Ask Lemmy

Mine talked about various contraceptive methods, STDs, and accidental/teen pregnancies. It did focus more on the pregnancy part than the STD part, but they also briefly talked about how condoms are still important even if you're gay, since they prevent STDs.

I have a cousin I went to highschool with. He grew up in the south, but he finished highschool with me in Minnesota, and he told me his sex ed curriculum down south consisted of a brief talk on how sex is bad and that it is important to eat vegetables. Even though he had health class credits from down south, the school made him take their health class and he was happy to find out it's much more comprehensive than the south.

Technical, but no mention of the social, psychological, or emotional aspects of sexuality.

Female orgasm was literally never discussed or even spoken of. This was in the very conservative city of Anaheim, in very conservative Orange County, California.

Mostly porn as a kid, then actual research on my own. Sucks that sex ed is so ignored

In elementary/middle school at a small Catholic school in a progressive major North American city, it was a week or two where we got some workbooks and were separated by sex (this was as gender discussions were beginning to hit the mainstream). They were fine, they were certainly informative and educational and didn't lie. I do recall them focusing on abstinence but it was mostly about the biology and family planning iirc.

I then went to the largest public high school in my city. Freshman year we had a health class and an entire unit was focused on sexual health. We learned about different contraceptive methods and their efficacy, STIs (had to do group presentations on them), the biology and in/outs of reproduction, sexual and gender orientation (iirc), the legality of things and actions and some stuff about consent (as a kink practitioner and queer person, I would've liked more but it's probably a lot more than most have ever learned about consent), and things along those lines. We were also given resources and our teacher was super nice and helpful about this stuff.

We also learned about drugs, the different types of drugs, their effects, withdrawals, and risks. It was municipally mandated, if not state mandated, educational content so it was standardized at least across the city, but I kinda doubt it's taught as equitably as it was in my high school. But it was incredibly comprehensive and extremely educational. While I still made a lot of mistakes as a dumb horny teenager, did things i shouldn't have, and got hurt/hurt people by being a dumb horny teenager (no SA/SH), it prepared me very well for my experiences and set me up to be the safe and respectful person I am today (who knows how to safely disrespect you when you ask nicely <3)

USA, Catholic school - Sex Ed was nonexistent

Religious school taught me nothing, but religious parents gave a surprisingly detailed and good explanation of sex, including mention of gay people. Then they got me a private tutor for biology so I would know the material to pass the exam.

I remember in the 5th grade we were reproductive taught anatomy with black and white line drawings of adult genitalia and it literally didn't occur to me that it had anything to do with my body or anyone else's. The hairy spread beavers or the cross sections with lines referring to some squiggle as the vas deferens... It was about as meaningful as being in geography class trying to memorize the names of every island in the arctic.

Got gifted a biology encyclopedia left open on my table opened on the page about reproduction

Lots of info about STDs and several instances of putting condoms on a banana. I actually learned more in biology and real life experience than in sex ed.

A mysterious brown paper bag was tossed out of a car window aimed to land near me playing in the front yard...

Like god intended.

mostly just internet

parents are conservative and don't teach shit, not that I want to talk to them anyways

school teach it in terms of biology. Eggs, Sperms, that stuff, they don't teach you how to fuck, but I think they mentioned condoms a few times, but I doubt it was even that clear. I don't think they explicitly mentioned how sexual intetcourse is supposed to work.

internet is a wonderful thing, its just sad people these days use it for tik toks instead of reading Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is love, Wikipedia is life. (Yes I know to double check the stuff)

We had some diagrams about the sex organs. And an overview of birth control (IUD, condom, etc.). I had it twice. Once in Middle School, and it was a generic overview at best (mostly "for the love of God, don't") and then a more detailed one in high school. I believe they also showed us a woman giving birth.

Maryland early 2000s. We had a real health teacher. It was pretty clinical and factual for the most part. The only thing that really stood out was the teacher telling us that peeing killed any sperm left in the urethra and a kid asking if he could "piss in his woman and not wear a condom." This poor old teacher has to say "Do not piss in your woman."

I did the practicum before the theory. It helped.

For Alberta, not bad in the 90's despite public schools still saying Christian prayers every assembly.

Basic biology and how each set of genitals work.

Went over Puberty and Attraction.

Contraceptive coverage was honest.

Edit: I do recall now that parents were being allowed to opt out unfortunately, but at least the default was in.

8th grade and in bio class. Focus was on abstinence being the best way to precent STDs and stuff, and also using protection like condoms.

In Highschool I took health and it was the diagrams of the different junk, pictures and videos about STDs, saying most birth control doesn't actually work very well (e.g. Condoms have a 36% success rates at prevent STDs or pregnancy) so it's best to sign a card swearing you'll be abstinent until marriage. Only one person signed the card since we were, thankfully, given a choice. No talking about being gay, since it's a red state. They spent more time on a bunch of different drugs than sex.

Before high school there wasn't really "sex" ed, just showing videos about puberty and ways to check for cancer/lumps. But I went to a Catholic school before highschool. There also might have been stuff about how Masturbation is bad in the Catholics "sex ed".

I don't remember too much of it. Was probably grade 6 or 7. They split us up by boys/girls. The only thing that stuck is the teacher telling us that when people with penises sleep, their penis goes UP and DOWN and UP and DOWN and she very animatedly gestured this out.

To this day, I have never noticed anybody's penis rise and fall while they're asleep, but nobody really feels comfortable with me watching either ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Watched videos with captain condom and penny penicillin

Soccer coach told us it would hurt to push a baby from his vagina then some boy behind me asked “you have a vagina?” Bad teacher and no one cared in middle school

I’m from the UK and in my 40s. I got shown a video about genitalia at primary school when I was about 10. Then we got taught it several times until we left school, often about masturbation or safe sex. All from a pretty serious educational kind of perspective, not demonising it or anything. Largely saying that masturbation is normal and that you should have sex safely. I remember some weird video where they talked about masturbating by twisting your penis rather than the usual motion.

In Scotland we had a VHS the class watched when we were 9/10 which had a basic diagram of intercourse. The voiceover said, "Note how they fit together, like a jigsaw puzzle."

Seared into my brain. I remember asking if the sperm from the video "could think" like tadpoles did. Never got a proper answer!

Then secondary school had lessons about the reproductive cycle in mandatory biology class. Slightly later, when we were 14 or so, they had demonstrations about how to put on condoms.

Edit: btw does anyone know if sperm can think? k thanks

It was pure abstinence only. Our teachers were only allowed to tell us not to have sex, and that was pretty much it. Never even saw a diagram of a vagina or a penis.

A handy VHS tape that I spotted under the couch when lying on the floor after school.

Made a copy and put it back.

Still don't know which parent did it.

I'm in Finland, in my 40s. I don't remember much. I think in the early teens we did have lessons in school about sex and reproductive biology. What I do remember is the "real" sex education stuff around 15-16 years of age, that was part of the health education classes, because, well, I think it got inadvertently weird. The physical education / health education teacher we had was retiring that year. To no one's surprise, the stuff in the textbook was left for us to read on our own. Because "ummm I don't think I need to cover this, uhhh heh heh, ummm, you kids probably already know about this". And everyone was, like, thank God we were spared of that.

Only what was on the biology national exam spec. Lots of hormone cycles of FSH and lutenising hormone, literally nothing outside the cervix.

A boring waste of my summer vacation at the time