Today was about SEx!
Today I sat aside 3 hrs to do school work. I'm focusing on my health class and the majority of the unit I covered was about sexual health and sexual education.
some background on me: I was raised in a pretty christian and church going household, Southern Baptists in Arkansas. When I hit about 15, we no longer went to church. From then I grew my interests in God and religions on my own. Now mix in sex. I had my first REAL boyfriend where you make out and SORT of fool around when I was 14. But I was always very cautious and scarred, but had no sex education from either home or school. Second real boyfriend at 15, still no sex for me. Before I turned 16 I had to take a sex ed class here in Az at my HS. It was EYE OPENING! They had two forms here, which I now appreciate and see the value in. One was strictly sex ed. A woman came from a charity organization to teach us about STDs and such. As 15 and 16 yr old little kids, we saw what HIV does to people, what ghonareah (if spelled right) actually LOOKS like on the va-jay-jay (grey's term) and other STDs that looks like veggies hangin' out of your junk. Or what it does to a man's penis. How you get all of this stuff. How you can even get stuff from oral sex. We LEARNED so much and I also think the method was to scare us. Well it worked for me. The message I got out of that was that sex is a huge risk. There is a slew of things that can and maybe will go wrong if you have unprotected sex and ecspecially w/ multiple people. So I kept my legs shut! Oh and their other program was an abstinence program. So me being super fearfull of sex and w/ my background in church going, I signed up for the abstinence program w/ pressures from my mom and sister. I knew then the idea of waiting was good, I just wasn't so sure waiting until marraige was good. I knew I wouldn't be losing it to any stranger or goin' after notches on my bed post. I knew that that was unhealthy and caused you emotional pain. So I signed up for this after school abstinence program and our purpose there was for the leaders to educate us, motivate one another, and we had mentors who were college age and still abstinent. We did field trips and put on plays for our school. So at about 15.5 I started dating Mike. I was w/ him for about a year when I decided he was a good one to give it up to. I knew I didn't PLAN on being w/ multiple partners, we'd been together a long time in HS terms, and we had a good thing going. We actually did. We enjoyed communicating, learning together, learning from each other. Good things that I still t hink are good foundations for a relationship. I quit the abstinence group and had sex. It was good. I had been on BC b/c of chick problems, so that wasn't a concern. When I look back now it's so weird for me to realize we NEVEr used condoms. If he had been a virgin as well, I'm sure there would be no problem. But he had been w/ 2 other people by then, on casual terms, no long relationships or anything.
So, when I look back at my sexual education, I see a few flaws. These are flaws I plan to fix when educating my children, and also will help with my approach to my students. My flaws:
-I somehow had no idea you could get pregnant, haha!
-I had no real education on HIV.
-I NEVER bought condoms myself, goes to show you often they were NOT used.
I am lucky today that I am a healthy young woman w/ no sexual health problems. I had my first child b/c I was not on birth control, didn't use a condom, and wasn't even concerned that pregnancy could happen to me. It's not like I was in denial, I literally just never thought about it. So that pregnancy was a SHOCK to my 18 yr old soul. I was flabbergasted, fearful, and torn up on the inside. Pregnancy was not a huge part of my education. I guess if you used the condom education w/ the STD education then I would've been covered. But my first sexual experiences started w/ someone who I had been w/, trusted, and didn't think condoms were necessary. So I don't think I even felt a condom from 16 to 18 or 19.
Today for my class we talked about what prevents young people from having sex early, it was amazing and very interesting. How self esteem and self work determine if a 13 yr old girl decides to have sex. How much peer pressure and marketing play on it. Also I didn't know that the government doesn't regulate sex ed. There are 4 national organizations which PROVIDE sex ed materials to states, but the states choose whether they use "sexual responsibility" or "abstinence" approach. (Oh and I also learned what a miscarraige and abortion LOOK like, scary).
Also watched a video on a chick living w/ HIV in Alabama. How she had no educaiton at all until she had sex at 17, and got HIV. She had no clue. Then she had to move away from her small town just to get treatment to live. It was sad. But it just shows how lack of education leads to so many of these problems. It makes me want to be a teacher NOW and go out and reform sex ed programs. I have such a passion for educating people and helping people who do not have the resources or programs to be educated. I truly think so many of those kids would not have sex or would be responsible, if they knew the risk that were out there.
So class, after today's lesson, what have we learned? Be sexually responsible and abstain from sex if you wish, it is the most sure way. But if not, be responsible for your body and who and what you do with it!
xoxo,
Professor Liz
some background on me: I was raised in a pretty christian and church going household, Southern Baptists in Arkansas. When I hit about 15, we no longer went to church. From then I grew my interests in God and religions on my own. Now mix in sex. I had my first REAL boyfriend where you make out and SORT of fool around when I was 14. But I was always very cautious and scarred, but had no sex education from either home or school. Second real boyfriend at 15, still no sex for me. Before I turned 16 I had to take a sex ed class here in Az at my HS. It was EYE OPENING! They had two forms here, which I now appreciate and see the value in. One was strictly sex ed. A woman came from a charity organization to teach us about STDs and such. As 15 and 16 yr old little kids, we saw what HIV does to people, what ghonareah (if spelled right) actually LOOKS like on the va-jay-jay (grey's term) and other STDs that looks like veggies hangin' out of your junk. Or what it does to a man's penis. How you get all of this stuff. How you can even get stuff from oral sex. We LEARNED so much and I also think the method was to scare us. Well it worked for me. The message I got out of that was that sex is a huge risk. There is a slew of things that can and maybe will go wrong if you have unprotected sex and ecspecially w/ multiple people. So I kept my legs shut! Oh and their other program was an abstinence program. So me being super fearfull of sex and w/ my background in church going, I signed up for the abstinence program w/ pressures from my mom and sister. I knew then the idea of waiting was good, I just wasn't so sure waiting until marraige was good. I knew I wouldn't be losing it to any stranger or goin' after notches on my bed post. I knew that that was unhealthy and caused you emotional pain. So I signed up for this after school abstinence program and our purpose there was for the leaders to educate us, motivate one another, and we had mentors who were college age and still abstinent. We did field trips and put on plays for our school. So at about 15.5 I started dating Mike. I was w/ him for about a year when I decided he was a good one to give it up to. I knew I didn't PLAN on being w/ multiple partners, we'd been together a long time in HS terms, and we had a good thing going. We actually did. We enjoyed communicating, learning together, learning from each other. Good things that I still t hink are good foundations for a relationship. I quit the abstinence group and had sex. It was good. I had been on BC b/c of chick problems, so that wasn't a concern. When I look back now it's so weird for me to realize we NEVEr used condoms. If he had been a virgin as well, I'm sure there would be no problem. But he had been w/ 2 other people by then, on casual terms, no long relationships or anything.
So, when I look back at my sexual education, I see a few flaws. These are flaws I plan to fix when educating my children, and also will help with my approach to my students. My flaws:
-I somehow had no idea you could get pregnant, haha!
-I had no real education on HIV.
-I NEVER bought condoms myself, goes to show you often they were NOT used.
I am lucky today that I am a healthy young woman w/ no sexual health problems. I had my first child b/c I was not on birth control, didn't use a condom, and wasn't even concerned that pregnancy could happen to me. It's not like I was in denial, I literally just never thought about it. So that pregnancy was a SHOCK to my 18 yr old soul. I was flabbergasted, fearful, and torn up on the inside. Pregnancy was not a huge part of my education. I guess if you used the condom education w/ the STD education then I would've been covered. But my first sexual experiences started w/ someone who I had been w/, trusted, and didn't think condoms were necessary. So I don't think I even felt a condom from 16 to 18 or 19.
Today for my class we talked about what prevents young people from having sex early, it was amazing and very interesting. How self esteem and self work determine if a 13 yr old girl decides to have sex. How much peer pressure and marketing play on it. Also I didn't know that the government doesn't regulate sex ed. There are 4 national organizations which PROVIDE sex ed materials to states, but the states choose whether they use "sexual responsibility" or "abstinence" approach. (Oh and I also learned what a miscarraige and abortion LOOK like, scary).
Also watched a video on a chick living w/ HIV in Alabama. How she had no educaiton at all until she had sex at 17, and got HIV. She had no clue. Then she had to move away from her small town just to get treatment to live. It was sad. But it just shows how lack of education leads to so many of these problems. It makes me want to be a teacher NOW and go out and reform sex ed programs. I have such a passion for educating people and helping people who do not have the resources or programs to be educated. I truly think so many of those kids would not have sex or would be responsible, if they knew the risk that were out there.
So class, after today's lesson, what have we learned? Be sexually responsible and abstain from sex if you wish, it is the most sure way. But if not, be responsible for your body and who and what you do with it!
xoxo,
Professor Liz
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