Clear
That our young people need to know the "facts of life," I am in complete agreement. As a 30 year veteran high school biology teacher, sex education was a part of my curriculum every year. I was always grateful that it was the last thing on my agenda, for, while other teachers were dealing with student "burn out" during the last 2 weeks of school, I always had very attentive classes!
My curriculum consisted of anatomy, physiology and pathology. What are the organs for reproduction? What do these organs do and how? How does pregnancy occur? What are the events of fetal development? What diseases are associated with these organs. Again, like Sgt. Joe Friday, "Just the facts, ma'am."
I taught how the organs worked, but NEVER suggested how they should be used or with whom or how often or by what techniques. Sexuality was an issue I left for parents to discuss. I knew that I had gay and lesbian students in my classes, but by age 15 to 18, they knew it, too.
Cloudy
What I'm not sure of is how I would teach sex education to middle school or elementary kids. I must admit that I don't know, because I have no training for dealing with that age group and I haven't seen the curriculum. My own children told me about the separate sex HIV classes (they were system wide in the 80s), but they never told me if they had to demonstrate putting a condom on a cucumber.
I offer you this video, only to let you know what some others are doing to educate young people. This is a legitimate museum set up to teach youth about sex and sexual behaviors. Look at how young they are! I also think it is very obvious that this is a group, not individual kids with their parents.
I took my children to see the circus and the Impressionists.
