The promotion or disparagement of homosexuality in schools

That's partly the result of inept education...

That, and they haven't reached puberty yet.

Except sex ed often starts during the grade when people start hitting puberty.

---

I can't believe some schools still chooses to teach abstinence over safe sex. That practically undermines the purpose of sex ed...even worse, I can't believe many schools do not teach the most important aspects of sex.

I never learned about stuff like autosomal/sex-linked dominant/recessive disorders and family trees until several several years later.

edited 22nd Jul '11 9:05:21 PM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

@sig'ned: are you talking about genealogy? Because most people want to distance the idea of sex and their own family members as more as possible.

Edit: sorry there are next to each other on the keybroad.

edited 22nd Jul '11 9:27:30 PM by joeyjojo

hashtagsarestupid

Yeah I learned that stuff in biology, not sex-ed.

Rather, I was supposed to but the class was a waste of time for unrelated reasons and I wound up doing research to learn it, but the point remains there's a separate class for that.

edited 22nd Jul '11 9:23:49 PM by Pykrete

1) SigNed

2) But that's by far the most important/interesting aspect of sex! The inheritance! The mutation! The sex-linked disorders! Not only that, but it vastly improves ones understanding of sex and diseases.

Plus, don't YOU wish your classmates weren't all so stupid by the time you got to high school? Thinking homosexuality is contagious, thinking every and all illness is an STD, etc...thinking one is mentally handicapped just because he/she have a handicapped cousin...thinking WHEELCHAIRS are inherited...not understanding the concept of mutation*

, freaking out about periods like it's the end of the world...

And we're just talking about inheritance here. It's not like talking about geneology will suddenly make all the children incestuous sluts. That only happens in Hentai...well...3 hentai series anyways.

edited 22nd Jul '11 9:27:52 PM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

Please tell me they mean paraplegia and not actually chairs

hashtagsarestupid

Do you honestly think they even know the word, hell, understand the mere concept of paraplegia?

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

But... They're made of metal, anyone who could thought that would've of died long before they reached puberty.

hashtagsarestupid

I think that all sex ed classes should be taught by a BDSM enthusiast, emphasizing "safe, sane, and consensual."

It would make school WAY more interesting.

Would you kindly click my dragons?

I think sexual education should contain 1 - the basic biology of sex, the 'plumbing' so to speak, so that people don't have silly misconceptions like 'you can get pregnant from oral sex' or 'you won't get pregnant if you're standing up'. This could be covered in biology instead (as it was in my school). You could probably include different types of sex here. 2 - Basic education about disease and pregnancy and how to prevent them.

I don't think homosexuality should be covered except to acknowledge that it exists, describe what it entails, and descibe the specific hazards it has. As for fetishes, why is it necessary to teach about that? You couldn't really go any further than "Sometimes people are attracted to or aroused by things that might not be the norm".

Be not afraid...

Acknowledging homosexuality's existence and moving on is kind of silly. When I was taught sex-ed, it was all about heterosexual sex (something I don't plan on doing). I think we deserve some attention too.

"Without a fairy, you're not even a real man!" ~ Mido from Ocarina of Time

I remember Drunk Girlfriend was saying she knew a girl who you thought drinking bleach would stop yourself falling pregnant.

Which is technically true as it would kill you.

edited 22nd Jul '11 10:59:11 PM by joeyjojo

hashtagsarestupid

Bit of a thread hop. I think it's one or the other. This isn't something where one can be neutral. Either you disparage it as being wrong or you treat it as being not-wrong. Especially considering how anti-bullying campaigns including sexuality are becoming more common, neutrality isn't feasible, or it's becoming less feasible.

Democracy is the process in which we determine the government that we deserve

You're correct in the sense that discussing homosexuality without calling it wrong is construed as tacit approval by certain individuals. Screw them. Ignorance is not a means of preventing sin, whatever you define sin to be.

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

Those who have no knowledge of sin are incapable of sin. The original sin was to taste the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

edited 23rd Jul '11 12:08:08 AM by joeyjojo

hashtagsarestupid

I don't trust my knowledge on the topic enough to go into detail, but I will say this:

I wish somebody had explained bisexuality to me in sex-ed. That way I would at least understand why I was attracted to some of the boys in my class.

When did I become such a bleeding-heart? I'm the one who shouldn't be caring!

^^ Fictional, but still a decent counterargument, in my opinion.

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

A basic-facts explanation of the various sexualities (i.e. 'These are homosexual women, they have sex by doing this, this and this') would be a major benefit for sex-ed classes.

Along these lines, I'd also want explanations of how genders aren't just male and female and not everyone fits into neat categories. I mean, I learned that shit thanks to various tumblrs, but schoolchildren may not be so lucky!

My (British) sex education in school can be summed up thusly:

Towards the end of primary school: Some basic stuff about puberty, how your body will be changing, don't freak out, it's normal, okay?

Occasionally in secondary school: If you're going to do it, do it safely. Here's how you put on a condom.

In my opinion, that's been perfectly sufficient.

Scepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom. - Clarence Darrow

A description of what sexual abuse or harassment looks like - for all orientations - couldn't hurt either. (Yes, homosexuals harass other homosexuals, and I know of some who didn't know at the time how to respond or even how they were being harassed because their notions of harassment were still heteronormative.)

Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.

That's...really not a good analogy. Jews refusing to eat pork doesn't really denigrate and demonise a section of the population, does it?

edited 23rd Jul '11 2:59:30 AM by pagad

With cannon shot and gun blast smash the alien. With laser beam and searing plasma scatter the alien to the stars.

We had some stuff on domestic/relationship abuse in other general-studies-type classes. In all honesty that kind of thing has always been a little sporadic; we have nothing remotely resembling a regular sex-ed class the way I see in American high schools in films.

Scepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom. - Clarence Darrow

Saying something is not-wrong isn't promoting it. That's being neutral. Saying being gay is better than being heterosexual, that's promoting it.

Shouldn't be promoted nor disparaged. Sex-ed should cover hetero-, bi- and homosexual relations with the safe & consensual idea.

Laws are made to be broken. You're next, thermodynamics.

Now, personally, I'm all for gay-rights, but let me get this out of the way..

Having a negative opinion of homosexuality doesn't make a person some kind of bigoted monster off the bat, ok? It's really the pot calling the kettle black that folks talk about how badly they want to tar and feather people who don't like homosexuals, and what monsters they are. That's the same shit those people are often saying about homosexuals in the first place.

I'm beside myself on if I want it in schools. Personally, it squicks me out shitless despite the fact that I've had a gay roomate for two years. I don't consider it normal and I don't think that I ever will. People have the right to choose, and they have the right to not be discriminated against for their choice, but I don't really think it's right to put that sort of curriculum in schools. Or at least I, as an individual, am uncomfortable with it.

Homosexuality isn't a choice. According to the science on it, it's partially genetic and partially your mother's hormones effecting fetal development.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

I haven't seen that officially recognized yet, until it's been declared legit, policy on the subject will remain up in the air.