[K. in Cleveland]

Having the advantage of not being too far removed from adolescense myself I have some strong feelings on this. The school system I went to was big on the test scores and state rankings, not on actually teaching us anything useful. When I was in 4th grade the class had a field trip to a health museum for sex ed. My mom felt I was too young (also just got out of a religious school) and decided not to sign the slip so I stayed home. (But I got the info from my friends who did attend) She gave me some info, but not much... instead I found information in her text books from college (she's in the medical field) and saw pictures of diseases and descriptions... but the wording was for graduate students, not elementary kids. I was so craving information on the topic of sex that I sneeked peeks at my aunt's magazines (she sold toys with a friend) and strangely felt intrigued at it. By the time I got into high school health class I had gotten so much wrong information from the sources I had, mostly friends at school, that health class wasn't much help.. they barely talked about safety.. just said "Don't do it, but if you are going to, use a condom" never showing us how to use one, or how to properly use them... I got out lucky without getting anything,(though I can say the abstinence only talk didn't help me!) but just the kids I was friends with I knew a number who got some form of STD... this is horrible!

By the time I was a junior there was a movement within the county health department to change things. I became a peer educator and attended biweekly training sessions taught by therapists, doctors, nurses, and sexual health professionals. What a relief to get real, true information. They then had all of us peer educators go to the elementary and middle schools to talk about age-appropriate topics. I think those kids walked away with much better information than we ever got. As far as I know they're still doing the peer education system as well as cirriculum based teaching.

It is important for kids to get the correct information. Parents need to be educated too. I think kids need to get the information from home and school. They're smarter than most people give them credit for, they can make educated decisions for themselves when given credible information.

Sorry for getting long-winded.. I'll step off my soapbox now.