Explain something to me - sex ed

[Aerows]

I went to entirely private school all of my life.

It was "Baptist school" or "Catholic School". In Southern states.

Now this was in the 80's, but explain to me why it was considered right for them to discuss reproduction - I remember being quite naive and asking pointed questions in the second grade such as "Well, if the sperm fertilizes the egg, how does it get there in the first place?" much to my teacher's chagrin. I honestly didn't know.

Are private schools freaking out about discussing it, or is it really right wingers trying to control PUBLIC schools discussing it, because that is what it seems to me to be.

It's okay if parents pay to have biology honestly explained, but if tax money goes towards it, it's a horrible thing and renounced? What sense does that make?

Or is it just an honest 'I don't want you talking about anything of substance in public schools because that would result in people that are educated, which is really only worthy of those whom have the money to send their children to private school?'

I admit that I have benefited from my education, but frankly, this is increasingly the argument that I see on the other side - no one is worthy of having an education if they don't go to a private institution for it. Please correct me if I am wrong and that current legislative efforts refute this.

My sister is as holy-roller as they come, and a conservative, but she is also a public school teacher. We can't sanely discuss politics, but I know she endures struggles with such regulation.

[Warpy]

1. Theoretically, private schools give parents more control

and that control is what they pay for in private grammar schools, whether they're religious or not.

Private high schools are mostly in two categories: prep and religious. Prep schools give future plutocrats intensive educational training. Religious schools give parents at least the illusion of continuing control.

My parents moved every few months and kept sticking me in Catholic schools as more of a known quantity than locally controlled public school systems until I rebelled at the age of 10. I know the education in the public school was actually better, only two hours a week was devoted to Baptist bible class (library time for me) instead of the constant drumbeat of Catholicism in even the arithmetic books.

I think they did feel the loss of control, although it had only been an illusion in the Catholic schools.

But that's what it is. Public schools don't offer much parental control and that's what they don't like about the whole idea and that's what these stupid protests over sex ed and library books are all about.

[Turbineguy]

2. That reminds me of my sex-ed adventure in the late 60's.

English is a second language for me. We had sex-ed in PE Class in 9th grade. In a school bus parked by the boys' locker room for the occasion. The Coach (that's right) was going on about sex and I was trying to keep up but was lost. I realized that if I understood the meaning of one single word, the whole thing would fall into place. I raised my hand and asked "What is 'sperm'?". A guy in the back of the class moaned "It's a whale!". It brought down the house.

In 10th grade, the Biology teacher had 'sex week'. Attendance was voluntary and you would not be marked absent if you weren't there. Everybody showed up.

[Aerows]

12. LMAO!

That's a wonderful anecdote!

[wandy]

3. Sex ed in my high school consisted of one of the gym teachers...

showing us the proper method to remove a rubber from a wooden dowel.
All further education was conducted in the back seat of a Dodge.
Please note, no quotes, no italics.
I'm not making this up.

[Morning Dew]

6. Meanwhile, in the back of the dodge:

"Hang on Susan, I gotta put this thing on a dowel."

[RainDog]

14. LOLOLOL!!! n/t

[csziggy]

13. As a girl, "sex ed" consisted totally of showing us how to use pads

Not tampons, because virgins didn't use those, but pads. It was more complicated back then (1960s) because we had to use belts to hold the pads somewhere near where they needed to be.

The interesting part was that there was no explanation of the biological processes that made them necessary. Nothing about birth control or any form of protection.

Apparently that was all up to the males with their rubbers on dowel education.

I actually learned the biology of reproduction from the horse book I found in the children's section of the public library that showed in detail how horses bred. I learned about contraceptives from an underground feminist newsletter that was secretly distributed in the women's dorms on campus.

[wandy]

16. And this is what the religous right would return us to. Fools.

Not that I don't miss the old Dodge.

[csziggy]

17. The "Come to Jesus" moment should be reserved for the Dodge

Let's teach FACTS in the schools!

I remember when I was studying mythology and Mom got upset because the Egyptian and Native American myths had the word 'penis' in them. Not in a sexual reference but as part of the Osiris dismemberment myth and one about the Trickster.

This was from a woman who had purchased the entire James Bond book series and given it to me to read when I was in fifth or sixth grade. I think she thought James Bond was a little like "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." which I was crazy about.

Mom was wise about a lot of stuff, but she was raised in Alabama and has never shaken some of the attitudes she was raised with.

[davsand]

4. If it is the biology of human reproduction it is kinda like evolution--they have their own version.

Given all the hoo-ha about abortions, you'd THINK they'd want to give enough information to kids so they could avoid the need for abortion by avoiding unplanned pregnancy. Somehow, that just isn't the case. You'd THINK they'd want to inform kids about contraception so that abortion would be less needed, but somehow that just ain't happenin either. Given all the hand wringing over stuff like STD's and GLBT issues you'd THINK that information would also be made available so that kids can make informed commentary or decisions, but that ain't happenin either.

Sex for humans is something to be punished and is somehow a dirty thing that is not to be discussed openly according to these people. We used to laugh and call them prudes. I'm not too sure that opinion is too far off the mark.



Laura

[RC]

8. You're kinda missing the point.

They have a problem with us humans being animals in the first place. Animals have sex, we don't.
Getting naked and touching one another and acting like animals by putting our tabs in icky slots, both of which are best left covered up because they are so obscene, is off putting for them.
We humans reproduce through the use of Storks and magic in darkened rooms, at night while we sleep.

[Aerows]

9. That's what they want us to believe

Somehow, not having sex removes us from being animals, and being forced to procreate makes us animals (because we have to touch each other in "amoral" ways).

It's stupidity of the highest order.

[lastlib]

5. I had the luxury of growing up on a farm.

Seeing the animals breeding was the best explanation you could get.

[Aerows]

11. I didn't

But I would agree, that would be a great education. What they did, however is attempt to take the fact that there is also humanity involved in our sexuality out of the equation and make it something bestial and degrading. I find that to be horrific in retrospect.

[PDJane]

7. You have it, actually.

Or is it just an honest 'I don't want you talking about anything of substance in public schools because that would result in people that are educated, which is really only worthy of those whom have the money to send their children to private school?'

This is a way to cement the existence of an underclass. The peons aren't supposed to understand how things work, they're supposed to follow the bible, and stay ignorant.

That's what they've been working for for several decades, and it will lead to a fascist state; that's also been an aim for some time.

[Aerows]

10. I didn't believe it at first

But that's what I am coming to believe. They want a permanent underclass.

[Honeycombe8]

15. 2nd grade? I didn't have a sex ed class until high school, I think. nt