Sex Education

I remember when I was in Secondary Two, we were finally getting a subject in Science class that all of us have an enormous interest in.

Sex Education.

That was the first year that sex education was to be taught in the classrooms, as I recall.

My science teacher was one a pretty, young thing as well. Oh... now I paid FULL attention in class, you can be sure of that.

It was a 2 lesson long class, and we were given quite a stack of notes to go through. All the way from the biological drawing of the male penis, and the female vagina, to the process of sex, described the same way a scientific experiment was described.

I remember that the lessons were run through damn fast. Only time our science teacher finished class ahead of time too. I also remember that at least for those 2 classes, there was no need for her to wear any kind of blusher to class.

Truth is I learnt absolutely NOTHING from those 2 classes. To put it another way, I would have learnt as much about driving on the road as I would from reading 2 engineering textbooks. I reckon I learnt more from Aunt Aggie in one issue of Teenage (remember? LONG LONG Time ago?) than from the lessons AND the notes combined.

Naturally, consientious student that I am, I went ahead and did my own research. Encyclopedia Britannica, the dictionary, the copy of Hustler and the couple of erotic stories that my friend downloaded and printed out from bulletin boards (there was no Internet at that time).

I wonder why there wasn't a project on this particular subject. I would have aced it hands down.

Truth be told, I believe that this way of conducting sex education is completely, absolutely, WRONG. Bright pink checked shirts may have more going for it than the school sex education syllabus.

Here's what I'd do if I was given my hand at sex education. I'd teach my kids to be comfortable with their bodies and to respect themselves and each other. This I believe is the absolute cornerstone of any sex education class.

Fuck this up, and the rest is shite.

First and foremost, we'll talk about growing up and the human libido. How some people have more and others less. How it's best to acknowledge your sex drive as part of yourself and control it. One cannot effectively control something one does not know or understand, right?

Next, relationships. Now that is EASILY a whole term spent here. But condensed, we relate that back to respect and loving themselves and others.

A quick lesson on foreplay might be in order. But personally I won't really emphasize this bit. Unsupervised experimentation in the presence of too much information is a dangerous thing.

After that, we'll talk about sex, and its various manifestations.

The ramifications of sex is important. Run through contraceptives and their application. Pregnancy and birth, coupled with abortion, and the dark side of sex. No, I won't scare them half to death, but I believe that it is important this msg is brought forefully home.

Might even consider a segment on alternative relationships like lesbians and gays if there was time.

At the end of the day, what I want is a balanced view of sex. I want my class to be comfortable with the idea of sex, and what it means, yet at the same time let them form their own opinions. I also want them to be comfortable, and hey, some time in the future, have an outstanding sex life.

Then again, I'm not planning the school syllabus am I? I don't think MOE will ever let me use Playboy as part of the course material. But a man can dream.