The one thing I remember from my all too short sex education class was the curious words of the PE teacher-football coach. Remarkably, he cautioned us to not pee on a telephone pole during a lightning storm. In retrospect, his sage advice might have been a clever way of saying to his captive adolescent audience something very different. When in doubt, keep your dick in your pants–or am I giving him too much credit?
Nonetheless, I learned nothing about sex, much less positive sex, in my sex education classes.
My real sex education came from friends; some good, some not so good. For instance, my best male buddy wrote down instructions on how to copulate on a piece of wrinkled paper. At crunch time, I couldn’t read his handwriting and never completed the act. Ironically, it was a blessing. I hadn’t yet made the connection between intercourse and baby making.
At a later time, a different girlfriend rescued me from further humiliation by offering me a thorough experience based tutorial. She began with how to kiss. In truth, I thank her each time I pucker up.
My informal sex education has been and remains a lifelong journey titillating discovery. In particular, the most exciting discovery is that I still have more to learn.
What are young people learning these days?
I taught sex education at two alternative high schools, shocked at each stop by how little my students knew about their regular sexual activities. No, the rhythm method is not a reliable form of birth control. Yes, fucking makes babies. No, hitting your partner is not an indication of deep love. Yes, “no” really means just that, “no”.
Regardless of the number of facts I presented, how many case studies we read, how many experience based discussions we shared, how many films we viewed, students still balked at practicing safe sex.
One day a student asked, “So, what am I supposed to do if I’m just about to get it on with my man and he doesn’t have a condom?”
I thought for a moment and said, “If it was me, I’d walk down to the local store and buy one.”
“Shoot, by the time your ass got back, I’d be gone.”
After they stopped laughing, most of the class agreed.
It didn’t matter that they lived in a country with the highest STD and teen pregnancy rates in the industrial world. They were going to continue to do what they had been doing, no matter the cost.
