Sex Education

Okay, for the record, I didn't learn a damn thing from my parents, except that sex was not a fit topic for conversation. With the exception of jokes and snickers behind your hand. I had the standard basic sex-ed classes starting in (I think) fifth grade. So I must have been eleven.

But! My true education began when I found The Book. I was twelve. It was somewhere among our many bookshelves in the family room. I think it must have been from a college class my dad took for his master's or something like that. The title: Understanding Sexuality. Needless to say, to a twelve-year-old anything with the word "sex" in it was like a magnet. So I, um, borrowed it. Incidentally, in thinking about writing this, I went looking for it, and I still have it. Hee.

I learned all about anatomy before they covered that in school. And what to do with it. Yeah, I know, I learned masturbation from a book. What a geek. But there were illustrations and techniques. I had to try this. After some experimentation I found something that felt really good. And I'm proud to say that my technique has evolved and improved and I still practice almost daily, if not more. It is an art.

I learned all kinds of things from this wonderful tome of knowledge. Toys, positions, sexual orientations, contraception, what swinging was (although only recently put into practice), all kinds of neat information.

All in all, it cemented a certainty in me that, if I ever have children, they too will reap the benefits of this knowledge. They don't teach anything near what kids or teens need to know in school. All I had was a four week section in my sophomore health class, in which they split the boys and girls into separate groups. WTF!? But the nurse who taught it was great. She started the class with a litany of what she couldn't tell/show us. Couldn't talk about birth control, couldn't show how to use a condom or where to get them, couldn't do any number of things. But, she told us to see her privately if we needed to.

Oh, and I hope this doesn't seem really weird, but I did share my book with my brother, who is five years younger than me. Not until he was like twelve though. Mostly because I didn't want him to experience any confusion and wanted him to be safe. So, yeah, I supervised his sexual education. And he's doing fine, thank you. But now he really tells me too much about his sex life. Oh well.