I came from a conflicting background when it came to sex. I was raised Catholic, so that meant lots of "no sex before marriage" chats in religious education; my parents were very realistic about it, telling us about contraception if we planned to have sex before marriage but that there were definitely consequences to unsafe sex; school was somewhere in the middle, saying that you could get pregnant and be a teen mom but that teaching abstinence would be useless, so hey! look! this is what a condom is and how it works.
Confusing.
I liked that I could pick and choose from each information source, but some were more dramatic than others. Our religious ed chats reminded me more of something you'd hear in
D.A.R.E. ("look at this person's face. this is what will happen to you when you smoke any cigarette ever. any questions? great.") only ours referred more to fire and brimstone than The Faces of Meth. Health class in school was pretty low-key but embarrassing, and I don't remember much from it, so I'm assuming I was writing notes to my friends every day in that class period.
What were your primary sources of sexual education? What was the most outlandish thing you heard about sex from a parent, teacher or anyone who told you about it?
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self taught
but know i am a guru :PSchool starting in 7th grade going to 9th. Then self taught. Research always helps.
Self taught as well. I have never ever talked sex with either of my parents. Even now, just in passing with my mom but not specifically or to talk about me.
I learned it by reading a lot on studentcenter.org! No seriously, they helped tremendously with all my questions, it's a community where you go for advice. When I was 17-18, that's where I learned everything and what to expect and so on. I was homeschooled so no sex ed for me! But I'm a smart girl, I waited until I knew I was ready and until I wanted to and after I knew all the facts.
I started learning about it in school in 5th grade, and then had actual sex ed classes in 6th and 7th grade. I wish they would've shown us things like how to use a condom, but it was mostly about anatomy and STDs.
The rest is self-taught. My parents didn't teach me anything whatsoever about sex except that it's taboo and good little Christian girls should never ever be exposed to anything of a sexual nature before marriage. Yeah... so much for that working out the way they planned.
sex education for us started in fifth grade, around when puberty started. they split us up into guy/girl groups to tell us what to expect from our bodies in the next couple years. it continued all the way to senior year of high school. the intercourse entered around ninth grade or so. they told us abstinence was best but they also informed us about birth control.
I was raised Catholic too except instead of saying "No sex before marriage" my parents just didn't really mention it until after I learned all that stuff from sex ed. I got that lecture from going to confirmation classes and by then I was already 15/16 years old. Honestly, learning about all the diseases you can get sexually and all of their nasty symptoms was enough for me to think "Let me just not have sex for a long time and always always use condoms when I eventually do." Thank goodness for Sex Education in public schools.
Everything I learned about sex is from watching TV shows. My mom just told me how terrible it would be to be pregnant at 15.
- No sex education from parents
- Sex education from church consisted of: (to girls) "Boys only want sex so stay away" and (to boys): "Don't pressure girls into sex. In fact, don't have sex at all. It's a sin."
- Only a basic sex education from school (pretty much what you described here... some basic consequences, where to obtain condoms, etc)
- Self-taught otherwise
Like missedout_onlife, I waited until I knew I was ready, knew I wanted to, and understood the consequences. My sex education didn't really impact when I started having sex.
I had sex ed classes in seventh and eighth grade but I don't recall much from it. My parents never talked to me about sex either. Just the usually, "Wait until you're married," talk.
So basically - self taught.
yea self taught..you just start to figure things out...i still havent had the talk with my parents. and what does a bird and a bee signify anyway?
No sex-ed from home, and none from school.
So I just got to do my own, ah, research. Purely academic, of course.
Well I guess I started pretty young, my cousins showing me a book about sex and puberty that their parents gave them. Obviously I didn't really understand the specifics but by age 6 I already knew the general steps to how sex worked and that people wore a condom to stop from having babies (but I didn't know how a condom worked lol).
and then after that I got taught about sex in school. 5th grade we were taught the more technical parts about sex. Penis in Vagina, X and Y chromosomes, all that jazz.
Then 6th grade came and it was more about STD's and protection and help and all those other medical things.
Then 8th grade they focused more on puberty (I think they should have switched 8th and 6 but whatever) and our feelings. 6th and 8th grade we sis go over everything but they just had those focuses.
Then in high school in 10th grade you have to take a health class where you learn about various health things. lol. They are supposed to devote a week to Sex Ed but my teacher was more like "You kids know how it works and you know you're supposed to wear protection." so she just skimmed over it.
From 7-13 yrs old I had to go to a catholic saturday school. They didnt teach us much about sex but when the topic came up it was always "No sex until you're married." and that was it. How lame. Basically they told us that when we go and have sex before marriage its like making yourself ugly and gross to your husband/wife. They'd say things like "No one wants a spouse thats used and dirty." Which is kinda ridiculous.
But when it comes to more intimate details about sex, yea, thats self learned right there baby ;)
I don't really think I had any sexual education...
The internet.
My mother gave me a book about sex education and never brought it up again.
My mom. :P Not really a big deal for me. Any other questions, I just consult the internet.
My primary source of sex education was friends and experimentation. I'd still never to this day ask my parents anything involving sex, and at school all we ever had was one sex ed class where we put a condom on a banana. Great fun!
I don't recall much "sex ed" from my parents. My mom told my sister and I what sex was when I was about 9 and we had heard it on the radio and asked her "what's that?". I think our response was something like "ew, gross.". After that, we got the "growing up" talk in 4th grade, 5th grade, and 6th grade. In 7th grade, I attended a small, private, Baptist school where they told us to "be absitinent". I took their word for it and pledged to be abstinent. Same thing in 8th grade. I went to public school in 9th grade, where they gave us the talk in health class about just "be careful", but I'd already decided to be abstinent. I later made the decision based on more than just someone telling me to, but basically not a whole lot of talk went on, they just kind of said "don't have sex" and I obeyed. *shrugs*
None from my parents - my mom tried once when I was about 9 and I was too embarrassed to let her continue. By the time I was in high school it was understood that if I got pregnant then I was obviously grown up enough to move out and live on my own, although I'm certain that in reality they would have been very supportive and hardly would have kicked me out.
I went to Catholic school, so after a couple years of spending a day or two in science class talking about puberty and the reproductive systems (4th-6th grade, I think) they gave up until 9th grade when we were taught strictly abstinence only (by the religion teacher, none the less!)- condoms were mentioned as something that wasn't 100% successful and we never even saw a picture of one.
By that point the internet had already taught me more about sex ed than I think a teacher would ever be willing or able to explain in a classroom setting. Although the uninhibited exploration taught me a lot, I kind of wish I'd had resources that were a little more...age appropriate - there are some things a 10 year old isn't quite ready to process, although I seem to have turned out just fine! ;)
someone else taught me.
Highschool.
I think sex ed is a bit narrow. It mostly on the technical issue (the how to use condemn, STD and pregnancy, etc)
But not much talk about the emotional issue. Like how some people when they think back, they rather not have sex before marriage. And also, sometimes, one will feel like pieces of themselves are being teared away, when they have sex before marriage. etc etc.....
my friends, mainly. The school, a little bit. :)
i don't remember how or where i was educated about sex, but my beliefs and such have evolved over time. i used to want to wait until marriage, but now i don't care/don't want to wait.
one of the most ridiculous things i've heard about sex education was when, during an 8th grade debate, my opponent (opposed to sex ed) explained how sex ed works by comparing sex to a plate of cookies:
"ohh it's soo good. they taste soooo goooood. yummmmmmm OH but you can't eat them now. nope."
W.T.F.
1) it's kind of disturbing for a 13 year old girl to be going "yum sooo gooooood" when indirectly talking about sex
2) sex education does not teach kids that sex is wonderful and great, but that they can't have it.
i refuted her point, but didn't do it as thouroughly as i would have liked, and i'm STILL upset over that stupid argument. hahaha
My dad tried to give me "the talk" in a Chinese restaurant =/
My mom just gave me books. The rest of my education, I got from school. I don't remember most of my 10th grade health class, because it was a large lecture hall style room, with stadium type seating, and I would usually sit several rows back and read. Once, I recall looking up from my book to see a infrared video of a man getting an erection. That was certainly interesting.
I also learned a lot from WebMD, About.com, Wikipedia, and Google Images :) I could probably explain most STDs and give graphic detail of the sores and lesions (NOT FROM FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE, OF COURSE!!)