Puberty: Getting explanation about genitals

Growing up in the 60's & 70's there was always heated discussions between parents and the school system about when and what to teach the kids. My teachers in junior and senior high were pro teaching the kids what they needed to know. Some parents in my not so humble opinion were neglecting to teach there own kids and thinking by holding back that kids would not engage in sexual activities. Kids by nature are curious and need that factual frank discussion. In my father's library shelf he had a book or two on sex that I read when I was young. Parents didn't get the point that sexuality and identity starts much younger than they think. I know our teachers even broke the rules and went beyond they were suppose to teach because they saw the need to provide the education. Hopes this makes sense…

Because I was a late bloomer, I got to hear the pediatrician give my mom the play-by-play of my development while he had my undies down for the genital exam. First when I was 14, he was showing her with the orchidometer that my testicles finally had started growing, and then the next year, he said “if this is the first time you've seen his penis since your visit last year, you probably noticed that it has started to grow too.” But it never was explanation to me. I just got it by osmosis and fortunately recognized everything from freshman health class.

I grew up with a copy of Grey’s Anatomy and Netters Human Atlas of the Body.

Light reading just before bedtime…🤔🤣😉

We were given a rudimentary explanation during sex ed, but I got my experience from examining my friends bits and bobs as they did with me.

@SouthernAnn I remember those days too…I think I was 12 when me and a classmate decided to “compare” and ended up with underwear off and everything. Our parents never checked on us so we had plenty of time. The next time we actually did play doctor and reenact what got done by our pediatricians. It's wild thinking back.

@cal1082 I know what you mean, and there is a bit of me that would love to go back to that state of mind when I was so innocent. It will sound odd but when we touched each other there was no guilt or embarrassment, just an interest and there was nothing sexual in it even though we were touching each others sexual bits.

@SouthernAnn definitely, it wasn't predatory or anything like that, just developing sexuality and curiosity.

Growing up in the 40s and 50s in UK where Sex Ed was a thing of the future at that time. It was a lot of self exploration and exploring with school chums.

My father was quite liberal, but my mother was quite repressed and would not discuss sex.

My father would leave a small booklet on Sex Ed where it could be found when they were out.

The actual act of procreation wasn't taught at our school until the late fifties. By then most of us had a pretty good idea of how things worked. Clinically. anyway.

When i was 13 during an exam my doctor told me about how my balls would start hanging lower, my cock would get bigger and how I’d get erections and hair in different places

Our mom was very religious and like if we were caught running from the bathroom to the bedroom because we forgot our PJs we would get in trouble. We were told not to touch down there except to wipe and bathe. My sister learned from her older friends and I learned from my sister and her friends. I was teased by my sister's friends when we would change to go swimming or skiing because I was a late bloomer as far as breasts and pubic hair go. I cannot imagine asking mom a question about sex. She and daddy were here once. I'm not sure where daddy went but he wasn't home. My sister was vacuuming and got the vacuum handle caught in her sweat pants pocket and said a few choice words. Mom said I'm sure you girls are used to going around in your underwear doing chores. My sister's girlfriend said under her voice, "only if you knew." Mom said what? we all started laughing. Mom and dad have no idea that we are nude when we are here with no visitors. For my sister and I, it is like a rebellion type of thing. I mean we grew up having to wear flannel PJs to bed. My sister played hell talking them into letting her wear a bikini. Then the same with me and we lived on a lake. All of our friends had bikinis. Mom gave me one enema when I was 9 and she gave to my sister a lot. They were not sexual at all. But my sister soon found them to be and would come back to the room turn out the lights and get in bed. After a while, I would hear her moaning. I felt so sorry for her. I thought she was having nightmares. Then when I was 12 I was supposed to be sleeping over at a friend's house but her father got sick. They were taking him to the ER and let me off at my house. They waited until they saw I was inside before leaving. My sister and I always kept the bedroom door open a little if we were doing something we were not supposed to be doing like talking for long periods on the phone etc. The closer I got to our door I could hear my sister moaning. I got to the door and she was naked on top of the covers masturbating. I watched until she noticed me and freaked out a little. Then she told me what she was doing. She is two years older than me. She touched me there and told me to touch myself there. That it was alright because she and all her friends did it and it will not hurt you. She knew that if she got me to do it also I would not tell. Sneaky huh? I liked it so much I had to tell my best friend and we started doing it. Then on the nights, my sister would get enemas and some other nights we would masturbate together. All of that led to reading books and the stupid sex-ed class. But that is how I learned.

Boring story, in 5th grade a group came in and did an evening program that was optional. They explained “the birds and the bees." They masked the private parts with lots of Public hair (a drawing), and the presenter wasn't clear at all.

When I was about 10 or 11, my Dad sat down with me to talk about sex. He learned a lot. 😉

Sad the state of sex education here in the United States. I, too, got no education and the coming of age process was equally disturbing for me as it was for some of the posts. When I first masturbated to orgasm and ejaculation I had little idea what was happening. As I came into the bath tub I worried that my mother might get pregnant because that is where she bathed. I was also brought up in a totally straight environment and it was many years past puberty did I realize that one could be a normal functioning human being if they were bi or gay. So much would have been different in my life. Now, we see states passing all sorts of laws and bans on anything relating to sexual identity and education. Our bodies are our physical being. Religion is our spiritual being. Somehow a lot of people, as indicated in these posts, have got things and priorities very confused.

I started puberty rather early … summer before the sixth grade. Genital growth and body hair development seem to come overnight. Fortunately, my father was very aware of my spurt and took the time to explain things. He and I shared a bathroom and nudity was a common everyday experience. Additionally, he and I would go to the local Y and would always shower there as well. It was at the Y where my love for lockerroom nudity became a dominant factor and highlighted my exhibitionist tendancies.

I recall that in the 5th grade (about age 10), the girls in our class were all excused from class to go to the auditorium and receive some secret instruction. We boys had no idea what was going on, but nothing could have peaked our interest more. When the girls returned, a few of them were making giddy remarks about the boys, and saying, “We know all about your parts!” They taunted us boys with comments comparing our penises to sausages. I now know that they were trying to get ahead of the onset of menses for the girls so that they wouldn't panic when they started bleeding from the vagina, but I felt as though they could have taken the boys into a similar class to explain what the girls were learning. Two years later, in seventh grade health class, they once again separated the girls from the boys, only this time they had a male teacher give us some explanation of sexual reproduction. It was very cursory and lasted only one week.

I recall that they showed us the standard cut-away, profile diagram of the female reproductive organs. When the teacher asked if there were any questions, I can only recall my question: “How can you tell if your putting your penis in the woman's vagina or urethra, since they seem to offer two similar openings?” The teacher said I didn't need to worry about that, since the urethra was very small and wouldn't accommodate a penis. I don't remember much else from the class. It seemed most parents were content to allow the school system to complete our education on the subject.

My situation is very similar to @Morty . In 5th grade boys and girls were separated and shown a movie and given a quick talk from a teacher. Boys with male teachers, and girls with female teachers. I remember there were a couple of moms that were also present with the girls, at least one of them was an RN. That discussion was mostly focused on anatomy differences and medical topics (periods for girls, boners and ejaculation for boys). Interest and curiosity was definitely peaked, there were a lot of giggles and whispers that day. A year or two later, I believe during middle school, they separated us again and we were given another talk. That one was very similar to the first, but also had a bit of sexual topics too. If I remember correctly, I sat through that entire day with a hard on thinking about my female classmates, what we had discussed, and what they had probably talked about too.

My situation is very similar to @Morty .

Similar, except that in my case, the 5th grade boys got their regular uninterrupted class for the day while girls got out of our boring class to learn the mysteries of life, including stuff about the boys we were not explained.

I remember my pediatrician discussed how males will start to change at puberty when i was 10 or 11 and that my genitals would start to grow and i would get more regular erections all while she was doing a genital exam.