When sex-ed was first mooted being taught in schools there was a moral outcry that kids would be corrupted and lord knows what else... I'm not sure exactly when it was first taught in English schools but as I mentioned in an earlier post, I was 'taught' (as far as it went) at around age ten or eleven (1970/71). Bear in mind that this was at the back-end of the 1960's era of free love and all of that hippydom... The contraceptive pill was freely available and abortion was legal, so women were freed from the moral retraints that had bound earlier generations. The almost inevitable rise in "unwanted pregnancies" that have resulted since isn't down to sex-ed in school, but a shift in social attitudes towards sex.

There is a lot to be said for your commentary on present societal attitudes, Chris. Regrettably, the genie is out of the bottle now... We can all, as responsible parents (and parent-to-be) work with what we have allowed to become acceptable. We each of us have our own moral compass and should be guided by that. I am not in a position to decide what is right or wrong, acceptable or unacceptable in society as a whole but I can make those decisions on a personal level.

As did many, many parents when sex-ed was first begun to be taught in schools. Kids were excused from class at the request of their parents. Nowadays, it's pretty much a normal part of the school curriculum and few raise eyebrows. Adding the information that masturbation is normal and healthy into the sex-ed class would not I feel, on the whole, cause the ripples it did thirty or forty years ago.

 

and I agree with you there. I'm all for sex-ed and protection being available and all of that. I'm saying that it wouldn't be necessary or at least necessary on such a wide scale, if society would stop forcing kids to grow up so young.

Lolly, I say this as respectfully as possible: You did not grow up in this day and age, so you really have no idea. I did. People should not reach adulthood by the early years of High School. Unless you're one of the lucky few who get to actually have a childhood and only worry about being a kid, you're mentally middle aged and an adult by the time you graduate highschool. That might seem like a good thing to you, but it is not. Life is long, and those 18 years you do not get back, and they are so short compared to the rest of your life. You and the other people who didn't grow up in this day and age only see this as a good thing because you have no idea what it's like.

Sex being shown on TV does not matter at all, nor does the media. Kids being forced to grow up so young matters. The media, and TV, and everything else is influenced by YOU, the adults.

Lolly, I know you're in England, so I'm sure it's a bit different there than it is here, but trust me, at least with this country, it is not at all the media's fault, or anyone else's but the adults in our society.

Sorry for derailing so far off the subject, I just wanted to say this somewhere, and my point was that there is no "genie out of the bottle". Kids would not even think about having sex or any of that if they weren't forced to grow up so young, no matter how much of it you show on TV or in the media.



You all keep putting words into my mouth that I never said and twisting my words around. I never said education about it was not important, nor do I preach ignorance, and I really do not appreciate being painted that way...at all. I said that people need to take responsibility, stop using cop outs, and that it is not something that is inevitable, it is something that YOU as the adults in society forced because you dropped the ball. You may think it's harmless to force kids to grow up that young, but anybody who has grown up in this day and age will tell you that it is not.

 

Woah.... Hold on a minute, Chris... I'm not disagreeing with you in the least. I'm of an age where I have seen how much society has changed in my lifetime, and it still shocks me some. I hear records on the radio that would never have seen the light of day when I was your age - and rightfully so. I see articles in teen magazines that make me wonder where restraint and morals went. I hear kids as young as six and seven years old (boys AND girls!) using language I had no idea of at that age....

I am far from being a prude, but I wonder some days how quickly and easily we have allowed life to become so 'casual' towards our kids' moral upbringing. I am certainly not advocating a return to the old Puritan ethic, but there has to be a line drawn somewhere. My 'genie out of the bottle' comment was a sad and regretful acceptance that it is almost impossible to turn the clock back just twenty years to when a lot of what is acceptable today was considered reprehensible then.

It might surpise you to hear that I do not necessarily envy your generation, Chris. I think the pressures on youngsters today are far more intolerable now than in my youth. The emphasis on brand-awareness, the 'I want it now' culture and the casuality of sexual experimentation at increasingly younger ages makes me sadder than you realise. Kids are not kids anymore once they reach their seventh or eighth year. They are already mini-adults. It's quite frightening to imagine how kids will be in another generation or two...

Okay, we've gone way off-topic here, but, you know, I don't think that's such a bad thing. This has become an interesting debate/conversation and is helping me to think about issues that I'd not really considered in any great depth. That can never be a bad thing, surely?

 

I'm glad you get where I'm coming from. The thing is, it doesn't have to be like that.

Something I realized, is that societies go in cycles. It happened in Europe and Asia, and every other major part of the world that has been around for more than the US has. Now, the US has to evolve like the major countries before us have already. It may seem like a new thing because everywhere else in the world it's been hundreds of years since a society was the way the US is becoming, but it's only new in the US. It happened in Europe, and Asia, and everywhere else. Those countries have almost all evolved into being more egalitarian, and it's time for the US to do so as well. The only way to do this is for us all as the adults of our society to take responsibility and make it happen. If we do this, then kids won't have to be "mini-adults" because they won't have to worry about adult things until they reach the age where they need to. It's very possible, it just requires a lot of effort on everybody's part.

 

I brag about masterbation all the time:
Job interviews
Credit checks
Church
School
Mens room
Womens room
Prison
At the doctors
At the vets
And once while I had to explain why I was driving on the wrong side of the road and needed the jaws of life to get my groceries out of the gas tank of my wrecked car.



(None of it's true)

 

I'll talk about diff sites and whats good with my buds, we couldnt give two shits if it's "socially inappropriate"