Sex-ed

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I asked the boys, about 40 of them, aged from 16-18 if they'd ever watched Media, and they all laughed.

'Shall I take that as a yes?' I asked, and there were further chuckles and nodding heads all round.

You see, as the school nurse, I'd been asked to talk to the senior boys about 'sex and all that sort of stuff.' With such vague guidelines, I chose to talk about an area that has been coming an ever increasing concern.

'Do you like it?' I asked, and no one said outright they liked it.

'Do you think it's healthy or harmful?' They all said it's harmless, because the participants were consenting adults. So I asked them what's their favorite type of Media, and the answers were varied, although hot young blondes, and horny teens topped the list of favorites.

'Was that 'horny teen' legal?' I asked, and the laughter died away. They'd never thought of that before, they'd also never thought of sex-slavery, but now wasn't the right time to talk about that, as I felt they would stop listening if I started lecturing.

Although Ivan, one of the Russian lads raised his hand in protest. 'But sir, I only watch **** Media.' The room erupted, and the merits of **** Media were briefly discussed. I decided to get personal.

I asked them to raise their if they wanted to get married and have kids one day, and they all raised their hands.

'So what age is it okay for your son to watch Media?' They paused, giving it serious thought, before generally deciding that around 14yrs old is good.

'And what age is it okay for your daughter to watch Media?' I was greeted with silence.

No one wanted their daughter to ever watch Media, because deep inside of them, they know Media is not good, and they know it is degrading to women, regardless of consent.

We talked about other things, from relationship to STD's, but only briefly, because there's only so much you can teach them in one-off, one hour session.

But I wasn't there to lecture them, but hopefully to get them to think.

Abstinence ONLY education is the reason the south (Bible Belt) has some of the highest teen pregnancies.

Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.
Abstinence ONLY education is the reason the south (Bible Belt) has some of the highest teen pregnancies.

Before the abstinence education we had no sex ed.

Before the abstinence education we had no sex ed.

No sex ed and abstinence only ed is one and the same thing :)

With smart, aware conscientious parents and the Internet why do teens even need Sex Ed?

Oh that's right. We have to protect them from the little understood pregnancy and disease risk but not underage sex exploitation and local school garbage occurring amongst peers, that one can and should be left to the parents.

They can't tell Johnny to use a condom but they will cover the practice of sharing pics of a girl that trusted him, or even one that is foolish, with everyone in the world.

How about a female counselor cadi not talking to a group of female students about the dangers of posting or texting sexual pics of themselves?

Since it's okay for adults to do it amongst adults, then the counselor should mind her own business and not discuss the ramifications of such common practices of teens? Would you flip out if you heard this was done without full curriculum disclosure and your consent?

For me, it wasn't until my older daughter told me about the local middle school girls (in my son's class) instagram'ing about wanting to "get some anal sex on" that I had any idea. (Small town) How does a girl undo something like that if it turns bad on her? I sure didn't warn my daughter about it, it wasn't even close to my teen experience.

Specializes in School nursing.
How about a female counselor cadi not talking to a group of female students about the dangers of posting or texting sexual pics of themselves?

Since it's okay for adults to do it amongst adults, then the counselor should mind her own business and not discuss the ramifications of such common practices of teens? Would you flip out if you heard this was done without full curriculum disclosure and your consent?

For me, it wasn't until my older daughter told me about the local middle school girls (in my son's class) instagram'ing about wanting to "get some anal sex on" that I had any idea. (Small town) How does a girl undo something like that if it turns bad on her? I sure didn't warn my daughter about it, it wasn't even close to my teen experience.

The teen experience is shifting. It wasn't my teen experience either, Libby, and I was a teen in 90s. I didn't have a cell phone. Heck, I didn't have a digital camera. You could pay me enough to be a teen today as my personal experience was difficult enough without the ever evolving technology we have today.

As I have said before throughout this thread, I hope and encourage students to have discussions with their parents. It is my mantra. And any kind of sex education in the schools should not be taught without parental permission. I cover protection methods, STIS AND lessons on healthy relationships, sexuality in the media, abstinence and refusal skills, using a social and emotional learning model that has peer-reviewed facts to back it.

Times are changing...and will likely continue to do so.

Specializes in critical care.
No sex ed and abstinence only ed is one and the same thing :)

Studies indicate otherwise, actually. Abstinence only education does effectively teach consequences of unsafe sex practices, and therefore does reduce STI and pregnancy rates. HOWEVER, comprehensive sex education still statistically is the better method of approaching sex ed to lower teen birth rates and teen STIs.

Studies indicate otherwise, actually. Abstinence only education does effectively teach consequences of unsafe sex practices, and therefore does reduce STI and pregnancy rates. HOWEVER, comprehensive sex education still statistically is the better method of approaching sex ed to lower teen birth rates and teen STIs.

I'm interested in the studies you claim to know about that claim that abstinence ONLY sex ed reduces teen pregnancy. Could you post some links?

The teen experience is shifting. It wasn't my teen experience either, Libby, and I was a teen in 90s. I didn't have a cell phone. Heck, I didn't have a digital camera. You could pay me enough to be a teen today as my personal experience was difficult enough without the ever evolving technology we have today.

As I have said before throughout this thread, I hope and encourage students to have discussions with their parents. It is my mantra. And any kind of sex education in the schools should not be taught without parental permission. I cover protection methods, STIS AND lessons on healthy relationships, sexuality in the media, abstinence and refusal skills, using a social and emotional learning model that has peer-reviewed facts to back it.

Times are changing...and will likely continue to do so.

This surprises me coming from your perspective of a school nurse/educator, not the encouraging part but the seemingly idealistic part. My daughter, mainstream average and above average group of friends, mix of religious and non religious families, has told me of her friends who absolutely cannot talk to their parents, the parents just won't have an open personal discussion. I was surprised of some of the ones who couldn't.

Specializes in critical care.

I believe teaching at home about "safe Media" is good practice. Human sex trafficking is a real and horrific thing, as is the depiction of rape/violence/sex with animals. It's good in my opinion to put that into context. Also in the era of sext-inspired suicides, I fully intend to strike some fear into the hearts of my little people when it's time to approach that topic.

I don't want to cultivate a feeling of shame into my kids when it comes to exploring their own sexuality. If they want to turn to safe, legal Media to help themselves explore, then they will. They need to develop into their own people. I can help place the bad and the evil into context, but beyond that, they need to choose their own morals. I believe that telling them uniformly that watching others engage in sex acts is wrong will add shame to sex. If those sex acts are taking place between consenting adults, I don't believe it is wrong.

Media as being part of a discussion opener for a sex ed class? If I were a 14-year old in that room, I would have felt mortified. That's an awkward time for adolescents. I might talk about it with friends, but not the school nurse. You certainly wouldn't get legit responses from me. I may be an encourager of healthy sexuality and practices, but I'm actually a private person with my own sexuality and was back then, too.

Red, we'll be across the fence from each other on this one this time.

Parents should be involved in the education of their children. The problem is that some parents are Cooco for Cocoa puffs just look at the anti-vax movement

I believe teaching at home about "safe Media" is good practice. Human sex trafficking is a real and horrific thing, as is the depiction of rape/violence/sex with animals. It's good in my opinion to put that into context. Also in the era of sext-inspired suicides, I fully intend to strike some fear into the hearts of my little people when it's time to approach that topic.

I don't want to cultivate a feeling of shame into my kids when it comes to exploring their own sexuality. If they want to turn to safe, legal Media to help themselves explore, then they will. They need to develop into their own people. I can help place the bad and the evil into context, but beyond that, they need to choose their own morals. I believe that telling them uniformly that watching others engage in sex acts is wrong will add shame to sex. If those sex acts are taking place between consenting adults, I don't believe it is wrong.

Media as being part of a discussion opener for a sex ed class? If I were a 14-year old in that room, I would have felt mortified. That's an awkward time for adolescents. I might talk about it with friends, but not the school nurse. You certainly wouldn't get legit responses from me. I may be an encourager of healthy sexuality and practices, but I'm actually a private person with my own sexuality and was back then, too.

Red, we'll be across the fence from each other on this one this time.

I have 16 and 22 yr old sons. One discussion wouldn't have had that much effect on anything inherently teenaged boy, you'll wish that's all it'll take :-) It's much more of a journey. But they are conscientious types, they like people/girls in general and it would have given them food for thought.

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