Abstinence Only Education

[TheDeepestDepths]

What do you all think of it? Personally, I think it's a little like saying to a child, "No, I will not teach you how to swim. You might drown!"

It's surprising how many schools have this mindset. Even if they don't, most schools that teach sex education only cover bits of it. Were any of you taught sex education for gay people? I wasn't, and would have been in real trouble if I was gay.

What about education that teaches you about sex but also teaches you that it's wrong and dirty and they teach you about STDs and pregnancy - not to educate you - but to terrify you away from sex? My school took this viewpoint. Granted, all our sex education came in religion class and I think this was our teachers mindset, even when she tried to claim it wasn't.

[Camazotz]

What do you all think of it? Personally, I think it's a little like saying to a child, "No, I will not teach you how to swim. You might drown!"

It's surprising how many schools have this mindset. Even if they don't, most schools that teach sex education only cover bits of it. Were any of you taught sex education for gay people? I wasn't, and would have been in real trouble if I was gay.

What about education that teaches you about sex but also teaches you that it's wrong and dirty and they teach you about STDs and pregnancy - not to educate you - but to terrify you away from sex? My school took this viewpoint. Granted, all our sex education came in religion class and I think this was our teachers mindset, even when she tried to claim it wasn't.

Sex ed. is taught differently throughout the school systems. Abstinence-only schools receive federal funding (extra money) for following these guidelines as opposed to other methods of Planned Parenthood. [Note: This doesn't apply to private schools]

I'm not sure if my school preached abstinence; I'm pretty sure it didn't, although all the phys ed. teachers did. They still taught us about birth control, STD's and STI's, and all that stuff, but it would usually end with a "but it's still not 100% effective because abstinence is the only form of safe sex," which obviously isn't sex at all. Off topic, but my classmate asked "What about Divine Intervention? Doesn't that make the statistic 99.9% effective because of Jesus?" I'm pretty sure he got in-school suspension for the period, but it made me laugh.

Anyway, my thoughts on the issue is that it's not beneficial to anyone and it's a waste of time, effort, and most importantly (not really) money. Aside from private education, there's really no benefit to the student by preaching abstinence and ignoring education on topics that are relevant to teenagers. Why they fund abstinence-only programs rather than tax them beats me; it makes no sense.

And as to your question about sex ed. regarding gays? Absolutely nothing, other than "Always wear a condom."

http://www.siecus.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.viewPage&pageID=1340&nodeID=1
http://www.aclu.org/oppose-federal-funding-abstinence-only-education

[Micci]

I think schools like that are more likely to end up with pregnancies than other schools.

Adolescence is, basically, sex drugs and rock n' roll. You'll probably want to try everything you can either now or later, so they might as well teach us how to keep ourselves safe so we don't end up as statistics.

[Hyper]

Its stupid.

Though nothing like that here. I am guessing it's like that in the U.S and in other countries because certain religious extremists or just dumbass people stuck their nose where it didn't belong - education

[Origami]

Its stupid.

Though nothing like that here. I am guessing it's like that in the U.S and in other countries because certain religious extremists or just dumbass people stuck their nose where it didn't belong - education

Coming from a very Christian community I can say that we were taught traditional sex education. I don't recall them ever mentioning abstinence, much less stressing it.

I'm not sure of the origins of it, but I'm place money on it being an overly protective group of parents before I would a religious fanatic. At least here in my part of the US anyway.

[Stronk Serb]

Here in Serbia we recieved little to no education. Only about contraceotion and STDs/STIs. Nothing else, not even what hapoens to our bodies when we have sex. It does not really matter here since most if not all of the girls are in celibacy phase untill they are 20 or so. Couldn't blame them, since most of the guys here treat them like booty calls.

[tovaris]

We arent taught sex education per say. The fiziological part is alredy coverd by bysic mamel biologie (like that makes any sense). Not mush done in primary school, but we had a few random clases related one way or a nother by students of medicine (mostly about std and things like that).

But i we have a low birth rate as is so as long as people are keping helthy while squezing our new people the sistems logic of let it be as long as its cheep works in a way.

[Jess]

I'm not sure about it. Personally, I find ... it to be disgusting and would never do it (but I'm not one to tell people they can't do it, it's none of my business)....

I don't remember having any such education about it, whether avoiding it or whatever, in school, though....maybe a reference to it in health class in high school, not sure...:/

[Rina]

Sex education for gay people? lmao why do we need a separate lesson for that as if sex is any different for gay people besides minor things.

Anyways, my school did teach abstinence. They said that it was the only way to not get pregnant and such. But, they did talk about the preventive measures because they know some students are having sex.

[TheDeepestDepths]

Sex education for gay people? lmao why do we need a separate lesson for that as if sex is any different for gay people besides minor things.

I'm not saying that homosexuals should be taken out of class and given a different sex education to straight people. I'm saying that everyone should be taught about all kinds of sex. Even men taught about lesbian sex and women taught about gay sex. How else are people growing up going to understand other people to the fullest?

I don't know how you were taught it, but in our school we were taught that sex was penis going into vagina. The end. Gay sex wasn't even discussed, it was treated like it didn't exist or wasn't really sex. I've heard of people (girls mostly) who knew they were a lesbian but had no idea how to go about giving pleasure to another female and even less of an idea how to keep themselves safe while doing it.

[Rina]

I'm not saying that homosexuals should be taken out of class and given a different sex education to straight people. I'm saying that everyone should be taught about all kinds of sex. Even men taught about lesbian sex and women taught about gay sex. How else are people growing up going to understand other people to the fullest?

I don't know how you were taught it, but in our school we were taught that sex was penis going into vagina. The end. Gay sex wasn't even discussed, it was treated like it didn't exist or wasn't really sex. I've heard of people (girls mostly) who knew they were a lesbian but had no idea how to go about giving pleasure to another female and even less of an idea how to keep themselves safe while doing it.

TBH, I was never taught about how to have sex to begin with. Teaching you how to have sex is in a way encouraging the students to do so and that is not what school is supposed to try to do or do at all. In my school, they only taught you how to prevent and where the prevention goes or how it's used.

It's not their job to teach heterosexuals or homosexuals how to have sex. The reason most schools probably skip sex education now is because we have the internet and so most of us know all about sex or can find out about it.

All people receive pleasure a different way anyways, so there's no definite way to teach people how to do it. You find out during the action.

Edit: I just realized that maybe you're more-so referring to the kinds of sex instead of how to have it (i.e. vaginal, anal, oral). There doesn't need to be another kind like adding gay sex in there when it mostly falls into those three categories as well.

[nice]

The sex Ed class at my school talked about abstinence some what. We were told that its the only way to keep from getting pregnant. And we were taught about safe sex for straight guys and people in the LGB community sorta kinda.