Natasha

Parents, teachers, and policymakers have battled over the idea of having condoms and sexual education in their children’s schools for decades. The disagreement comes with the idea that by educating youth about the science and emotion of reproductive health, it will prompt promiscuity. This could not be farther from the truth. Learning about your body, how it works, the emotions connected to it, and how to respond are crucial parts of maturing into a healthy adult.

Here’s my story:

When I was in elementary school, we barely discussed sex in our sexual education course. Our male science teacher and female school nurse prepared a slideshow of images that included the woman’s reproductive system and male reproductive system. In 45 minutes or less, they covered the entire sexual education course for the entire grade. No mentions of emotions, actual sex, or relationships were ever discussed. Just how a woman ovulated and how a man produced sperm. That was the one and only lesson I had in sexual education.

As soon as the kids left the class, we all giggled and talked about how stupid it was. We knew (or thought we knew) what sex was and frankly, some of the kids already had experience. Our school was pretty big, but because of siblings and transfer students, crowds were mixed in age. My friends’ older siblings would hang by us and talk about their experiences, we’d eavesdrop, then talk about what we heard with other students. Looking back, ...