Spring Break
Lack of sexuality ed. leaves many students ignorant
Kathy Greaves
Issue date: 6/3/09 Section: Forum
Dear readers,
I think I will use this last column of the year to reflect on some issues that come up every year, either in my classroom or my column. It is clear after teaching human sexuality for 14 years here at OSU that many of my students received, at best, an inadequate sexuality education in high school or at home or, at worst, no sexuality education to speak of.
Most of my students will tell me that they heard plenty about plumbing ("This is a penis, this is a vagina, this is how you make a baby"), diseases (AIDS, sexually transmitted infections) and pregnancy prevention. Worst of all, many received the information via scare tactics. By that I mean they were told of all the negative consequences of sexual activity - and it stopped there.
Few students tell me that they learned that sex is a wonderful expression of love, that it usually feels really good and that it can be very fun. I challenge someone to disagree with those three things. I know there is more to sex than those three things, but rarely are those three things expressed in K-12 sex ed.
What students didn't get was sexuality education. What I mean by "sexuality education" is acknowledging the existence of behaviors beyond the obvious and the stereotypical.
Many of my students come into my class with a very limited idea of what sex is and how it plays out. Many think sex equals penile-vaginal intercourse in the missionary position (man on top), and anything else is abnormal, unnatural, perverted, sick, immoral or wrong when, in fact, most adults participate in a variety of sexual acts.
In high school they didn't hear about homosexual love relationships, anal sex, masturbation, sex after sixty, women with high sex drives or men with low sex drives. I am not saying that the teacher has to approve of or condone these activities, but students have a right to know they exist and they have a right to be fully informed.
Knowledge is power - it is what gives us the power to make informed decisions. Research shows that a sex education program consisting of plumbing, disease and scare tactics produces an uninformed, sex-guilty young adult who lacks confidence and therefore makes the poorest contraceptive choices. This is also the college student who is least likely to take my course. The end result is someone who is the most likely candidate of an unplanned, unwanted pregnancy.
I think I will use this last column of the year to reflect on some issues that come up every year, either in my classroom or my column. It is clear after teaching human sexuality for 14 years here at OSU that many of my students received, at best, an inadequate sexuality education in high school or at home or, at worst, no sexuality education to speak of.
Most of my students will tell me that they heard plenty about plumbing ("This is a penis, this is a vagina, this is how you make a baby"), diseases (AIDS, sexually transmitted infections) and pregnancy prevention. Worst of all, many received the information via scare tactics. By that I mean they were told of all the negative consequences of sexual activity - and it stopped there.
Few students tell me that they learned that sex is a wonderful expression of love, that it usually feels really good and that it can be very fun. I challenge someone to disagree with those three things. I know there is more to sex than those three things, but rarely are those three things expressed in K-12 sex ed.
What students didn't get was sexuality education. What I mean by "sexuality education" is acknowledging the existence of behaviors beyond the obvious and the stereotypical.
Many of my students come into my class with a very limited idea of what sex is and how it plays out. Many think sex equals penile-vaginal intercourse in the missionary position (man on top), and anything else is abnormal, unnatural, perverted, sick, immoral or wrong when, in fact, most adults participate in a variety of sexual acts.
In high school they didn't hear about homosexual love relationships, anal sex, masturbation, sex after sixty, women with high sex drives or men with low sex drives. I am not saying that the teacher has to approve of or condone these activities, but students have a right to know they exist and they have a right to be fully informed.
Knowledge is power - it is what gives us the power to make informed decisions. Research shows that a sex education program consisting of plumbing, disease and scare tactics produces an uninformed, sex-guilty young adult who lacks confidence and therefore makes the poorest contraceptive choices. This is also the college student who is least likely to take my course. The end result is someone who is the most likely candidate of an unplanned, unwanted pregnancy.
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