Last week I let my daughter watch the Lindsey Lohan movie Mean Girls.
Yikes.
First, my daughter asked why the girls looked in the mirror and said bad things about themselves. Then she asked what a “bee-yotch” was. Then she asked what a condom was. I told her.
“It something men put on their penises so that their ingredients won’t mix with a woman’s ingredients when they have sex, and they won’t get a baby.”
“Well then,” she said “what’s the point? If you’re not gonna have a baby why do it?”
My daughter may be innocent now, but she won’t stay that way. That’s why I think it’s important for NYC Public schools to have sex ed. If you do, too, click here to read the rest of this post on NYC Moms blog, and learn how you can help.
Do you not have sex ed in NYC schools? Or just not in some of them?
I took it in 6th grade ( last year of elem school back then) and my kids, who are in the same school system I grew up in, took it in 5th grade and then had ‘health’ classes in 6th, 7th and 8th grades as part of the gym curriculum.
Each year of middle school covered different issues relating to development, peer pressure, and the act of having sex itself. I liked that current slang terms and views on sex ( POV of teens that is) are openly discussed. As are diseases and their lasting effects and pregnancy, the cost on your body and life.
I sure wish it had been more updated when I took it a hundred years ago…
And yes, abstinence is still taught as the most effective method of birth and disease control… but other safe and effective ways are discussed as well. An informed consumer is a smart consumer… and smart teens are better than, well not- prepared ones!