We don't need more sex eduation, we need better sex education. Mine (and it wasn't too long ago) was excruciatingly embarrassing. A breakdown of it is this:
- Biological processes. Fallopian tubes, prostate glands etc. No teen really cares about this, it's mind-numbingly boring.
- Puberty. By the time teens get into proper sex ed, quite a few of them are way ahead in the puberty race and don't really need lectured on how wet dreams are normal.
- Contraception. It's mostly male oriented, i.e. condoms. My guess is the pill didn't get much mention due to its inability to protect from diseases, but it's important to show girls that they have more control over this too. AND that they're entitled to confidentiality from their doctor even if they're under age.
- Diseases. AIDS of course, being king. Most of my class didn't seem to care because how many teens do YOU know with AIDS? Obviously it's important to talk about STDs but they should do it without resorting to scare tactics. Believe me, when you use statistics to back up an argument all through a lecture then suddenly don't, everyone knows why. They should be totally honest about the risks involved.
- Relationships. This was quite possibly the worst part of sex ed. Sex was predominantly portrayed as something that happens between heterosexual couples who are either married or in love. Sex isn't JUST for that category of people! Teens know it too. No amount of, 'you should wait until you're older' speeches is going to have the slightest bit of impact on teens.
- Seriousness. We got into trouble if we laughed at any of the sex ed videos. We were shown a clip of a woman who'd just gotten out of the shower who drops her towel and starts brushing her hair with her legs wide open so the camera could zoom in. Pepole laughed because it was absurd. It resulted in several people being given detention. I think any dialogue - even if it involves laughter - is better than none. The teachers need to loosen up and be more approachable.
You wanna reform sex ed? Scrap the terrible videos and bring real people into classes. Bring in a teenage mum. Bring in a teenage dad. Bring in someone actually suffering from an incurable STD. Bring in gay/lesbian couples. Bring in someone who gave a child up for adoption.
Real life stories are so much more powerful than a prepackaged sterile video. Sex needs to be shown for what it is, diverse. By limiting videos to show only a small portion of what sex is all about we're alienating teenagers.