Experience Essay about Sex Education

For this assignment, you’ve asked me to write a paper about my past sex education. Honesty, I feel my sex education through the years was pretty basic. I went to a public school so most of it came from videos we watched in elementary school, and then as I got older more came from my science classes. Outside of school, I had the normal “talk” from my mom explaining what sex is and that our bodies are changing, but there are still things I wish I learned more about, like more one why our bodies were changing, or figuring out our sexuality. Because halfway through middle school I was confused why I felt the way towards certain people that did not happen before, and I didn’t understand why that was. 

Sex education is very important in the development of a child. I strongly feel that elementary school is a good time to start. Personally, my sex education started when I was in 4th grade. They separated the males and females and they put on a video. The video talked about relationships, the basic anatomy of the male and female reproduction system, sex, and puberty. I remember everyone was laughing the whole way through. The next year we watched the same video, talked about the same things, and still laughed at the word “penis”. Today I feel that they could have handled and taught that subject way better because I don’t think I didn’t learn anything from that video. I was too focused on waiting to see if the guy was going to say “penis” or something rather than focusing on the content. To be honest, all the things I should have learned in school about sex education were taught outside of school, from friends and family. Like everyone else my mom and grandma both explained the “birds and the bees” story with my brother and me at a young age, explaining what happens when we go through puberty and what sex is. My grandma is a blunt person so as we got older, she would crack jokes about the “birds and the bee” and go more in-depth about what puberty is and what I should be expecting to happen when I got into middle school. She went into a little more depth about how our bodies were going to change, and how everyone has to go through it. I remember her making a joke about how our voices will crack as we get older. 

When I got into middle school, I was around other friends who were confused about what was happening with their bodies, but we learned a lot from each other. Yes, would make jokes about male and female body parts; others would share too much information about what they have seen or what they did the night prior. But we were all going through it, and we would ask a question and give advice to each other to help. it was easier to talk with each other rather than our parents, it wasn’t as awkward. I probably learned the same amount of information from friends as I did in classes. Even though we learned a little bit of what was going on I still wish I was more prepared for what was going to happen. Yes, I had “the talk” when I was in Elementary from my parents but when puberty hit, it’s scary. I wish by 7th grade; we would have had an actual lesson about puberty again. I feel like I would have been less confused and happier with the changes happening. By this age children can handle talking about puberty, and the changes like pubic hair, and deeper voices are happening to most kids at this age. This would also be a great time to teach about safe sex because there are always going to be parents that are not comfortable talking about it to their children. And the last thing a parent wants is for their kid to be pregnant at a very young age.

Something I also wished I learned more about is discovering our sexuality. During puberty a major part of that is discovering who you are, and who you want to be with. Something I usually don’t talk about is how lost I was at the start of high school. I was confused about who I liked and who my friends should be. Personally, that is still kind of true today, but I’ve figured out who I want to be with, and who I like. And I feel like if I had something or someone talk to, the stress of that would have been way easier to deal with. I don’t know if it was because of growing up in a town that was mostly red sided but there I feel there was really not much support for LGBTQ at my high school. The programs were small and low funded, there wasn’t an actual space someone could go to if they needed help or support. We also didn’t talk much about the different sexualities much in any health classes, I only remember one time we actually discussed it in health, and if there was a better programs or clubs’ community, I feel that I would have gotten more comfortable of who I am easier and just in general a better way. 

Outside of school, I had the normal "talk" from my mom explaining what sex is and that our bodies are changing, but there are still things I wish I learned more about, like more one why our bodies were changing, or figuring out our sexuality. Because halfway through middle school I was confused why I felt the way towards certain people that did not happen before, and I did not understand why that was. To be honest, all the things I should have learned in school about sex education were taught outside of school, from friends and family. My grandma is a blunt person so as we got older, she would crack jokes about the "birds and the bee" and go more in-depth about what puberty is and what I should be expecting to happen when I got into middle school. Something I usually do not talk about is how lost I was at the start of high school. I was confused about who I liked and who my friends should be. Personally, that is still kind of true today, but I have figured out who I want to be with, and who I like. And I feel like if I had something or someone talk to, the stress of that would have been way easier to deal with. We also did not talk much about the different sexualities much in any health classes, I only remember one time we actually discussed it in health, and if there was a better programs or clubs' community, I feel that I would have gotten more comfortable of who I am easier and just in general a better way.