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From my fairly recent experience of sex education within a school environment, it seems to me a little bizarre that parents are worried that such an 'education' will give any encouragement towards sexual activity in teenagers. After no classes did I hear anyone state that the contents of the lesson had made up their mind, they were now very persuaded that sex was something they should do, right now.

For the most part, sex education was just funny. Not because of the immaturity of the students, but because the way in which it was approached was in fact laughable. Because in my high school sex education was not even mentioned until we turned fifteen. By which point, it was rather too late for a large proportion of the students. And the fact that the school just did not realise this made the lessons amusing in the first place.

And then there were the videos. The terrible prophetic videos of what would happen if you were to make the awful mistake of having drunken sex with a stranger at a party. It sticks in my mind. Not for the weight of it, but for the sheer surreality of it. Even those who were not sexually active just knew that wasn't the way it happened. There were never going to be a small number of people wearing party hats and drinking from a bowl of punch in a house that remained immaculate throughout the shoot. There would not be an opportune shed, fortunately with a clean mattress laid inside. It was just insulting to watch, as if whoever had approved the video thought that students of fifteen were going to readily believe this. It was neither encouraging nor discouraging. It was straight out funny. Yes, maybe because the party was so lame it would scare teenagers away from going to parties just in case it was as bad as that one, but the reality in that video was somewhat lacking. Afterwards we discussed the 'Shed Video' as it came to be known, and no-one was picking up on the message delivered by the film, but simply the ridiculousness of it, therefore the point was missed somewhat. There were never lessons on the practicality of sex, simply how and when to avoid it, the bad parts of it. The emphasis seemed to be on the emotional side of it, not the physical. I didn't know many guys who were more concerned about their feeling towards girls, so much as how to do everything right the first time round. Sex education didn't mean anything, it was just another lesson to not take seriously, in the same category as citizenship and P.E. It had no effect. To have effect, it needed a modern approach, something some TV shows aimed at teenagers are currently doing quite well at.

I can't even remember where I learned about the practicalities of sex, condoms and so forth. I believe it was from my older friends, from brochures and from a very nice couple of women from the Family Planning Clinic who walked up to a group of us in the park and asked us to place a condom on a prosthetic. They were upfront and they were not patronising. Neither did they tell us to go and have sex, they just stressed the importance of protection. Anyone with any kind of intelligence is not going to take learning to use protection as the go ahead to have sex, they will just know it is a good idea to know about it, in a way that does not skirt around it in the worry that they will go off and do it at the next available opportunity.

Learn more about this author, Claire Brushings.
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