Where I went to school we had a sex ed segement as part of eighth grade health and tenth grade health class (and various bits on "puberty" in elementary school). I remember our health teacher in high school couldn't even say the word penis without his bald head turning crimson. I remember it being something along the lines of "just don't do it because you'll probably get AIDS or syhpallis and probably die". Quality, that. It wasn't totally abstinence-only but that was the gist of it, possibly because the teacher couldn't even say the word penis without looking like he'd rather have his own put in a vice than talk about it.
Seems like not much has changed in the dozen years since I've had sex ed. I came across this link, rather randomly, last night. It's the posters for the eighth grade abstinence class at Old Orchard Jr. High. Let's see if we notice any themes, shall we:
Look, I'm not advocating teenagers, particularly young ones, go have sex. I think fear-based sex ed is ridiculous and does a disservice to kids. Yeah, sure, STDs are out there and you risk getting one from unprotected sex. This "everyone but the person you marry--and up until you say the vows, this includes the person you marry--has AIDs, syphallis, and herpes" promotes ignorance in the long run.
*Yeah. Not me.
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