With the government finally changing sex-ed guidelines after 17 years, I would like to know experiences and opinions on sex-ed.
Were you taught well?
Good or bad experiences?
Did you go to the internet for answers?
What do YOU think should be taught now?
I grew up in faith schools so my sex-ed was extremely religiously based about what God says and what you will sin for blah de blah...
I have always been taught that sex was an unspeakable thing that only married adults did maybe once or twice to have kids.
Of course, that is most definitely not the case!
I would like to know other people's sex-ed experiences - good and bad - to see how different it is for students of different backgrounds, religion, schooling etc. and to also reduce the stigma and the taboo around sex, reproduction and sex-ed within schools. Because our refusal to talk openly about sex is only going to make the kids of tomorrow awkward.
On the 1st March 2017, it became compulsory for all secondary schools in England to teach sex and relationships education (SRE). Currently only around a third of secondary schools are offering compulsory sex and relationships education, and PSHE is only obligatory at independent schools. Neither are currently required to be taught in academies.
The guidance for SRE was introduced in 2000 and is becoming increasingly outdated. It fails to address risks to children which have grown in recent years, including online pornography, sexting and staying safe online. Because of the increase of reports of these issues and further consequences, such as suicide, parliament has finally decided to take action. What these new guidelines will be is yet to be confirmed but many within the education system do not hold much hope for progress until after the ceaseless Brexit negotiations.
Personally, I don't think we should be ashamed or even consider feeling awkward when talking about sex or anything even minutely sex related. It should be something we embrace because our coldness towards it causes unanswered questions. We are worried about children from a young age being exposed to porn or looking to the internet for sex answers but what else would you expect when we aren't even willing to talk about it amongst ourselves.
My experience with Sex Ed was rather limited - I had a nurse tell us the basics of condoms, body parts and how babies are made, but there wasn't much else. I had to get most of my information from a book, which was beneficial but didn't reinforce the important parts such as consent or STIs.