thats where i learned the most but the public speakers werent available to the general population that prolly needed it more than the ones that were in that class!
7Meh Sex Ed wasn't too exciting when Iw as in elemtary and jr. high. It was the usual this is what happens blah blah boring thing...
8Sex-ed was something of a joke at my school, definitely. It was just an awkward experience where we weren't told the important things - like that sex is normal and natural, or that you should use contraception. The message was "Don't have sex. Period." (Seriously - the teacher actually said that having sex before the age of 25 can do all sorts of horrible things to you... ) They even brought in some lady who made us all sign cards promising not to have sex before marriage. I never talked to my parents about it, it was waaay too embarrassing as a topic. I don't think school sex-ed was very helpful for many people - and I'm lucky enough to have escaped unscathed. I must say that my attitudes - and my knowledge - have changed dramatically since I started living in Europe.
9I don't think we had a sex ed class in school and the only "talk" i had from my mom was "don't end up like your sister" My sister had twin boys at 18.
My sister though is very open and honest with her boy's, who are now 15, she has told them if they are going to have sex then protect themselves and she is a nurse and brings home pamphlets from the hospital about STD's
10I got the birds and the bees talk from my parents in 2nd or 3rd grade, when my parents were trying to conceive a 2nd child (they eventually did, and my sister is 9.5 years younger than me).
My "formal" sex education class was a joke, for the most part. At the time, I was going to school in a rural town, where Abstinence Only Education was promoted.
One of the girls in the class who asked a question about condoms was specifically told that "you don't have to use condoms if you're not having sex, now do you." Very patronizing and unhelpful.
But, because my parents were so involved in my education (as a whole, not just about sex), and taught me that it's normal and natural and best with someone you love, I can say that I waited until I felt old enough to make the decision for myself (I was 19 and in college).
11my health class in high school was pretty great with the whole sex ed thing, but i already knew it all thanks to my parents. they had me at 18 and 20, so they were sure to inform me about sex and how i wasn't allowed to have it before i got married.
they told my sister when she was too young though. my sister actually told them that she was overwhelmed by the information, at 4 years old.
12i never got the sex talk from my parents. i don't know how my head was screwed on right, haha... but i knew safe sex and the sex ed at my high school was pretty old fashioned and a little too late for a lot of my classmates, but i think it had to help a little bit. if it would have been abstinence-only, i don't think it would have been as effective.
13Kids NEED to learn about sex...and at a much younger age than we all did.
I'm a middle school teacher and I know several 7th graders who are sexually active. It's horrifying.
And many kids don't get "the talk" from their parents. I believe it's VERY important for schools to have some kind of sex ed/health class to teach them what they don't know or might have misconceptions about.
14I think sex ed is important, but I also don't trust the "formal" education. I've seen the curriculum for it used in our district, it's FULL of misconceptions.
It's up to me to follow up at home.
15i think that kids needs to have some kind of sex ed-and not 'don't have sex its bad' more like 'ok we don't promote sex but if you were to make the adult decision to have sex, here are the ways to protect yourself from gettin pregnant, gettin stds etc'. seriously kids are going to do things regardless and people wonder why the teen pregnancy and std rate is off the charts..its bc they don't inform.
16Yes I had it and it really made me think about all of the consequences. Its better to educated about the topic of sex
17in my area we do not have sex ed classes. we have health class. we spend probably about 3 weeks on the topic and there are alot of questions left unanswered. we talk about sex during the last month of school. normally we take that class in the 9th grade and as time goes by, 9th grade is to late to take it. there are many girls getting pregnant in middle school and they know nothing about protection etc. i think sex ed should be a class in middle school. i personally didnt take the class till last year my Junior year and at the time half the class were 9th graders and by the end of the year 5 of the girls were pregnant and 3 guys became fathers. so by the time we did go over sex it was to late for them.
18i never got the sex talk from my parents and i made the choice to not have sex till i am atleast out of high school. i want to finish school and not have to worry about having a kid at so young. i made the choice on my own because i learned from ppl around me, i made this choice when i started high school and sex ed had nothing to do with my choice since i didnt take it till last year my junior year.
19We had a lot of it in elementary and junior high school, and our freshman year of high school. I think they should've done more in high school though, when more people were more likely to do it.
20i hate these talks with my kids because i can't really give the true facts. are you really going to talk about orgasms and different positions and such with your child? of course not, and yet that's the best part. so anything we tell them is "old foggyish". my kids are young so there's very basic information being givin in very clinical terms. there you go again with the old fogy thing, but anything approaching sex being about pleasure would be like porn. hate it.
21The Sex Ed classes I had 14 years ago involved information on STD's, pregnancy, birth control methods, the physical sensation (orgasms), and emotional side effects it could have on anyone. No where did they discuss sexual positions. After all Sex Ed programs do not encourage young people to have sex. They merely inform young people about safe sex.
As for whether having the classes correlates with whether an individual has sex earlier or later in life. I disagree. There will always be young people who don't take sex seriously, who are careless with their bodies, or who succumb to peer pressure. The likelihood they will contract an STD or getting pregnant is higher if they did not have the education. Then, there are teens who choose to abstain from sex completely due to their moral beliefs. And, lastly, there are the kids who did pay attention in Sex Ed and can choose to have safe sex or not have sex at all until they feel ready.
I had Sex Ed classes when I was 11 years old. I first had sex 14 years later at 25. I'm not religious. So, by all means, I waited until I was ready and I played it safe and will continue to do so with my SO.
22I grew up in a Christian home. Still, my parents were VERY OPEN to discussing sex/puberty/relationships with me. The messages I got were:
You should save sex for marriage. We'd prefer it if you didn't have sex, BUT if you DO... here's all the info you need on STDs, pregancy, and how to use a condom. Don't get a disease, but if you do, let us know so we can help you get better. And by all means, please, please, PLEASE don't get pregnant.
I can still picture my pulling a condom over her head and telling me, "If a boy says he's 'too big for a condom', he's full of crap!"
23Lickety, I don't think kids need to be educated on the "pleasure" aspect of sex. Sex feels good, that's a given. I think kids already know that, and they may be part of the reason they are so anxious to rush into it. Besides, half the fun is figuring out the pleasure part on your own.
SexEd should be facts about STDs, and pregnancy. You know how many teens still believe erroneous myths like, you can't get pregnant if you've never had a period? Or how you can't get an STD if you just have oral sex?
SexEd should also include a component about date-rape, peer pressure, underage drinking and drug use, and emotional after-effects of having sex. Somehow, SexEd should help kids figure out when they are really, really ready for sex, how not to get pressured into doing something they aren't really ready to do. It should be done in a safe environment, where kids feel like they can get their most embarrassing questions answered truthfully and accurately.
24I was lucky enough to go to a school where we had sex education classes began in elementary and went all the way through high school and they covered the real issues, no matter how uncomfortable to the students and the teachers. I also had a science teacher who liked to be "funny" and show timely videos. Skin cancer before spring break, alcohol poisoning before homecoming and prom, as well as a video of that shows a very graphic, very real birth before Valentine's Day and Prom. More than anything else, watching a baby being born scared the crap out of high school students.
25i was kind of selfish at that age; there was no way i was gonna have a baby and risk getting fat. or have to share my bed with a kid (you can tell i never liked to share as a child).
I also was afraid of the scrutiny of being the school slut. middle school and high school was bad enough . . .
26i remember being in middle school and the issue of sex came up with another boy, and i was like, "no. i don't want to get pregnant", and the boy would be like, "well, if you give me head, you won't get pregnant!"
i use to think that was sooo gross, and i'm still not a fan of oral sex ( i think horney middle school boys have scared me for life with their ambitions, lol).
but you do hear of girls giving oral . . .it's sick.
i remember a friend giving oral to her boyfriend ( i think we were in like 9th grade, her beau was a senior), and he dumped her and the next day, EVERYONE was calling her Scully Mac!!!!
cleaver nickname, but she stopped coming to school and eventually transferred.
27This is great news. I'm all for sex education in schools that goes beyond "don't do it." In 8th grade, we watched a video about a teenage girl who got pregnant and then we watched a live birth video. That was pretty gross.
28Sex ed in high school for me was kind of awkward, because I had all the "popular" kids in my class who were definitely doing it every chance they got, and I was pretty sure I was one of the only people who had never had sex (and I was convinced that they suspected it, too). It was fairly informative, though, like for instance I learned about a pretty good variety of contraceptives that I really didn't know about. But overall, I liked it because it was an easy A. Which hasn't happened in a looong time...
Anyway, I didn't have sex until I got to college and met my current boyfriend. But I'm not sure it was because of sex ed. I think it was because I found pretty much every guy in my school to be disgusting, unintelligent, chauvinistic, and therefore not-doable. Lol.
29High school seems so late to take sex ed I actually took it in 5th-8th grade and it was pretty comprehensive. They talked about STDs contraceptives and absinence but really didn't push towards either one . Thenworst part was when we watched the video showing a birth that really scared a lot of girls off.
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