Texas: We had it three times. All three times were ineffectual or outright wrong.
First was in 3rd grade (9 years old) where the boys and girls were split into different classrooms. This was mostly the “your body is going to change, your penis will sometimes get hard, you’ll get hair in new places, please for the love of god wear antiperspirant” talk. They didn’t really touch on the opposite sex at all in this one, except to vaguely say that the girls would also experience some changes of their own.
Second was in middle school, probably 7th grade (13 years old). They marched us all into the gymatorium and had us sit on the floor in front of the stage. They brought in a dude who looked and acted a lot like a church youth leader. Very much the “hey kids, I’m the cool relatable teacher” type. This was an abstinence-only sex talk. We were told that condoms don’t prevent pregnancy or STIs, (“on the microscopic level, latex looks like Swiss cheese”), and can actually increase the risk of STIs in some cases by “sealing everything in”. We were told that women’s birth control is ineffective and probably shouldn’t even be legal to sell because of the horrible side effects. We were shown lots of gory and graphic images of sex organs in various states of disease or decay. This was basically the start of the “if you have sex you’re going to catch a ton of diseases and then die” messaging. We were told that the only safe way to have sex is to wait until after marriage.
Then in high school, we had Health as a required elective. It could be taken anywhere from 9th to 12th grade (15-18 years old). The class was mostly focused on things like nutrition (using the very outdated food pyramid) and exercise (without any actual practical portions where we went to the gym). Sex ed in this class consisted of a single class session (~55 minutes) of more “if you have sex it’ll rot, and then you’ll die” messaging.
Naturally, kids had a lot of unprotected sex, because teenagers are horny. They tried sex, realized they didn’t seem to get sick, and then kept having it. And they didn’t use protection, because they were told that condoms were ineffective. IIRC we had around a dozen girls get pregnant in high school. Also, all three sex talks were entirely heteronormative, with zero mention of LGBTQ+ stuff.
Edit: My partner went to school in a neighboring town. They didn’t get the middle school talk, and Health was an optional elective for their high school. So the only one they actually got was the first talk in elementary school.
Seriously, to me this sounds like politically and religiously motivated child abuse. All of it. Lives were destroyed by this behavior, people should be jailed for this.
Yes, the sex education that was provided was horrible, probably still is.
Thankfully, between the internet and other sources of factual information, most of us figured it out. Most.
That being said, there were quite a few girls who left our campus for a long duration, and some for a shorter duration.
Well, I was in a networking class and me and my friends were poking around the network.
Now, what we did was in no way shape or form hacking.
We navigated to the nurse’s computer, labeled for convenience, and started poking around. Open access to it. HIPPA information, etc.
Anyways, the girls who left for a long time got knocked up, had a baby etc.
The short timers were usually a combination of suspension and some STD.
We missed the next period reporting the security concern to administration.
We did not mention we were responsible for the network outage the previous month; but if a batch file placed in the autostart of a few computers can bring the school down, they deserved it. We just wanted to cause some chaos and blow off a day where we all had classes in computer labs.
Texas: We had it three times. All three times were ineffectual or outright wrong.
First was in 3rd grade (9 years old) where the boys and girls were split into different classrooms. This was mostly the “your body is going to change, your penis will sometimes get hard, you’ll get hair in new places, please for the love of god wear antiperspirant” talk. They didn’t really touch on the opposite sex at all in this one, except to vaguely say that the girls would also experience some changes of their own.
Second was in middle school, probably 7th grade (13 years old). They marched us all into the gymatorium and had us sit on the floor in front of the stage. They brought in a dude who looked and acted a lot like a church youth leader. Very much the “hey kids, I’m the cool relatable teacher” type. This was an abstinence-only sex talk. We were told that condoms don’t prevent pregnancy or STIs, (“on the microscopic level, latex looks like Swiss cheese”), and can actually increase the risk of STIs in some cases by “sealing everything in”. We were told that women’s birth control is ineffective and probably shouldn’t even be legal to sell because of the horrible side effects. We were shown lots of gory and graphic images of sex organs in various states of disease or decay. This was basically the start of the “if you have sex you’re going to catch a ton of diseases and then die” messaging. We were told that the only safe way to have sex is to wait until after marriage.
Then in high school, we had Health as a required elective. It could be taken anywhere from 9th to 12th grade (15-18 years old). The class was mostly focused on things like nutrition (using the very outdated food pyramid) and exercise (without any actual practical portions where we went to the gym). Sex ed in this class consisted of a single class session (~55 minutes) of more “if you have sex it’ll rot, and then you’ll die” messaging.
Naturally, kids had a lot of unprotected sex, because teenagers are horny. They tried sex, realized they didn’t seem to get sick, and then kept having it. And they didn’t use protection, because they were told that condoms were ineffective. IIRC we had around a dozen girls get pregnant in high school. Also, all three sex talks were entirely heteronormative, with zero mention of LGBTQ+ stuff.
Edit: My partner went to school in a neighboring town. They didn’t get the middle school talk, and Health was an optional elective for their high school. So the only one they actually got was the first talk in elementary school.
I’m deeply sorry but Texas moment
Seriously, to me this sounds like politically and religiously motivated child abuse. All of it. Lives were destroyed by this behavior, people should be jailed for this.
Texan here as well.
Yes, the sex education that was provided was horrible, probably still is.
Thankfully, between the internet and other sources of factual information, most of us figured it out. Most.
That being said, there were quite a few girls who left our campus for a long duration, and some for a shorter duration.
Well, I was in a networking class and me and my friends were poking around the network.
Now, what we did was in no way shape or form hacking.
We navigated to the nurse’s computer, labeled for convenience, and started poking around. Open access to it. HIPPA information, etc.
Anyways, the girls who left for a long time got knocked up, had a baby etc.
The short timers were usually a combination of suspension and some STD.
We missed the next period reporting the security concern to administration.
We did not mention we were responsible for the network outage the previous month; but if a batch file placed in the autostart of a few computers can bring the school down, they deserved it. We just wanted to cause some chaos and blow off a day where we all had classes in computer labs.