[JMintzer]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

In 6th grade the girls in our class all had to watch a movie about "Becoming a Woman." It was about menstruation. It explained what menstruation is, why women get periods, what pads are, what tampons are and how they're used, what a hymen is (since using a tampon if your hymen is intact can be painful and it's important to know WHY it hurts, if that happens, and that it's nothing to panic about). Why women get periods was a brief introduction to human sexuality. Not "sensuality" - this wasn't about emotions and love and passion and boyfriends. It was about the reproductive system and the basic mechanics (a man blah blah into the woman's blah blah and the sperm travels up to fertilize the egg).

Using blah blah so as to not trigger the porn filters.

Mostly we - as sixth-grade girls - said "ewwwwwww" because most of us had just recently discovered boys as something more than "those smelly creatures who put worms in your gym shoes." We weren't quite sure what yet - but we got the idea that there was something there.

Most parents were grateful for this movie, because most parents didn't want to have "the talk" with their kids. Most parents weren't even convinced it'd be a good idea to let on to their adult children that they were the result of mommy and daddy having sex, at all. I couldn't even bring myself to admit that my parents were capable of having sex with each other until I was around 20. The very notion was just way too sordid. It's a shame, that there are still parents who loathe the idea of teaching their kids about something that is natural, healthy, and part of the cycle of life.

But that's another reason why it's so important to learn it in school. Otherwise - if not for school, they'll discover it on their own, as soon as their hormones start instructing them to.

And that is completely different than what I'm talking about...