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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Sex Ed

Kids should learn about sex at an early age. And when I say learn about sex I don't mean we should hand out copies of Hustler at preschool circle time. Playboy is better for that age.

There's a whole lot of talk about how kids should learn about sex, when and from whom. Some would argue the topic is strictly a family matter. Others feel school provides a great opportunity for learning about sex since that's where a lot of their first sexual experiences will stem from. And yet others would prefer not to breach the subject directly and let their kids figure it out for themselves.

Sex should be introduced gradually with its core in the idea of relationships. Kids don't jump right into having sex. They start to play together. They give each other gifts. They sit next to each other at lunch. They hold hands. There's a wide range of activities that are explored before that disgusting act everyone is afraid of. Just like kids have to learn symbols represent ideas, letters make sounds and form words, kids need to slowly learn that girls are gross.

Curious to see how you learned about sex. Quick poll to the right.

10 comments:

  1. First, the poll wasn't working when I tried.

    As you say, the controversy, a whole lot of talk, is quite real. There is a recent study that you can find at http://futureofsexed.org which is quite good. I wrote a blog post about it and critics of it at http://pedanticpoliticalponderings.blogspot.com/2012/01/praise-future-of-sex-education.html

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  2. I learned about sex from watching TV and movies in the 90's when I was but a little child. So I had the idea of what sex was by the time I was in kindergarten. What really blew me away was when I was in the second grade and my friend told me about how he saw his dad watching a video and this lady was sucking on his nether region and milk started squirting out of there! Then I look down and said to him, "milk doesn't come out of there!" Years later I found out it kind of does, but it ain't milk.

    I then had sex ed in the sixth grade at the timilty middle school in roxbury. They put us all in the auditorium to listen to this guy talk about sex and our bodies. No one paid attention though and it was more like recess. He really lost the group when he would try to connect with us by talking in informal ways and saying things like, " hey fellas you know when you wake up in the morning and you walk to the bathroom and your penis is real hard and stuff when you pee." This was when he lost all of us in his attempt to teach us about our bodies and sex because we all cracked up laughing. Then the school decided to split the boys and the girls up to have private sex ed classes. It was the most educational class I ever had. All the kids paid attention to the beautiful lady teaching us about condoms and sexual diseases. It was dead silent when she talked about how to stay safe when having sex. I also learned that day that you can use plastic wrap if you don't have a condom!

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  3. "That disgusting act that we're all afraid of".

    I think you have a point, there. I think, from the 1920s to today, amusement parks would draw sexy women in their haunted house rides. Some artists say that there is a cultural link, between the two ideas, a connection of the two ideas of sex and scary things.

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