We recently asked teachers and students from the BuzzFeed Community to share what is being taught in sex education in schools today. Unfortunately, a lot of people feel like schools are falling short when it comes to educating the youth about sex...
NOTE: This post is only a small sampling of what's being taught and doesn't reflect every single school curriculum.
This post includes topics of sexual assault that may be triggering for some.
1. "I'm a middle schooler in sex ed right now. I was reading a paragraph about abstinence that absolutely disgusted me. It said in bold letters, 'Perks of Staying Abstinent: Staying abstinent can help keep you safe from rape and molestation.' I’m still horrified that they would feed untrue information like this to young, impressionable teenagers – most of whom don’t know much on the subject of sex, let alone rape."
2. "I teach at a middle school. There is absolutely zero sex education. A 7th-grade student asked me how his older sister’s baby was going to come out of her belly button."
3. "Last year when I was a freshman, they gave us a packet that talked about STDs, condoms, and birth control. Then, at the end of that packet, was an area where you would sign that you would refrain from sex until you were married. I didn't sign, but it was heavily encouraged in class that you should."
4. "I was taught that the only way to not get pregnant was to never have sex. They never taught us about condoms or birth control."
5. "I'm a female student who's taking sex ed now. The funniest thing to me is how often they refer to penises and male anatomy, but rarely discuss vaginas and female anatomy. It's kinda disgusting how little the guys have to learn about vaginas and periods, yet, I know pretty much everything about males now."
6. "We were given a pamphlet and a 30-minute lecture. That was it."
7. "We were taught abstinence, lots and lots of it! Also, we were shown pictures of STDs and told that we would get them if we had sex. We were never taught how to combat them by wearing protection. At my public school, it was all catered towards heterosexual people, which is unfortunate."
8. "I’m a high school student – and let me tell you – it’s not getting taught very well. During our last sex ed class, someone asked, 'Does using a vegetable to stimulate yourself put you in danger of STDs?'"
9. "I’ve been teaching sex ed at a high school for almost 14 years and I’m still teaching the same curriculum as I was during my first year. We've experienced a decade of new discoveries and busted myths and they don’t change a thing when it comes to educating kids about this stuff."
10. "I went to a public high school for a few years and health class was a nightmare. My teacher would constantly remind the class that she was Catholic, so she didn't believe in the things she had to teach us."
11. "Our school district told our health teachers that they weren’t even allowed to use the word 'condom.' They had to promote abstinence only."
12. "I’m a junior in high school, and sex ed was taught during health class freshman year. Basically, all they taught was that sex is bad and you should not do it."
love how schools still want to teach abstinence with sex instead of how to practice safe sex
13. "I'm a sophomore and in health class we just watch movies about bullying and anorexia and look up super-easy vocabulary words in our textbook. We don't even discuss sex."
14. "Junior in public high school here. Last year I was disappointed to be given a textbook and lecture about how abstinence was the only safe sex option. There was no talk about consent, and certainly nothing about other safe sex practices."
ABSTINENCE ISNT THE SOLUTION TEACH BETTER SEX ED ABSTINENCE ISNT THE SOLUTION TEACH BETTER SEX ED ABSTINENCE ISNT THE SOLUTION TEACH BETTER SEX ED ABSTINENCE ISNT THE SOLUTION TEACH BETTER SEX ED
15. "I am a student and sexuality wasn’t brought up, different types of sex weren't brought up, and how to actually have sex wasn’t brought up. So, yeah, my class isn’t looking so good..."
"...Thankfully, I have a fantastic mother who is very informative and willing to answer any questions I have."
Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.